Here's my two cents (I got my Ph.D. in physics from U. Chicago):
I went to grad school because 1) Chicago physics was famously challenging and I wanted the challenge, 2) Everyone else I knew went to grad school - I didn't know how to look for a job, 3) Chicago was a big city with good live music and nice architecture.
All were wrong - the only acceptable answer I believe is "I love science so much, I want to be a scientist for the rest of my life and nothing is going to stand in my way."
What happened was:
1) The challenge was 100x more than I really wanted. I found out early I didn't want to be a scientist, but decided I would stick it out like a perversely beneficial jail sentence.
2) I'm a very, very, very social person. Oops - big mistake. You don't make enough money to date. The mental challenge of living a lifestyle in complete opposition to my core personality was the most difficult challenge (5 years in a dark basement trying to detect light from single semiconductor nanocrystals). But, I found out I could take loans and moved to the artist neighborhood - punk rock, dating and beer helped. (Wine-women-song? Sex-drugs-rock n' roll?)
3) I met some of the most interesting people I've ever met in my life and that made it all worth while. I did some cool things and in the middle of the financial crisis I was able to make a career change because the Chicago physics Ph.D. superficially let me get my foot in the door.
4) I went to a NATO physics conference in Turkey, met a non-scientist woman and married her. Now I'm a capulcu.
5) Having a Ph.D. is a great conversation topic at parties.
6) I did some really cool science, but was exposed to many carcinogens and high voltage equipment at a young age.
My Dad was a Marine and I feel like I went through a Mental Marine Corps, no disrespect to the real Marines. Boot camp is not fun, but it turns you into a man of a sort. The first 2 course years were like a boot camp.
The financial impact of not entering the job market hits you even for years after you finish your Ph.D. You'll be behind other people your age for awhile.
I have a real question about this: is there something in your head that prevented you from stopping? Is it just something that has always been a part of you, or did you just make a decision that for once in your life, you were going to stick with something?
I'm pretty tenacious and don't give up easily in general, which has led me to go down with several sinking ships (women and startups). I did realize I was involved in something special - the hard part was getting accepted to the program and for condensed matter physics, it was fairly straightforward to get your ph.d. (not easy, straightforward). Pick an exotic material, do a measurement no one has done and write about it.
I was unmarried, no mortgage or car payments and I had already completed 2 years out of an estimated 5.5. I just had to ignore my annoying advisor, focus and try to enjoy the cool, interesting parts of the science. I loved machining my own metal parts. And also I had to get away at times and try to have a life outside the lab. So, I decided to stick with it.
No regrets - I'm 44 now, and I admit I was fairly bitter about the experience for at least a decade after I finished.
The last thoughts are: Lot's and lot's of work. Can you be force-fed your favorite food 24x7 for 5 years and still like it? Like how Homer Simpson thwarted the devil force feeding him donuts?
I did have an office mate who worked 9-5, was a 6'2" former speed skating champion of Canada, wife and kid and was always planning to work for McKinsey and company, which he did after completing his Ph.D. in 4 years. Other people have different experiences. I was a hard worker, other people were brilliant.
I wish someone would post an article that actually provided a serious, levelheaded view of the ups and downs of a PhD as well as what it's actually like instead of the overly negative articles? I understand that it might not be what it seems, but it's hard to figure out what's for real and what's just somber humor for the uninitiated.
The experience of doing a PhD varies wildly - between countries, between schools, between departments, between professors, and as time passes.
Even at the same school, one person reported to me that while he was in his second year his supervisor told him he probably had enough material to pass if he wrote it all up - while another person worked long hours and reported to me that his supervisor had shouted at him for not coming in to monitor his experiments on christmas day. One person went on to a research position in the private sector and feel it set them up for a good career; another hoped to enter humanities academia, but wasn't able to find any jobs and ended up doing office admin work that barely needed an undergraduate degree.
Even for the same student, some parts of the process will be enjoyable and fascinating, other parts will be frustrating and tiresome. If you had asked me two years in I'd have told you doing a PhD is pretty great - by the end, having gone through the process of writing up, my opinion pretty inverted. I decided a career in academia wouldn't suit me at all.
If you boil the experience of doing a PhD down to the essentials of the experience, there's very little left because the experience varies so much.
In general, the thumb rule I would like to apply for a PhD is the function of the relationship between the graduate student (employee) and the advisor (manager). Most (not all) graduate student experiences turn bitter due to ethical and professional issues with your advisor. If I were to give any advice to a graduate student, I would write this on the top of my list.
I completely agree; in my time as a PhD student and looking at my friends who did and did not finish, the only ones who made it through had a fantastic relationship with their supervisor; except for one, who was extremely driven to finish despite neglect on the part of her supervisor.
There's also, I believe, a CMU computer science "guide to graduate school survival" out there.
I don't think that this (somewhat self-deprecating) graduate school literature is unrealistically negative. Academia is pretty awful.
Life-wise, graduate school is a pretty negative experience. If you enjoy the subject matter and have an almost obsessive need to dive into it, it's a great time in that regard (and you will be spending 60+ hours per week on your work) because you can really study without having to deal with the bullshit that professors have to fend off (committees, tenure politics, grant-writing). The rest of your life will be somewhere from mediocre (if you don't care about the academic game, already dead-set on leaving post-PhD) to awful (if you try to play for keeps); even successful and happy graduate students experience this.
The upshot of graduate school is that, except for the money and low status-- and those aren't issues for everyone-- it's actually better than being a professor. You don't have to serve on committees or sweat tenure decisions or disciplinary hearings for cheating undergraduates, and you have a 5- to 7-year period where geographic moves under adverse circumstances won't happen.
> Life-wise, graduate school is a pretty negative experience.
I don't think grad school is like that for everyone. My undergrad had such a huge workload that I rarely had time for any kind of fun. Grad school so far is like the college that I didn't have, except I also get to work on research that's really exciting to me. I'm also kind of young for a grad student so I can hang out with undergrads just fine. It's a win-win.
As a whole I think graduate school is a good thing, but moment to moment it's pretty negative, by my experience and the experience of all of my classmates. I just ended my first year of masters study, and I couldn't name one person I know within the program who didn't seriously debate dropping out numerous times over the first year. On the other hand, most of us have overall gained good experiences and knowledge, and I do not regret staying.
Probably worth pointing out that this particular poster has an extremely negative view of many of their life experiences! (e.g., look for their comments about working for Google.)
FWIW, much as I get annoyed by Michael's constant negative comments about Google (experiences which are fairly foreign to my own experience there), they are still his experiences. Take them with a grain of salt, but take everyone's experiences from the Internet with a grain of salt.
Also FWIW, I have a number of friends who are generally shiny happy people who were basically ground down into dust in their Ph.D programs. They stayed for the whole time and not just the first year, but around year 4-6 even the most mentally stable and cheerful of them start saying things like "My life is miserable. I just want this to be over."
MOC: I spent a year in graduate school. Life-wise, graduate school is a pretty negative experience.
Shardling: Probably worth pointing out that MOC has an extremely negative view of many of their life experiences.
That's exactly the form of an ad-hominem argument: Person A makes a statement, person B brings up some fact about person A that would lead them to make that statement, ergo person A's statement is invalid. The problem here is logical, not personal: just because MOC has made negative statements about other things does not mean this negative statement is without basis.
I read no such personal opinion into your post: I'm attacking your logic, not your tone.
Ad hominem attacks are when you imply that someone's argument is invalid because of their background. That's what makes it a fallacy -- the validity of someone's argument is completely unrelated to their personal qualities.
In contrast, when someone offers an anecdote about their experiences, or in general offers their subjective judgement, then knowing something about them is damn important! For instance, if I knew MOC was a compulsive liar, that would certainly be relevant. Likewise, if MOC was in general an optimist who was loath to ever say anything negative, that would lend extra weight to their comments on grad school.
Actually, my year of graduate school was pretty positive, as far as things go. No complaints. I did look ahead and realize that academia was not the best deal in the world.
Also, you're a douche for bringing up irrelevancies like that.
I think that, if someone asks for a level-headed analysis of grad school, it is totally worth pointing out that an anecdotal response is from someone that has highly charged and divisive opinions about many things, especially institutional culture!
Also I'm pretty sure I've seen you say that you're proud of the fact that your perspective on life isn't typical -- so at least own that fact here.
I will give an answer focused on STEM field Ph.D.
programs in the US.
Pros:
Professor Career. A Ph.D. is nearly essential for a
career as a professor. If you want such a career,
then about have to get a Ph.D.
Learning. A Ph.D., both in your coursework and your
independent study, can let you learn much more about
your field. Some of what you learn might be quite
powerful and valuable later in your career,
especially if you want to be an entrepreneur and
found a business where some powerful, valuable
'secret sauce' technology will be a big advantage
for the business.
Jobs. Some employers will pay extra for a Ph.D.
Jobs in US national security, working for the
Federal Government directly or work in the
'military-industrial' complex are common examples.
Cons:
(A) With a Ph.D., working for someone without a
Ph.D. can be awkward. Why? Because most
organizations still want to have a hierarchy much
like a Ford plant 100 years ago where the supervisor
knew more and the subordinate was there mostly just
to add muscle to the thoughts of the supervisor.
Then a subordinate who knows more can be a threat to
the career of the supervisor. Related phenomena
include 'goal subordination' in organizational
behavior and the Peter Principle.
(B) After the success of Google, some Silicon Valley
venture partners concluded that for company founders
they wanted graduate school dropouts. After the
success of Facebook, they concluded they wanted
college dropouts. After the success of Tumblr, they
concluded that they wanted founders who never went
to college, and we have to suspect that really they
wanted high school dropouts. They are also big on
recent immigrants who, necessarily, don't have a
Ph.D. degree from a US research university.
Getting a Ph.D. Below I give some advice on getting
a Ph.D. in 12 parts.
Qualifications: I hold a Ph.D. in Engineering from
a world famous US research university where my
research was on some applied math. I've been a
college professor teaching applied math and
computing, and I've worked in applied math and
computing for problems in business and US national
security. I've published peer-reviewed original
research in applied math and computer science.
Currently I'm a founder of a startup where the
crucial, core 'secret sauce' is some applied math I
created.
(1) Research. In any of the better US research
universities, very likely the main issue for getting
a Ph.D. is your research. In simple terms, do some
good research and find that your path is pleasant.
Struggle with research and find your life not so
good down to much worse.
So below I will give some ideas that can help you do
sufficiently good research.
(2) Criteria. The main criteria for research is
work that is "new, correct, and significant". Below
I will give some ideas that can help you achieve
each of these three criteria.
(3) Engineering. In the STEM fields, I'd
concentrate on engineering. Of course the 'M' in
STEM is for mathematics, so there I'd concentrate on
some version of applied mathematics, e.g.,
'mathematical sciences', hopefully in a school of
engineering where your research can be some
mathematics for a practical problem. For just why
should concentrate on engineering, see below.
(4) Mathematize. For how to do good research in the
STEM fields, my recommendation is to 'be wise,
mathematize'. That is, quite broadly the most
respected research, especially in the STEM fields,
is to find mathematical solutions. Advantages of
mathematization:
(A) If you present your mathematical solution as
theorems and proofs, then it can be fairly easy for
you to check that your work is correct and quite
difficult for anyone else to argue that your work is
not "correct".
(B) In fields of engineering, nearly everyone
struggles with math. So, if you have a good math
background, then you can have one heck of an
advantage.
(C) Applied math is one astoundingly powerful way to
get good solutions to practical problems. So, (I)
start with a practical problem. (II) Find what
mathematical assumptions are reasonable for that
problem and make a faithful conversion of the real
problem into a mathematical problem. (III) Using
the assumptions, find a solid, powerful mathematical
solution to the mathematical problem. (IV) Convert
the mathematical solution to a real solution, e.g.,
via software. (V) Write a paper on the work (and/or
start a business to deliver the results). So, in
moving logically from the real problem to the real
solution (as a paper and/or business), you have
taken a detour through some mathematics; this detour
can be a big advantage over slogging through just
intuitive or empirical techniques.
(5) Achieving the Three Criteria. There is an
advantage in being in engineering: You are likely
permitted to start with a practical problem. If you
start with a recent practical problem, then nearly
any solution you find can be called "new" if only
because your problem was new. Or, if you are
working on a problem in large server farms, how the
heck did von Neumann, Kolmogorov, Maxwell, or Newton
have already solved it? If the practical problem is
important and you make some solid, visible progress
on it, then your work can be called "significant".
If your solution is mostly mathematics, with
theorems and proofs, then it's 'correct' essentially
only from passing checks on the theorems and proofs.
It can help your solution be regarded as
'significant' if in some sense it is provably the
best possible, that is, 'optimal'. So, maybe your
solution is the least cost, least time, least mean
square error, least type II error, etc.
(6) Background. A good way to win a 100 yard dash
foot race is to start one foot from the finish line.
Otherwise, get a head start. Or, get an 'unfair
advantage'.
So, for the approach of 'mathematizing' engineering,
start with a solid undergraduate degree in pure and
applied math. Then get a Master's concentrating on
selected topics in pure and applied math.
E.g., even if you want to get a Ph.D. in computer
science, as an undergraduate, mostly just f'get
about the undergraduate computer science courses and
be a math major instead. The undergraduate computer
science material won't much help you in computer
science research, but the math can be an
overwhelmingly strong advantage.
As a math major, after the usual undergraduate
calculus sequence, take theorem proving courses in
abstract algebra and linear algebra -- the first is
useful at times, maybe more so in the future, and
the easy place to learn to prove theorems, and the
second is likely the most important material in
mathematical analysis and applied math.
To continue, take a second course in linear algebra.
A good start is the now classic P. Halmos, 'Finite
Dimensional Vector Spaces'. It was written in 1942
when Halmos, a fresh Ph.D. from Doob at U. IL, was
an assistant to von Neumann at the Institute in
Princeton and is really a finite dimensional
introduction to von Neumann's Hilbert space. For
more, see the books by R. Bellman or R. Horn.
Work carefully through W. Rudin, 'Principles of
Mathematical Analysis.' Supplement that with
Fleming, 'Functions of Several Variables', Buck,
'Advanced Calculus', etc.
As a crucial start on optimization, work carefully
through, say, Chvatal, 'Linear Programming'.
Somewhere get a good theorem proving course in
ordinary differential equations; that can be a good
start in a lot in applied math and on deterministic
optimal control theory.
At one of the first chances, take a careful pass
through Royden, 'Real Analysis' and the real half of
Rudin, 'Real and Complex Analysis' -- a good course
would help weight the more and less important ideas
there.
Then a long dessert buffet is Luenberger,
'Optimization by Vector Space Techniques'.
With that background, you can do probability and
stochastic processes the serious way via the more
serious authors, e.g., L. Breiman, D. Brillinger, K.
Chung, E. Cinlar, J. Doob, E. Dynkin, I. Karatzas,
M. Loeve, J. Neveu, S. Shreve, and more.
For more, attend research seminars: Don't often try
to follow much of the content but just use the
seminars as suggestions for new fields, problems,
techniques, names, references, etc. Also you may
meet some people or learn about career opportunities
that could be helpful.
If after a Bachelor's or Master's want to drop out
of school for a while, then do so, get a job, stay
single, and outside of work lead a simple life and
study some more pure and applied math from some of
the best sources. Hopefully get some practice
applying math to real problems.
Get a collection of real problems that might use for
your Ph.D. research (remember, your Ph.D. is to be
in engineering). Make some first cut progress on
those problems. If you can get some solutions, then
write them up as papers. If some of your papers
look publishable, then try to publish them.
(7) Ph.D. Program. Now apply to a Ph.D. program.
Include your papers, especially the published ones.
Your mathematical background can be a huge
advantage. In particular, consider working in
optimization and stochastic processes with a solid
background in measure theory and functional
analysis. Heck, nearly everything going on in a big
application, a server farm, a large network, ...,
the economy is a stochastic process where we want to
optimize.
Do what the department insists on, and otherwise
continue your research. Take your best research and
submit it as your Ph.D. dissertation. If there is
any question about the quality of that research,
then publish it; or just submit work that you have
already published. That the work was accepted for
publication in a good journal tends quickly to
settle all doubts about sufficient quality.
In particular, proceeding in your Ph.D. program as
outlined here, you have (A) obtained your own
background in pure and applied math, not depended on
your department for that background, and have quite
likely obtained a better background than any of your
professors; (B) have selected your own research
problems and not depended on your department or its
professors for research problems; (C) have done the
core of your research in applied math with theorems
and proofs which are comparatively easy to show are
correct and difficult to criticize; and (D) have
used publication of your work preemptively to
establish a respected, outside, objective proof of
quality.
(8) How to Do the Research. Mostly the mathematics
is just math and not very intuitive and is solid and
not just guessing. But finding that math, that is,
original math, can use quite a lot of intuition and
guessing for finding what might be true and finding
ways to prove it is true.
My view is that the most important work in math
research is intuitive with a lot of guessing, a lot
of simple models, and a lot of simple, intuitive,
testing of intuitive guesses.
(9) University. Generally you are better off at
the best research university you can get into. The
less good universities can force you to jump through
no end of silly hoops and be so insecure in their
own expertise as to delay and delay saying that your
work is good.
(10) Courses. At a really good university, it may
be that the graduate courses are not much like
undergraduate courses and, instead, are essentially
just introductions to narrow parts of research by
experts in those parts and, really, intended only
for students wishing to pursue research in those
parts.
(11) Done.
Accept your Ph.D. and go do something else.
Your professors may have helped you get a job, if so
likely an academic job; thank them, and if that job
is what you want, then take it; else proceed with
your career along lines you've had in mind.
(12) Warning.
A Ph.D. program can be dangerous, harmful to you and
your life and career and even fatal. If you are not
well protected with your own background in, say,
math, your own research problems, your own research,
and your own publications, and hopefully your own
financial means, then your education and much of
your life can be in the hands of others who can be
clumsy, competitive, nasty, arrogant, domineering,
abusive, destructive, sadistic, incompetent, etc.
It can be that, really, your professors don't have
any good research problems for you. E.g., even in
an engineering school, they may have nearly no
contact with real problems from off campus and,
thus, little or no help in finding a real problem
for your start. Your background in each of real
problems, math, computing, and business can easily
be much better than theirs. Each of your professors
may have been beating their head against some hard
problem for the last 15 years while you have some
good insight into some good, new problems you have a
good chance of solving. It is accepted that one of
the keys to success in research is good problem
selection.
You can feel that you are in jail without being
accused of a crime, with an indeterminate sentence,
tortured by your professors as jailers, and with no
chance of parole.
There is a special warning for students who made
Valedictorian in high school and PBK, 'Summa Cum
Laude', etc. in college. In the text version of D.
Knuth's 'The TeXBook' is:
"The traditional way is to put off all creative
aspects until the last part of graduate school. For
seventeen or more years, a student is taught
'examsmanship', then suddenly after passing enough
exams in graduate school he's told to do something
original."
So, a student who has done really well based mostly
on fantastic memory, pleasing the teachers, dotting
i's and crossing t's, doing just what was requested,
working desperately for praise and approval from
others, terrified of any chance of criticism, out to
'change the world' in major ways or bust, can find
themselves in a situation of inhuman stress, then
depression, then incapacitation, then more stress,
then clinical depression, then death. No joke.
If you're able to make a living doing a PhD (from your stipend and being a teaching assistant), it might help to tide you over till the economy improves. But obviously, this article is just for fun!
My best anecdote of thinking about going to PhD, was when I went to a prof I knew( not my adviser, somebody who I took class from), and asked if I should go for a PhD. The conversation went
-Hey Dr.X, I wanted to ask your honest opinion if I should go for a phd?
-No.
-Why?
-If you were going to go for a PhD, you'd not be asking me. In fact, you wont be asking anyone.
After that conversation I went for my summer internship at Microsoft Research, where the creme de creme of computer science congregates, and yes, he was right - the best scientists cannot even imagine having a job and not doing research.
I've been reading far too much about the downsides lately when trying to decide if I want to do it, so this was a fun diversion. I'm 28, fresh out of a CS MS program, work full time at a job doing computer security 'research' and really still feel like I don't know as much I as I want too.
Interesting, the question about family/friends is what peaked my interest. My girlfriend of 10 years is about ready to kill me if I commit 4-6 more years.
The test might be perfectly adequate to decide whether you should do a PhD.
However, I can't stop thinking that tests where the outcome is based on Mostly A's (or B's or C's or ...) are designed for pre-teen pupils deciding whether they should break up with their this-week boyfriend or have a chocolate or vanilla ice cream.
It thinks I am already a PhD student; funny! Neat. I do daydream about applying for the Computer Science PhD program at Stanford and moving out to the bay area, but then I snap back to my senses and focus on building my company.
Answering as a newly minted PhD in Epidemiology in the US, with my thoughts and commentary on the "Correct" answers.
1. When you finished your undergraduate degree, you ...
Worked for six months as a research assistant, and realized that while I liked the work a lot, I liked the idea of asking my own questions more, and knew there was no way I was really going to be able to do that without a PhD, regardless of how very supportive and generally awesome my work environment was.
2. You think that the hardest part of postgraduate study will be ...
D. getting an appointment with your supervisor
Hard, but not the hardest. The hardest was when the "What am I doing with my life, is this all a mistake" changed frequency from once a semester to once a month, then once a week, then toward the very end essentially a rolling wave of panic and writing.
3. You like the idea of research, because ...
D. you are wholly unemployable
This one made me roll my eyes a bit. I'm employable, and more employable now than when I started (whether or not going from an MS to a PhD changed much is up for debate). I like the idea of research because I like asking questions that haven't been asked. I like planning the approach, and seeing it come together, and ushering said idea to print.
4. When confronted with a difficult problem to solve you tend to be ...
Staring at the whiteboard I bought from an office liquidator. Usually with markers of about 10 colors.
5. If faced with a challenge requiring a wholly new solution you usually ...
Make sure it can't just be simulated first.
6. If asked to write up your work you ...
D. spend a week configuring LaTex appropriately
Smirk at the math/physics/CS types who are convinced that their way is the only possible way science gets done, and go back to Powerpoint. Keynote if I'm feeling flashy.
7. Somebody criticises your discipline, you ...
Since it's a fairly small number of specific criticisms, by now I've got a pretty well developed tier of questions to help guide the conversation. Did you read X? In X, did you notice Y, or read the companion article by Z?...
8. When it is suggested that that the solution to a particular challenge might be best found within another discipline you ...
I'm not at all surprised, considering my field as a discipline has kind of camped out at an intersection and shamelessly stolen from others.
9. You have told your family and partner that you are considering doing a PhD, they are ...
They were supportive at the time, and supportive still.
10. You will be part of a research team, this will allow you to ...
Lab Happy Hour.
11. Your friends say you are ...
"in my program, he's one of the infectious disease guys."
I actually looked at this from a different perspective: the workplace. I was only in a PhD program for one year (left to work on Wall Street) but have 7 years in the industry.
A is the disengaged MacLeod Loser, slightly motivated by social acceptability but averse to hard work and risk.
B is the slimy and superficially impressive but unoriginal executive (MacLeod Sociopath) alpha male.
C is the true Technocrat, the problem-solver who's an ideal student but generally "difficult to manage" in the workplace and usually gets fired a couple times before finding the right niche.
D is the terminal middle manager (MacLeod Clueless) whose self-deception prevents him from accepting the fact that he's actually checked-out (in practice, if not in mindset).
I went to grad school because 1) Chicago physics was famously challenging and I wanted the challenge, 2) Everyone else I knew went to grad school - I didn't know how to look for a job, 3) Chicago was a big city with good live music and nice architecture.
All were wrong - the only acceptable answer I believe is "I love science so much, I want to be a scientist for the rest of my life and nothing is going to stand in my way."
What happened was: 1) The challenge was 100x more than I really wanted. I found out early I didn't want to be a scientist, but decided I would stick it out like a perversely beneficial jail sentence. 2) I'm a very, very, very social person. Oops - big mistake. You don't make enough money to date. The mental challenge of living a lifestyle in complete opposition to my core personality was the most difficult challenge (5 years in a dark basement trying to detect light from single semiconductor nanocrystals). But, I found out I could take loans and moved to the artist neighborhood - punk rock, dating and beer helped. (Wine-women-song? Sex-drugs-rock n' roll?) 3) I met some of the most interesting people I've ever met in my life and that made it all worth while. I did some cool things and in the middle of the financial crisis I was able to make a career change because the Chicago physics Ph.D. superficially let me get my foot in the door. 4) I went to a NATO physics conference in Turkey, met a non-scientist woman and married her. Now I'm a capulcu. 5) Having a Ph.D. is a great conversation topic at parties. 6) I did some really cool science, but was exposed to many carcinogens and high voltage equipment at a young age.
My Dad was a Marine and I feel like I went through a Mental Marine Corps, no disrespect to the real Marines. Boot camp is not fun, but it turns you into a man of a sort. The first 2 course years were like a boot camp.
The financial impact of not entering the job market hits you even for years after you finish your Ph.D. You'll be behind other people your age for awhile.
I should just turn this into a blog post! HTH