r/personalfinance • u/Otower24 • 23d ago
Grad School vs Taking a job Employment
Hi everyone,
I was recently accepted to a fully funded PhD program in physics at any Ivy League institute. Since my acceptance, I've received a job offer that's obviously >2x the stipend I'd receive during the PhD program. At the job I would learn a lot of coding (ML, deep learning, signal processing, etc.), but I would also learn this during my PhD program and would have more freedom at the program.
I should point out that I absolutely hate school, but I like doing research and tinkering with things. With that being said, I'd be doing related work at the job, so I'm having a tough time justifying going to the program even though it's at an ivy league when I can learn related skills in industry. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Edits: I have no intentions of staying in academia once I graduate. Also, the job offer is with the department of defense, so the earning potential/impact is capped substantially when compared to other industry positions.
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u/9throwawayDERP 23d ago
I was in a similar boat as you a decade ago. I could go to a top school in my field and pull in a stipend of 40K/year or a make 3-4x that in my field. (I'm surprised your differential is only 2x!)
I chose to go to school. Grad school was very different than undergrad (at least for me). Grades absolutely did not matter AT ALL. Now the first year of PhD is coursework, but after that we only worked on projects (either my own, or my advisors - where i was a co-author).
The thing about ivy-level funded grad school, is that you can bail in 1-2 years with a masters and work in either tech or finance easily. And if you work with data, you COULD get a job offer that is more like 5x+ your stipend (ie going from 35K/year to 175K/year). Honestly, there isn't actually much financially to induce you to actually get your PhD (other than having a research program to call 'your own' if you want to be a professor).
I wanted to become a prof, so I stuck around. I like being my own boss and doing my own research. I also like the lifestyle. Now this is costly. My lifetime earning potential is halved. (Think 200K/year average vs 350K/year + lost years in the workforce - numbers for tenured prof vs senior FAANG engineer).