Quote:
Originally Posted by Aidan
It is probably similarly true for biology PhDs, with regards to supply far outstripping demand
In general, the supply of any PhD is also going way up; the old man always tells me about how, in the old days, in the hard sciences you were given four years (and maaaybe five) to get your **** together and publish enough to get a PhD (i.e. there was a non-trivial chance of failing out, or whatever you want to call it, before earning your degree). Now, partially because we're a more entitled generation and partly because professors use graduate students as indentured servants, the average time to a PhD in biology is probably over 7 years (it was approaching it the last I checked), and there are many more candidates then there were 40 years ago. I would have considered going that route, but the chance of being 31 or 32 after a postdoc and just beginning to earn a non-third world wage was a bit too much to handle (plus I was burned out of school).
I'm currently finishing up a master's and trying to keep up with my professional development, and it's worked out pretty well so far (hopefuly it will continue).