<p>I am blessed to have parents supporting me for four years undergraduate, but after that I have to pay for myself. I’m thinking about taking a loan to do P.h.D. and repaying it slowly after I graduate. I’m thinking of doing Computer Science, and I could foresee a high-paying job at the big companies like Google (if I’m lucky). Hopefully I will be able to repay the loan in a short period of time before I venture into entrepreneurship for AI and bio-engineering.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if doing P.h.D. is even worth it though, but on some books I’ve read, having a P.h.D. is a “hidden” requirement to get into these companies. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Any decent PhD program in the sciences will pay you tuition plus a stipend to attend. Expect to work part-time as a teaching assistant and/or grader.</p>
<p>Why would you need PhD in CS to be a programmer? A lot of companies hire people straight out of UG. To be honest, I generally pass up applicants with PhD.</p>
<p>“Ph.D. students typically do not pay any tuition and receive a teaching assistantship,
research assistantship, or fellowship which pays a stipend sufficient to cover living expenses.
Currently, Ph.D. stipends in computer science are in the $1300 to $1800 per month range.”</p>
<p>@oldfort I’m interested in computer science research and innovation. Not pure coding. Also a doctorate degree makes your name sounds more awesome. I’ve seen what programmers do as a job before (as intern), and frankly I really don’t want that kind of job. @mathyone Thanks for the resource. I’m not sure if the benefits of PhD outweigh the opportunity cost though. </p>
<p>@FromMD What if I want both? Research company?</p>
<p>Specifically I’m interested in research, but privatized, so that we could sell patents etc. to others; or, if I’m lucky, be able to do research and production at the same time…</p>
<p>Not really interested in money to be honest, more interested in being able to produce ground-breaking research…but tied under a company’s name.</p>
<p>If you want to do research, you’ll probably be better off with a PhD. It’s not uncommon for PhD’s in computer science to go into industry and do research there. A lot of software companies have research divisions, including Google, Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Pixar, etc. Unfortunately the academic job market for PhDs is pretty bad, and I’m not sure how much easier, if at all, it is to get research jobs at companies.</p>
<p>And just to reiterate, you should not pay for a PhD program, and instead, you should be getting paid a small stipend. I think the information linked to in mathyone’s link is a bit outdated - my stipend is almost twice as much, and this is the case at a lot of other schools I’ve looked at (also the Computer Science subject GRE is not offered anymore).</p>
<p>Apologies, I see now that the document I linked was written in 2002. Not sure why it came up so high in my search. Yes, I would guess that the stipends are higher now.</p>
<p>The vast majority of doctoral programs fully support their students, paying the tuition and providing a stipend ranging from $16,000 to $30,000+. I suspect for CS, the stipend is at the higher end. </p>
<p>That said, you do not need a PhD to go to Google and do cutting edge stuff. Often, you just need to be a very creative, top notch undergraduate who has impressed people during your summer internships.</p>
<p>Any PhD program worth attending will be funded with a tuition waiver and stipend from research assistantship, teaching assistantship, or fellowship.</p>
<p>Depends on what you want to do. You wouldn’t necessarily make more money as a PhD in computer science vs. having a bachelor’s degree. But you would have more job opportunities available, namely academic research and teaching college.</p>
<p>If you want money, get an engineering degree, and then a MBA, and get into management. The technical track has a much lower pay ceiling.</p>
<p>@warbrain Yeah, I know research jobs are quite scarce, unfortunately. That’s why I want to plan ahead. Also it’s kind of a luck factor whether you can make groundbreaking research that capture people’s eyes as well…</p>
<p>@lookingforward Yes, I’m a high school senior. What do you mean by testing the waters? As for funding, it depends on luck a bit. I’m not only going to learn science but also train on my “selling” and language skills to make my research appealing. I hope this will at least give me bit of an edge. As for whether something is worthy for research, I can’t really guess what the funders think is worthy.</p>
<p>@SlackerMomMD Hard for me to be “very creative”. I’m not even sure if I can be “top-notch”. And I don’t know if under-graduate knowledge is sufficient to work on world-changing subjects?</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus Thanks for the information. Does that mean it is essentially “free”? Why would they be so generous? Do they expect you to donate one day?</p>
<p>@rhandco I’m planning on getting MBA, as well as PhD in computer science. I’m expecting…8 years to complete all of that? I like management actually, but I’m not sure if you can start working in a company straight from management. I don’t have connections or wealth in the U.S. as well, so I wouldn’t expect any easy route in. Though that being said I’m still more interested in being research lead than management. Maybe a combination?</p>
<p>About testing the waters. You’re trying to figure this out early, but with no experience in the college setting, with profs and the volume of shared experiences and info. Eg, you didn’t realize choice grad students get funding. You don’t have the faintest idea if you will stay in CS- and if I am right, you don’t even have all your acceptances lined up. You have not had a higher order of internship, to understand various tasks involved. Haven’t competed for that level, to assess your competitiveness.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s good to think. But if there were a 9th grader on CC asking about college majors and telling us the job he wants, can you see how folks might tell him to get a couple of years behind his belt, first? Again, good to think. You can look at some grad programs and see how they explain.</p>