COMMENTARY Earning a doctorate is widely considered to be an excellent way to boost a person's lifetime earnings potential. But even if you can hack the academic rigor required to get a PhD, there may be good reason not to pursue such a degree: 1. A PhD takes twice as long as a bachelor's degree to complete. The average student takes 8.2 years to slog through a PhD program and is 33 years old before earning that top diploma. By that age, most Americans with mere bachelor's degree are well into establishing themselves professionally. 2. Professors will exploit you. It takes forever to earn a doctorate degree because graduate students are routinely treated like slaves. Grad students perform the grunt work that professors find distasteful, such as teaching undergraduates, grading papers, holding office hours, and playing mother hen to undergrads. And it's hard to say no to a professors' unreasonable demands because grad students needs faculty members on their side. 3. You could drop out.
