<p>@lookingforward Thanks for that advice. I’m guessing that I’m thinking too far ahead right now.</p>
<p>My son worked for awhile after getting UG degree in CS. He interned at places you mentioned. Then went to grad school and still does internships. Every grad school offered $30+. He also got an NSF scholarship, which is another option for paying and living expenses.</p>
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<p>Yes, it is essentially free with respect to out-of-pocket costs, although not free in terms of opportunity costs (i.e. what you could have done or earned if you did something other than PhD study).</p>
<p>Funding for PhD students often comes from outside (government or private) research grants; PhD students are relatively inexpensive labor to work on the kind of basic research that the grantors like to see come out of it (private companies do research on their own with their own staff as well, but often in more specific and proprietary directions). Research universities also use PhD students as TAs to extend the teaching capacity available, particularly for frosh/soph level courses. Beyond that, if a PhD student eventually makes an important discovery (including after graduating with a PhD), s/he will bring some glory to his/her PhD school.</p>
<p>However, realize that research universities produce many more PhDs than needed to replace their own faculty. Many PhDs end up in less research intensive universities, community colleges, etc. For subjects like CS, various jobs in industry are readily available, but that is not necessarily true in other subjects. In subjects less in demand, you might find stories of PhD graduates having a difficult time finding academic jobs, or going through a string of post-doctoral positions.</p>
<p>Note that the economics of professional school (MD, JD, etc.) are very different, in that students typically have to bear most or all of the high costs involved. So be wary about generalizations using the unspecific term “grad school”.</p>
<p>You are jumping the gun. I see no point in getting a PhD in CS and an MBA. Either you are interested in research or you are interested in management. If I were you, I’d go to the best undergrad CS program you can afford. Work hard and get the best summer internships you can. Summer internships are when companies look for talent. My son went straight from undergrad to Google. He’s working on work he considers interesting. No idea what exactly - stuff that makes the foundations of the operating system work better. I think. After a few years of CS you will have a much better idea if you want to go on and get an MBA, a PhD or if you want to go straight to work. The best MBA programs prefer that you work a few years before attending anyway. Some colleges that have undergrad Business Schools (like Carnegie Mellon) may allow you to take some of their business courses to get a taste of whether you want to go on in business.</p>
<p>No one should ever pay for a PhD.</p>
<p>You don’t need to think this far ahead.</p>
<p>When you are in college, do internships (summer after sophomore year if possible, but most people do them summer after junior year).</p>
<p>My son got a great job at a well-known company doing research and development with a BS in CS.</p>
<p>if he ever wanted to get a master’s, his company would pay, and if he wanted to teach, he might do a PhD, but it’s been a few years now and he is happy as things are.</p>
<p>Generally it is a good idea to work in the field before going after grad school because you need to know what specific area and focus you want.</p>
<p>For now, just concentrate on high school and college entrance. A lot of things can change.</p>
<p>Yes in some respects that is true rhandco. In my previous company there was a mixture of degrees in management R&D positions - they were compensated on their work not on their degrees. The degree is only valuable in how it contributes to what you ultimately contribute to the company. If you contribute less than the guy with a undergrad engineering degree then you’ll be paid less. Academia is different, it rewards degrees so if you want to teach or want to be involved in academia it might make sense. </p>
<p>Google hires 1/3rd BS, 1/3rd MS, 1/3rd PhD’s. So while they like PhD’s it is not a back door entrée. You certainly have a lot of misunderstandings in your original post. Also no one has mentioned that it is not usual to do a PhD in CS part time and I don’t know where you might get accepted for that if at all. </p>
<p>it is never to early to prepare to be qualified for grad school, but you don’t really need to think hard and make any decisions for a few years. Then you will have a better idea what research is like and what the job market is like and what sort of work you would like to do, and if it is ‘worth it’ for you. I don’t know why this isn’t posted in the grad forum.??</p>
<p>I don’t think the OP was proposing to be a part-time student. I said “part-time” in reference to having to work as a TA or grader as a condition of financial support as a PhD student.</p>
<p>Any half way decent Ph.D. program in the social sciences provides funding as well. I know the same is true for the sciences. I don’t know where the OP is attending, but you should never attend a Ph.D. program that is not funded. Period.</p>
<p>I tell my students the same thing my advisor told me when I applied for Ph.D. programs: an acceptance without funding, is not an acceptance. No one should pay for a doctorate.</p>
<p>And no HS student should be worried about grad school right now.</p>
<p>Having a PhD in CS opens up opportunities that a BS in CS alone doesn’t, especially in research. Job opportunities for PhDs in CS are pretty decent right now, and I expect would stay decent for a while, although we don’t know what the future holds. (I’m a EE manager, and I hire EE and CS majors, including those with MS and PhD degrees.)</p>
<p>As others have said, most PhD programs will provide full support with an TA or RA (research) position. </p>
<p>It is early to decide about attending a PhD program, but there are things you could do now to help towards that path. It would probably be better to attend a University than a LAC, and to try to get involved in research as an undergrad, and to take some graduate level classes. Try to form good relationships with professors who work in the specific areas of CS that you find the most interesting, especially with professors who are well-known for their expertise in particular areas. When applying to grad school, in addition to good grades and GRE scores, a few things that can set you apart from other applicants are a reference letter from a well-known expert in a particular field, research experience, and having grad school classes on your transcript.</p>
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<p>Actually, some decisions made in high school can affect post-bachelor’s degree study. For example, selection of an undergraduate school may affect the academic opportunities available to prepare for graduate or professional school. Dual enrollment or college courses taken while in high school can affect GPA for some professional schools.</p>
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<p>Not to mention there are high school students who are so advanced that they and university feel it’s in their better interest to proceed straight into a PhD program. This happened a few times at my public magnet. One who graduated from my HS in the early '70s proceeded straight into a PhD program and had a decades long career as a STEM Professor/research scientist. </p>
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<p>Agreed 100%. Another bit of advice I heard from another Professor is to NEVER GO INTO DEBT FOR A PhD and avoid universities which don’t fully fund their PhD students. In his case, he was funded, but not at 100% and ended up $30k in debt in the mid '90s. He was doing his best to avoid us students following in his footsteps regarding the debt issue. </p>
<p>People, my reading comprehension is at least at a fifth grade level. There is nothing in the OPs posts to suggest that this PARTICULAR HS kid needs to be worried about his grad school prep right now. cobrat- I will buy you dinner if you can find a shred of evidence that his PARTICULAR HS kid is comparable to one of your public magnet classmates.</p>
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<p>I made my post in response to your seemingly absolutist statement quoted here:</p>
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<p>Considering you didn’t use qualifiers like “most” or specifically referring to OP, it is reasonable for me to point out some exceptions to your statement. 
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<p>A kid interested in grad school may prefer the advanced coursework and greater research opportunities at a larger university vs. a small college. A kid interested in expensive post-grad education would do well to think about how the price of college will affect subsequent opportunities. I don’t think it’s at all too early to consider the question of grad school while selecting colleges. A plan is not a binding decision.</p>
<p>Hi, thanks for all the responses! I learnt a great deal about Ph.D. and I will keep all your suggestions in mind.</p>
<p>I have another question: Will being at MIT undergraduate boost your chance of getting into MIT graduate?</p>
<p>It is early to decide about attending a PhD program, but there are things you could do now to help towards that path. It would probably be better to attend a University than a LAC</p>
<p>Not necessarily, for a variety of reasons. Some of the top producers of STEM PhDs are liberal arts colleges. Professors at top SLACs do research too, and students often foster closer relationships with them than at the large labs at research universities. It just depends on the student.</p>
<p>* I have another question: Will being at MIT undergraduate boost your chance of getting into MIT graduate? *</p>
<p>Not sure. If you look at the faculty members at MIT, it does seem like a disproportionate amount of them got both BS and PhD degrees at MIT. I’m sure it varies by department.</p>
<p>Correlation does not imply causation, i.e. the same factors that got a student into MIT as an undergrad are likely still at play when that student applies to grad school.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I think it is generally a bad idea to get your PhD at the same place you studied as an undergrad. You’ll learn a lot more being exposed to new professors and new ideas. At least that was the experience of my friends. This is probably more true in the humanities than the sciences however. That said, my husband got his PhD in biology at Caltech. I don’t think a single person in his cohort was an undergrad there. There was a mix of students who had studied at LACs and universities (both public and private.)</p>