<p>I agree with what you say. A lot of ppl go for grad studies for the wrong reasons. For me personally getting a Masters is enough, and I believe graduate school is worth it.</p>
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Going just because you didn't get that awesome job right out of undergrad is not a good reason. Grad school is a HUGE opportunity cost in terms of earnings. What happens if you don't get a great job right out of the PhD, too? Then you've essentially lost 5 or so years of income, and you aren't earning an income.
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<p>Well, I wouldn't go quite that far. Let's face it. A lot of undergrad majors don't exactly prepare you for a great job either. Couple that with the fact that many PhD's, especially in technical subjects, will pay you to go, either in the form of followship, or in RA/TA-ship. </p>
<p>As a case in point, I have met a number of humanities PhD students who, I am convinced, are actually doing BETTER financially as graduate students than they would if they had actually gotten jobs. That's just a simple outcome of the fact that it's not that easy to get a high-paying job with a humanities degree. But as PhD students, they're on fellowship, they get to live in subsidized campus housing, take advantage of all kinds of student discounts, get free access to the gym and to the computer labs, get health care benefits, and so forth. It's certainly not luxury, but I would say that it's actually probably better than what they would get if they took jobs. After all, there are a LOT of low-paid humanities graduates out there. </p>
<p>I think the best aspect of it all is that they know what they need to do to keep the money coming in. All they have to do is maintain satisfactory academic progress, and they will keep their fellowship. In contrast, in the working world, you can lose your job at any time for any reason, or no reason at all. Heck, you can be the absolute best employee in your company...and still get laid off anyway (for example, if they decide to sell off or shut down your division). There is no predictability - you just don't know for sure what you need to do to keep your job. </p>
<p>Now of course, one might argue that you shouldn't major in something unmarketable in the first place. But that's an entirely different issue.</p>
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lol, calm down dude. Come back next year and see if you still have the same perkiness.
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<p>Well, if I don't, I can be out with an MS right? Or even get a PhD and sell out as a financial engineer. There's multiple exit strategies I've thought through, and I don't see a downside to trying or being too eager about it.</p>
<p>well, you can always get a phd, then go to law school to be a patent lawyer. then you can fart with money. (there are so many loopholes in patenting newly discovered techniques.)</p>
<p>sakky,</p>
<p>I've always believed that no major is "unmarketable" as long as you're willing to just take a few econ and math classes on the side. I know quite successful humanities majors who walked away with nice jobs.</p>
<p>Like Blackrock, for instance.</p>
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sakky,</p>
<p>I've always believed that no major is "unmarketable" as long as you're willing to just take a few econ and math classes on the side. I know quite successful humanities majors who walked away with nice jobs.</p>
<p>Like Blackrock, for instance.
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<p>Well, like I said, that presumes that people have the foresight to do this ex-ante. For whatever reason, a lot of people seem not to have this foresight. I can think of several college graduates in low-end jobs who wish they had studied something more practical. </p>
<p>Of course one could view the PhD process as a way to fix this. Since most PhD students are getting paid in some form (fellowship, RA-ship, TA-ship), some people just see the process as a way to get useful skills and do some secretive "recruiting on the side", all the while getting paid to do it. At Harvard, for example, there are certainly some doctoral students who clearly have no intention to finish. They're there to basically leverage Harvard recruiting.</p>
<p>Yes, but I think that most people don't think this way, to be honest. You get a lot of idealists in PhD programs.</p>
<p>It's just not nice when the reality doesn't match the ideal.</p>