The highest degree
After reading the blog about “Over education”, a student wrote to me:“My family encourages me to seek advanced degree (Ph.D). But it seems that you do not encourage students to study for a Ph D degree? Please advice.
Answer: I always encourage students to learn as much as possible. There is a difference between learning and the pursue of a degree. Learning never stops as you continue to learn all your life but the pursue of degree stops when you obtain a degree. The highest degree is the doctorate or Ph.D and in my opinion Ph D is NOT for everybody.
My question is what are you going to do with your knowledge and skills instead of a degree? It is the motivation and the intention that determine whether certain degree is the right one. If you want to do research, you want to be a scientist, you want to devote your life to discover new things or to teach at university level then the Ph D is the right degree. But to get the highest degree to get good job, good position, or to make your family proud then it may not be a good idea. The simple reason is job opportunity for graduates with Ph.D degrees have not been good. Based on data collected from the National Science foundation, there are many unemployed Ph.D. and this happen in many countries, including the U.S, Europe and Asia.
The trend is clear, there are fewer jobs for people with highest degree, and there is more unemployment among the rank of people with Ph.D degree and in every field. On the average, the starting salary of a Ph.D graduate is $85,000 to $120,000 a year in the U.S, depending on the field of study. It is much less than bachelor's degree graduates in “hot fields” such as software engineering or computer science that often start at $80,000 to $95,000 a year. On the average, it takes 12 years to obtain a Ph. D degree but a software engineer with 8 years of experience usually make about $160,000 to $ 180.000 a year. From the economic view, it does not make sense to pursue a higher degree. According to several industry surveys, many Ph.D graduates are working in areas that have nothing to do with their degree as very few have found teaching jobs as competition at university is fierce.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
