Hi everyone! Taking a break from my recent work-from-home and exercise-at-home writing kick to talk about some harder-hitting topics. (When you’re done with this post, click to catch up on 5 Easy Home Exercise Options and How to Stay Productive During Quarantine). Every year, thousands of students decide whether or not to get their PhD after completing their undergraduate degree. This is not a decision to take lightly! Here’s Part 1 of critical factors in deciding if you should go to grad school.
Note – this post is written from the perspective of someone with an undergraduate degree in STEM pursuing a PhD in STEM. Specifics may vary, but general ideas are likely applicable across fields.
Don’t have time to read this post? Pin the image below for later! You can also find the video version on my YouTube channel!
Should I get my PhD #1: What do I want as a career?
Let’s start with an “easy” option. If you’re pretty sure that you’ll be unfilled without a research career at an R1 or R2 university, you need to get your PhD. It’s an absolute bare minimum. If you don’t care so much about research, but still want a career in university-level teaching, a PhD is usually still a solid plan.
Here’s a harder option. If you’re not 100% certain that you want a career in academia, or you’re 100% certain that you don’t, then a PhD may or may not be right for you. Do what I did not do well – look more deeply at the types of careers you are interested in, and find out the educational requirements of those jobs/companies. Want a job in technical sales or field/project engineering? Bachelors (or Masters) will often do. Consulting? It depends. Business consulting roles might hire Bachelors graduates and later send them back for an MBA. For science/technical consulting, you’ll usually need a PhD.
If you’re generally interested in “medicine,” there’s a whole world of different roles to work in. Sure, you could go to medical school and be a physician. But you could also be a perfusionist, or a nurse anesthetist, or a nurse, or a hundred other things. You don’t need a PhD for any of these, but rather, each of them has their own unique educational program.
If you “don’t know what to do,” going to grad school by default is a poor reason to go.
There are some more nuanced career interest ideas that I’ll cover in Post #2, but this should be a good primer.
Should I get my PhD #2: What is my primary goal?
There is no judgement in this section. The title of this post includes ‘Practical PhD’, not ‘Morally Superior PhD.’
If you care about income/wealth as your primary goal for your degree, specifically high and sustained income right out of undergrad, you should probably NOT get your PhD. Stipends for PhD students are notoriously low. Spending 4-5+ years making very little money will require another primary goal or interest, such as advancing research or contributing to the greater good, rather than income. If you have student loan debt, I also don’t recommend getting your PhD right away, because of the time horizon on getting a higher salary. Student loans aren’t bankruptible. The only way out of them is to pay them (or, you know, die). The higher your income, the quicker they go away.
Side note: If your primary goal is wealth or your career interests are industry-oriented and you choose to pursue a PhD, consider holding those cards close to your chest. Anti-industry/anti-corporate stigmas are still strong within many academic circles. A former colleague chastised me once when I mentioned interests in industry. Specifically the phrases “sell out“, “waste of a PhD stipend“, and “stealing someone else’s opportunity” were used.
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If financial ROI (return on investment) is your primary aim, I’d argue a PhD may or may not be for you. I realize now that many of the jobs I’m interested in technically require only a Bachelors or a Masters. However, the strong network I’ve built during my PhD will help me in applying to those jobs, so there are pros and cons. It depends on the career you choose. Don’t get me wrong, T1 tenured faculty positions can be incredibly lucrative, but they’re also few and far between. Industry jobs, and pretty much every field, can also be lucrative depending on the company and the role’s value in the marketplace.
If your primary goal or interest is advancing knowledge through academic research, then a PhD is critical. See above on career.
If your core value is educating others, you need to discern a little further. A researching and teaching faculty member needs a PhD, but I believe the definition of “educating” others is pretty broad. For example, I’m a leadership coach. I wouldn’t have gotten into coaching if not for my PhD, but that’s correlation, not causation. Undergraduates frequently become leadership coaches, and I’d argue that coaching is educating. Same goes for mentoring. Teaching at levels below the university level? I admittedly don’t know the complete details, but I’d say a PhD isn’t a must-have. Hell, I’ve had friends teach high school science classes straight out of undergrad before going on to do something else.
So, should I get a PhD?
Stay tuned for post #2 next week, where I’ll cover some more nuanced topics like network and professional development. You can also catch up on my new series on YouTube once those videos are posted! Happy reading y’all!
Check out these other PhD Life Posts –
Tips for asking for a good recommendation letter
How to Choose a PhD Program
What to Look (Out) for in a PhD Advisor
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Hi! My name is Sean, and I’m the creator of the Authentically Average / Authentic Academic blog. I write about my experiences as a husband, PhD candidate, cook, travel buddy, Catholic, and all-around average human being. If you’re loving this post or are intrigued by my writing and want to read more, follow along with my adventures here!
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I think this post will be so useful for so many people going through the thought process! I went through a similar one when deciding whether to go to university and get an undergraduate degree and you made a really good point about not going if you don’t know what to do. Thanks for sharing Sean! 🙂
Thanks for your thoughts! I hope it’s useful to my fellow would-be grad students as a reminder to think through what they want in their career
Omg, this is the first post im reading about graduating and having a PhD. Such a great article for graduates. People can get lost in their way or simply not being sure of their decisions. This could totally help them. Thank you for sharing.