Wasted Years: My Advice to a Would-Be Ph.D. Student. It Applies to Anyone With a Bad Career Plan.

March 14, 2009

I am attending the Austrian Scholars Conference this weekend. It is an annual event held at the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama.

I spoke with an attendee. She is a Syrian who has fled the country. She says that she might be killed if she published her views on economics.

She was accompanied by a young man. I gather that they intend to marry. He is a senior in college. She is ready to start graduate school.

I asked her how long the program will take to complete. She said they told her between five and 11 years.

Think about that. First, she might get all the way through except for the dissertation -- ABD (all but dissertation) -- and either not finish it or not get it accepted in year 11. There go 11 years of her life.

Second, where will she get a job as an Austrian School economist?

Third, there is a Ph.D. glut. It has been going on since 1969.

Fourth, she will miss her child-bearing years, or else try to raise a small child while getting a Ph.D. That would be very difficult. What if she wants two children or more?

Fifth, what could she earn in a regular job during the years before the children come? That lost income is a cost.

Sixth, what about tuition costs? More lost money.

I encouraged her to start a blog. She can write her way to success if she is any good -- success outside bureaucratic academia.

Had she counted the costs? Had she assessed the risk? I doubt it. She is young and bright. She has dreams of ease in academia. In an era of inflation, academia is not where anyone except an aging senior professor should be.

The Ph.D. prestige factor is also a lure, until you have one, when you find out it's a hunting license in a hunted-out forest

In your career plans, count the cost. If you a really good, you can apply your skills to the world of profit and loss. Why become a salaried bureaucrat if you're young?