If anyone here has a PhD, can you share with us what made you decide to get a PhD?

Was it because

- better salary
- prestige
- job promotion
- genuine academic interest
- you didn't know what to do with life & you had a sponsor
- your father told you to

I did ask a couple of PhD's in real life. One said prestige, the other said better salary... which she now regrets becoz a lecturer's salary really sucks.

Does anyone really go for a PhD because they were truly interested in the knowledge?

You mean teaching? Ya you probably can't get to the Dean level unless you have a Dr. title in your name.

I think in our society there's still the lack of interest in finding knowledge for knowledge's sake. Perhaps we haven't come out of the bottom of Maslow's triangle. Food and material gain is still our top worry rather than the search for truth?

Other than make money thru teaching, I can only think of one practical reasons to get PhD... as a ticket out to find jobs in other countries.

I wouldn't mind if it gets me all the girls...

Must be tough being a girl. She'll be thinking who to marry ar... the smart one who will give me smart babies or the rich one who will give me money for shopping.

... and hope that the rich guy won't be smart enuf to do a DNA test on the baby.

I heard of some VIPs who get a PhD without any study at all.

I hear private college lecturers saying that without a PhD they cannot compete for a promotion. Its just the way the system works, a problem that can be traced all the way back to the student's parents. How? Parents want to send their kids to colleges that have the "best" lecturers. Their definition of "best?" A lecturer that has a Dr title. So what do the colleges do? Tell their teaching staff sorry, no doctrate, no promotion for you.

In the end, its all about the moolah. Sad.

I would love to do a doctrate on social evolution if I could because I like the topic. But I dun wanna eat grass for the next 4 years...

Yup, it also attracts the antisocials who prefer to struggle with books in the library rather than be a lamp post at some frat party. The catch of the day for party animal is girls, for the antisocial his academic scrolls. At the end of 50 years though, I'd say the academic scroll is probably easier to look at than the old chick you once hit on.

Except death and taxes.

PhDs can get work if they're not picky. Here's a PhD from Standford who got booted from his job and ended up as a Singapore taxi driver.

http://taxidiary.blogspot.com/