Not this anti-PhD negative nonsense again! It doesn't ring true to me at all.
> You live off a meager stipend for about a decade
I paid a mortgage, supported a family, and built savings while doing my PhD with no issue.
> and then, in your mid-30s, you go on the job market for the first time.
You don't appear on the job market like a newbie. By the time you graduate you should already be well-known enough in your field that you have a reputation, a track-record and several good options. My first job after my PhD was building my own team in industry. It's not like starting a new-grad job.
> Unless you're somehow in the top 0.1% of your field
If you're not in the top 0.1% of your field you shouldn't be doing a PhD in the first place.
> you're probably going to be fighting for a tenure-track positions at any institution that will take you
Why do you assume everyone wants to be in academia? I'm not even sure a majority go into a PhD wanting that. I never did.
> Meanwhile your peers are well established in their careers
Working on a PhD is establishing yourself in your career. But with 1-1 mentorship and a lot of time and space to grow, work with a lot of different people, travel to meet the important people in the field, learn to talk and present your ideas. It's the best way to establish your career that there is.
> have families
You can build a family while doing a PhD just fine. I did. Do you think they bad PhD students from dating or something?
I wasn't even a particularly good PhD student, or at a particularly prestigious institution, and I managed these things.
>If you're not in the top 0.1% of your field you shouldn't be doing a PhD in the first place.
The OP means in the top 0.1% among PhD students in your field.
If you want to get a tenure-track position in a good department, then in many fields, you do have to be that good. (0.1% might be a bit of an exaggeration, but not that much.)
More generally, you should be aware that your post is very specific to the field you worked in. Computer science has a very well established PhD -> industry pipeline, and lots of money to throw at grad students. There are many disciplines where doing a PhD is a very different story.
Where did you go to school that you were able to pay a mortgage and have a family while doing your phd? I'm paying a wee bit more than half my monthly salary on rent alone. Am in Bay Area though.
This. One of my graduate students just bought a house here, because the housing market isn't utterly disconnected from reality. Could they afford to live in the Bay Area? No.
The UK, but our base stipend is similar to the US. Internships and part-time research contracts can make up your income to a workable level, and that applies in the US as well. I didn't earn a lot, but it was enough to get on with life like a normal person. I didn't eat dried ramen like the stereotype.
Hey, I did a PhD in the University of Liverpool some 12 years ago. I had a scolarship from my home country, but had a blast in my 3.6 years in the UK.
I remember seeing colleagues from the UK who got a good stipend. I think in general in the UK doing a PHD was good at that time, specially because it usually lasts only 3 years.
Nevertheless, after spending other 4 years in academia, I turned to Industry and would never go back. Academia is broken at this point in time.
I did my phd in Indiana and had $90k in student loans by the time I was finished (of course that includes my undergrad and masters degree). I was in the humanities though.
>If you're not in the top 0.1% of your field you shouldn't be doing a PhD in the first place.
Oh come on. I'm doing a PhD right now, but it's simply unrealistic to ask everyone admitted to the program to delude themselves into thinking they're in the top 0.1% of those admitted to the program.
This. I have a feeling most of the people who complain about PhDs are those that started one just because they didn't know what else to do. They're not that intelligent, they don't care that much about doing research. But they do it anyways! In my opinion it should be a lot harder to get accepted to do a PhD, that should weed these people out better.
> You live off a meager stipend for about a decade
I paid a mortgage, supported a family, and built savings while doing my PhD with no issue.
> and then, in your mid-30s, you go on the job market for the first time.
You don't appear on the job market like a newbie. By the time you graduate you should already be well-known enough in your field that you have a reputation, a track-record and several good options. My first job after my PhD was building my own team in industry. It's not like starting a new-grad job.
> Unless you're somehow in the top 0.1% of your field
If you're not in the top 0.1% of your field you shouldn't be doing a PhD in the first place.
> you're probably going to be fighting for a tenure-track positions at any institution that will take you
Why do you assume everyone wants to be in academia? I'm not even sure a majority go into a PhD wanting that. I never did.
> Meanwhile your peers are well established in their careers
Working on a PhD is establishing yourself in your career. But with 1-1 mentorship and a lot of time and space to grow, work with a lot of different people, travel to meet the important people in the field, learn to talk and present your ideas. It's the best way to establish your career that there is.
> have families
You can build a family while doing a PhD just fine. I did. Do you think they bad PhD students from dating or something?
I wasn't even a particularly good PhD student, or at a particularly prestigious institution, and I managed these things.