Are PhD Students Irrational?
Hard to say.  The RAND institute did a study concluding that there is no meaningful shortage of STEM graduate degrees, that the aversion to these degrees, to the extent it exists, is a rational response to completion times, attrition rates, job prospects, and salaries when compared to other professional degree programs such as MBA, law, or medicine.  However, this wasn&#x27;t quite the same as concluding that it is <i>irrational</i> to pursue these degrees, just that we should stop scratching our heads and wondering why more people don&#x27;t pursue them.<p>Payscale has an interesting ranking of graduate degrees by program, which is more useful than raking all holders of a particular graduate degree together.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.payscale.com&#x2F;college-salary-report&#x2F;grad?page=49" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.payscale.com&#x2F;college-salary-report&#x2F;grad?page=49</a><p>Unfortunately, it doesn&#x27;t break out MS and PhD holders by subject studied.  So while you do get to see a specific ranking for an MBA or JD holder from UCLA or MIT, you only get overall salary info for PhDs from MIT, not PhD in Computer Science from MIT vs Electrical Engineering from Berkeley.  That would be far more useful.<p>As it stands, a PhD doesn&#x27;t show up until spot 29 on this list, but then again, a PhD in CS might, so hard to say.<p>To me, the attrition rate from PhD programs is an under appreciated aspect of this discussion.  A lot of people from elite Law, MBA, and MD programs are floored when they hear the attrition rate from PhD programs.  Seriously, the attrition rate form an elite law or med school tends to be well below one half of one percent.  Attrition rates form elite engineering and science PhD programs range from 35%-50%.<p>In any case, I&#x27;m always glad to see this discussed.  The only people who seem to think there is a &quot;shortage&quot; or STEM graduate students are people who have a financial interest in hiring STEM graduate students.  Almost every other analysis concludes that people with the freedom to choose their career in the US (free of visa restrictions that limit their career choices) are largely acting rationally by pursuing other graduate degree programs (or no graduate degree program).