In spite of all the downsides, the PhD programs do offer a lot to non-US students who want to gain legal entry into the United States. This can be the first step in the long path to a green card, which is worth a great deal of money.
The equation changes for US citizens and permanent residents, because the green card and/or legal right to reside in the US isn't part of the equation. Residency + a 35K/yr post-doc is a lot more appealing if you don't already have the residency.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if foreign scholars were directly awarded a 10 year residency visa and a spot on the green card list upon arrival in the US, independent of whether they remained in the Ph.D program. In other words, what would happen if the US said "you're obviously smart enough to make the best use of your own life - welcome to America, and feel free to follow your own path in life."
I wouldn't be surprised if the drop-out rate increased dramatically, since the foreign students would now be free to join startups or pursue other degree paths.
Universities won't stop over-training until the financial incentives for them to do so are destroyed. For starters, I'd love to see the post-doc and graduate student salary base raised to livable levels. Most scientific research is conducted by people who can barely afford their rent, and it isn't right.
A hard science education is a great preparation for a ton of intellectual jobs. I think this exodus from academia shows that the modern world "industry" now offers problems just as complicated as solving Schrodinger's equation.
That's not what I said. I said outside of academia which you switched to non-research. There's plenty of research done outside, from Boeing air tunnels to biotechnology to (some) computer technology startups.
Plus, there are definitely some non-research jobs for which it's useful. Financial markets. Programming. While I wouldn't recommend doing a Ph.D. to become a better programmer, having done a minimum of research gives a different perspective on some problems.
The vast majority of jobs outside of academia are non-research. Moreover, the few corporate research jobs tend to be just as competitively sought as faculty positions, because the positions are so few relative to the supply of PhD-trained applicants.
Maybe it's because I'm too recently out of the system, but I think it was a nearly complete waste of time. Whatever skills I gained while doing my PhD, I would have gained working in industry for the same period of time -- and today I would be extremely well-connected (and far less poor). I'm proud of finishing, and there were certainly intangible benefits (mostly related to being surrounded by coeds for so many years). From a practical perspective, however, it was a terrible decision.
I struggle with this issue every day (just selected a postdoc.) There are tons of smart, educated, hard working, passionate scientists. Why is that? I think because we just plain like it. Low pay sucks. But, most of us probably would not work in a coal mine for $80K.
So, working in a coal mine "isn't right." Being a postdoc is just not ideal.
The vast majority of the post-docs and grad students that I know hate the lifestyle, but have irrational hopes for success. They'd never put up with the hours and the low pay, if they could internalize the odds of failure.
Anyway, I wouldn't be so flippant about coal mining: miners get paid about the same as post-docs ($40k, usually in cheap parts of the country; google it) for well-regulated 40-hour weeks.
The equation changes for US citizens and permanent residents, because the green card and/or legal right to reside in the US isn't part of the equation. Residency + a 35K/yr post-doc is a lot more appealing if you don't already have the residency.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if foreign scholars were directly awarded a 10 year residency visa and a spot on the green card list upon arrival in the US, independent of whether they remained in the Ph.D program. In other words, what would happen if the US said "you're obviously smart enough to make the best use of your own life - welcome to America, and feel free to follow your own path in life."
I wouldn't be surprised if the drop-out rate increased dramatically, since the foreign students would now be free to join startups or pursue other degree paths.