Originally Posted by Bostonian
There is a perennial overproduction of PhDs compared to the number of jobs available for researchers and academics. In your early 20s you may be guided primarily by intellectual curiosity, but when you are older and need to support a family, a string of 2-year post-doc positions or being paid $1000 to teach a course as an adjunct stinks. I suggest that only the very best college graduates -- people who were stars in their department as undergrads -- should try to get a PhD.

I think in my early 20's, I was primarily guided by "how much money do I need to become economically and politically relevant later in life?"