![]() from North Podunk University, but you are likely to make a lot more money with a physics Ph.D. You are likely to make more money with a Harvard MBA than physics Ph.D. One is that there is a huge range in salary between the top MBA schools and the mid-ranked ones, whereas the different in salaries between top ranked Ph.D.'s and mid ranked one's isn't huge. It's really hard to tell because there are so many variables. ![]() But you will be costing yourself money in the long run, which is as objective a way as any to think about your decisions. You won't live a life of poverty, that's for sure. A million dollars seems like a reasonable estimate to me.Īnyway, this is the only point I'm trying to make, which I may not have made clear. Now suppose the MBA student who took a job just invested his first four years salary less the $25K that we get as physics grad students over the course of his working life, say 40 years. So right out of the gate you have to make up for 4 years of income that you'll never have a chance to recoup. The average Physics PhD takes, what.6 years? The average MBAor, say, Master's degree in quantitative finance or something, takes 2. While you won't make less, what are the chances that you'd make significantly more? Personally, I don't think that you are going to end up making less money with a physics Ph.D. So if you have the choice between CalTech and UCI, and there's even a CHANCE that you might leave physics, you should strongly consider CalTech.Įxcept that it isn't. But if you want to leave physics, you may be handicapped by the fact that you are coming from a place that isn't a top 5 program. And if you stayed in physics, he would get you in the proper circles. He is a world class guy, and you may meet him and find you have a great rapport with him. Irvine is the same type of program-high second tier, low first tier. I chose to come here specifically to work with him. For example, I go to a (high) second tier grad school, but my advisor is a world expert in his field-he essentially invented it. Note very carefully that I haven't expressed an opinion on this subject, and I've only tried to relate my experiences :) So take it as you will.įinally, to end the politically controversial section, I'd say you should always get the highest pedigree that you can, in the chance that you leave physics and do something else. It has been my experience that the race or sex of the applicant can have some bearing on the admission to a specific program. Some are more qualified than others, in terms of GPA, GRE scores, and undergraduate research. I want to be very clear on this point, so I will restate it again: there are a pool of qualified applicants to physics graduate programs, whose qualifications carry some distribution. ![]() And realize that race or sex is certainly not a free ticket to a PhD-you still have to be better than 99% of all of the other undergrads applying for grad school. In other words, if you are a good student, but not a great student, and you're a woman, you are more likely to end up going to a better grad program. I only want to make a broad statement.) What you will see is many more women and minorities in top tier programs-this has to be due to some sort of affirmative action, as the quality of students (in my opinion) is not that drastically different. (There are specific exceptions, of course. What I've noticed is that most students at the top programs and students at the second tier programs aren't that different intelligence-wise. Race may or may not be an ultimate factor in getting a post-doc, but it probably will be a factor if you apply to grad school. The best people don't always get the best jobs, which is a fact of life, and as much as physicists like to think they live in an egalitarian meritocracy, this is categorically NOT the case. At the end of the day, though, you still have to do good work. I mean, it definitely can't hurt for you to be (say) African-American when looking for a post doc, as physicists themselves tend to be more liberal. The question is, is it worth a million dollars to have a PhD in physics? Steve Hsu would say probably not, I would say I wouldn't sell mine for ten times that :)Īs far as affirmative action, I don't know. Opportunity cost is a good way to think about it: your degree may end up costing you on the order of a million dollars, not out of pocket, but in future earnings. Of course, this can be proved other ways, as wel, without the huge opportunity cost. If you are fortunate enough to get to study String Theory at a major university, and you complete your PhD, this says something very important about you to employers. I will say, Steve's opinions are a bit pessimistic when it comes to this question. Anyone facing these questions should check out Steve Hsu's blog.
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