I know it has been a while. I have been struggling with some serious life-issues. I am now back in order and am ready for a new round.

My question over the past few weeks as I have heard all the rhetorical nonsense from the people we have elected to sit in our government (both the old and new administrations) is: can we really invest in science research without clearly understanding the “on the ground” costs of producing a Ph.D.?

Now I know people have done analyses of this, but I wanted to bring my own perspective.

How much did it cost me to become a Ph.D. in America? Is it worth it? I will say at the outset that the costs are calculated in 2008 dollars and they are all estimates based on averages. I give links to where I came up with the numbers. This is all pre tax so these numbers will be slightly different when factoring taxes…but that is so complicated I will put that off until later.

I will also say that this will be an evolving post, so I will be honing the numbers and categories as I go in subsequent posts, but this is the general framework-critiques are welcome (if anyone reads me anymore).

Let’s start with the hard figures for teaching me my craft:

Preschool teacher salary (2008): $22,000 (1 yr)
Elementary School teacher salary (2008): $40,397 (X 4 yrs)
High School teacher salary (2008): $48,000 (X 4 yrs)
Associate Professor University salary (2008): $73,275 (X 4 yrs)
Graduate Research University professor salary (2008): $85,633 (X 6 yrs)
Extra school programs during middle/high school (2008): $4,000
-—————————————
Total (.est) = $1,015,220

Fellowships/scholarships:

Undergraduate academic awards: $2,500
Graduate research assistantship: $21,000 (X 6 yrs)
Postdoctoral fellowship: $41,000 (X 3 yrs)
-—————————————
Total (est.) = $251,500
Total state investment = $1,266,720

Private debt related to education: $75,000
$1,266,720 – $75,000 = $1,191,720

One important caveat is that this does not take into account health insurance or other costs like that.

So we can basically conclude that the state invests about 1.5 million dollars in the production of a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences.

This looks like a good investment, right? Well I am not so sure that it is, and that an undergraduate will see it as a worthy investment of time.

When you closely examine the economics of the critical years for the development of a scientist (college + graduate school), you get something like this:

4 years of college (state school, living on campus): $64,000 (mostly debt, lets say $60,000 is debt).

6 year graduate fellowship: $126,000
$126,000-$60,000 = $66,000 (net gain for student, and this does not count interest paid on debt).

However, before taxes during this same time period, working minimum-wage 40 hours/week over 10 year period (4 yrs undergrad, 6 yrs grad): $150,800

So: during the initial period of development, it is more lucrative for an undergraduate to work a minimum-wage job. This is where we need to put our investment, not in graduate level-programs. We need to get the students to the graduate level program, but if they never show up-our good investments will never work out.

If you want good Ph.Ds , you need to fund them properly at the undergraduate level. This is different that what I hear conversation-wise going on in the academic community about funding research.

Hmm…