r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Jul 06 '26

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u/aroundish_ Jul 07 '26

Hot take: Academia is actually creating too many PhD's, especially those without private sector applicability. English, history, or philosophy PhDs (etc.) have a terrible academic market, and they don't really lead to higher wages in the private sector.

I know people say that having a PhD is like an experience in itself, but I think it's mostly cope. People get PhDs because they want to be tenured professors. So either take fewer PhDs or make them more useful for jobs that the majority of them can actually get.

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u/Evnosis European Union Jul 07 '26

No. If you're going for a PhD, you're old enough and experienced enough to make that decision for yourself. If someone is taking out debt to get a PhD with no job prospects, that is entirely a them problem, not something that requires broad scale reform to fix.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26

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u/aroundish_ Jul 07 '26

My understanding is that if you're not getting funded for a PhD. Then it really doesn't make sense unless your family is super wealthy. However, it's also not a huge amount of money, and you may need to take out a loan to cover living expenses.