Why acceptance percentages so low?

[sakky]

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Something tells me that the VAST majority of people don’t apply for the reasons that you’ve listed. I mean, you can list all the anecdotes you want, but for most people who are qualified enough to get into top PhD programs, the opportunity cost is pretty high.

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<p>Oh, I don’t know about that. See below.</p>

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I can attest to UCLAri statements. Opportunity cost is very high for PhD programs (especially for engineering students who could be potentially making a lot more in industry). The average stipend for PhD is roughly 20-30k minus tuition costs, which is ok, but if you are from anywhere on the west coast, you will be feeling borderline poverty. Even for entry-level chemsitry graduates, the average national income is probably in the mid 30ks

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<p>See, these by themselves are anecdotes. Chemistry and engineering? Why not instead talk about the vast majority of the humanities and social science majors? How much do they make to start? How about biology majors? What do they make? </p>

<p>You want to talk about the West Coast? Well, let me tell you this. My brother was a Phd student at Stanford. He lived a quite nice life. Campus housing for Stanford grad students is heavily subsidized, such that he got his own room on campus in a townhouse for a relatively cheap price (relative to costs in the Bay Area). </p>

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Haha…as far as university healthcare… I don’t even know where to begin…

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<p>Haha, as far as corporate health care is concerned, I reallydon’t know where to begin. At least you have health care as a student, and it is almost always going to be better than what you would get if you went to industry.</p>

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The sacrifice is pretty deep and the majority of those geeks are here not just for picnics.

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And although your own independent research may be more flexible, you still have deadlines to meet, experiments/simulations to run, papers to publish, and presentations to give as well as coursework and qualification exams. From what I see in my own engineering department, I can see that most graduate students put more time into their work than most full-time employees in industry. Weekends and holidays are appreciated because they give time for catching up on work. There are no “after hours” in graduate school. You work until your project is done.

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<p>But there is a huge difference. You are working on a project that you actually like, or at least you’re supposed to be (and if you’re not, you should be looking to change your project to something that you like). You are working on a topic that is interesting to you. When you have that situation, you can work for 100 hours a week and still think it’s great because it doesn’t feel like work, because you like it. Contrast that with what happens in the private sector where you are far less likely to be working on something you actually like and will often times, in fact, probably most of the time, be working on things that you don’t actually like. Especially if you’re entry-level. Working on something you don’t like for 40 hours a week is far more painful than working 80 hours a week on something that you love. </p>

<p>Look, nobody is saying that grad school is all strawberries and cream. I agree that writing the dissertation itself can be painful. But the grad school lifestyle is still quite pleasant compared to actually taking a regular job. </p>

<p>But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what Paul Graham had to say about it. He isn’t much of a proponent of grad school despite holding a PhD from Harvard. Nevertheless, he stated the following regarding dissertation writing and the grad school lifestyle:</p>

<p>“…thousands before you have suffered through writing a dissertation. And aside from that, grad school is close to paradise. Many people remember it as the happiest time of their lives. And nearly all the rest, including me, remember it as a period that would have been, if they hadn’t had to write a dissertation.”</p>

<p>[url=<a href=“Paul Graham”>Undergraduation]Undergraduation[/url</a>]</p>