Comments by "Dean Schulze" (@deanschulze3129) on "Why You (probably) Should Not Get A Master’s Degree In 2024" video.

If your masters program includes a graduate assistant stipend you have found a job. The pay is low and the hours will be long, but it's better than being unemployed. In 1990 I was working on my PhD in physics, and the job market for PhD physicists collapsed when the cold war ended. There were hundreds of applicants for any postdoc position, and nothing in the private sector. In fact if you had a PhD in physics you were unemployable in the private sector and had to lie about not having a PhD in order to be considered at all. With no job prospects I procrastinated for a few more years because I still had my graduate research assistant stipend. I was able to move into software development because I had done so much programming for my graduate research. The mid 1990s were the best of times in software with the arrival of the internet, and the worst of times for PhD physicists. Take a graduate assistant position if you can get one.
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@zelim9514 Academia has always exploited graduate students, postdocs, and adjunct professors. Tenured professors can have a good career. The operative word is "can", not all do. The real winners in academia are administrators, like Vice Presidents of DEI.
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@PhthaloJohnson - What job do graduate students who are doing their PhD research have if graduate assistants don't exist any more?
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@CatherineIves - That's very true. But learning physics at the graduate level is still worthwhile. Just go into it with realistic expectations. You may end up working in a field that does not require a MS physics, and if you go into academia you'll be part of the money chase and paper mill.
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