In pursuit of a PhD and doing the math

Stephen Hsu blogger for MIT’s Technology Review posted shared a story from Beryl Lieff Benderly's "The Real Science Gap" about the career prospects of American scientists. Probably not the most exciting story to read before  entering a doctorate program this fall, but something that those of us who are should keep in mind.

Earning a PhD
How long does it take to complete a PhD in biological sciences? In several top programs you are looking at around 5 to 5.5 years. (Technology Review’s story says that the average PhD now takes 7 years but didn’t specify the field)

How much will you make as a graduate student in biological science? (You are getting paid to go to school which is a HUGE plus) Typical graduate stipends in the biological sciences cluster around $24,000 to $26,000. See the 2009-2010 PhD Stipends in biological and biomedical sciences

How many hours a week will you spend in the lab a week? 20 hours a week is what most universities set the maximum at while taking classes. The reality is that you will spend significantly more time than 20 hours per week to complete a PhD. I am not going to work out the hourly wage because it is not really reflective.

Earning a PhD is a commitment of time, hard work, and being frugal.

After you have earned a PhD
What are you going to do with your PhD? Begin the post doc process, go into industry, or start up your own company. I have encountered a lot of people that are reluctant to the idea of going into industry. Even fewer entertain the idea of starting up their own company. This leaves the academic postdoc.

Postdoc: how does $12.82/hr sound?
”And today’s postdocs rarely pursue their own ideas or work with the greats of their field. Nearly every faculty member with a research grant — and that is just about every tenure-track or tenured member of a science department at any of several hundred universities — now uses postdocs to do the bench work for the project. Paid out of the grant, these highly skilled employees might earn $40,000 a year for 60 or more hours a week in the lab. A lucky few will eventually land faculty posts, but even most of those won’t get traditional permanent spots with the potential of tenure protection. The majority of today’s new faculty hires are “soft money” jobs with titles like “research assistant professor” and an employment term lasting only as long as the specific grant that supports it.”

What surprised me about the above the paragraph was that most postdocs will not pursue their own ideas. The second thing that surprised was that a postdoc at a university can look forward to an hourly wage of $12.82/hr. See calculations below: (Adjust accordingly to your situation)

Annual salary $40,000.00/(52 weeks in a year X 60 hours a week) = $40,000.00/3,120 hours = $12.82/hr

Opportunity costs
“Many young Americans bright enough to do the math therefore conclude that instead of gambling 12 years on the small chance of becoming an assistant professor, they can invest that time in becoming a neurosurgeon, or a quarter of it in becoming a lawyer or a sixth in earning an MBA. And many who do earn doctorates in math-based subjects opt to use their skills devising mathematical models on Wall Street, rather than solving scientific puzzles in university labs, hoping a professorship opens up.”

Unequal opportunity
“For scientifically trained young people from abroad, though — especially those from low-wage countries like China and India — the calculus of opportunity is different. For them, postdoc work in the U.S. is an almost unbeatable opportunity. Besides the experience and prestige of working in the world’s leading scientific power, a postdoc research position is likely to pay many times more than a job at home would.”
 
Everyone has their own reasons for pursuing a PhD. Maybe these numbers don’t factor into some peoples decisions, but I found this very interesting.