Beware survivorship bias in advice on science careers
Most of these students have learnt statistics and importance of random stratified sampling. Unfortunately they are not using them in real life to get feedback on an event so important that you might spend a good part of decade of your career on it.<p>That said, personally I think doing a PhD is one of the worst things a person can do them financially long term. I think gambling is one of the few that ranks higher than PhD. They lose the most critical part of life they must be earning and saving to harness the power of compounding to become financially secure. On top, they learn no marketable skills that can get them a job out in industry or corporations.<p>Not teaching economics in school and colleges to all students is partially to blame as many undergrads believe just doing a PhD with minimum wages can make them happy. But when commitments increase and when they realize academic jobs are very few they become disillusioned and desperate.