Have you actually been in a PhD program before?<p>Calling it &quot;freedom&quot; could not be farther from the truth.  You don&#x27;t get to work on whatever you want unless you want to pay your own way.  Stray a little bit out of your advisor&#x27;s comfort zone and prepare to be put in your place.  There will be plenty of interruptions, and you will spend countless hours digging holes and filling them back up as you carry out orders from emails that you get at 2am from your advisor.<p>That salary is abysmal when you add up 80-hour weeks over 5+ years.  Add in the risk of failing out of the program or quitting, and you would have to (in many cases) be a fool to take the deal.<p>See here for a realistic picture of what it can be like to go through with a PhD in computer science:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=8720640" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=8720640</a>