MS student here (maybe PhD in the future). This is exactly why I go to school. I enjoy the learning process. It's not about acquiring skills to make money, it's about learning interesting things in an interesting and creative environment where I'm free to explore to a certain extent. I think a reasonable way to describe it is that Google has 20% time, in school I have roughly 80% time to explore my interests.
Sure, I'm not making much money (people always bring this up). But who cares? HN is full of posts about how to live minimally, it's kind of a classic hacker challenge, right? I may need money someday, but right now I don't, so I might as well take advantage of the situation.
In Germany you get around 2000-2500 netto per month for doing a PhD. Its like an entry level engineering salary, but instead of working for someone else, you are working for your self (on your own PhD, which is a lot of fun). Furthermore, you are still a student, so you get all the student benefits available (really cheap transportation, cheaper food, cheaper sports, travels...).
That applies to some of the hard sciences (more precisely: engineering, as well as some branches of physics and chemistry), but not in general. PhD students in biology earn around 1400 after taxes; a philosopher or what have you is lucky to make any money at all.
This depends heavily on the country. In Denmark a PhD student in any discipline will earn a salary of about €2000/month after taxes. However the positions are somewhat more competitive as a result: professors have fewer PhD students at a time than American professors do, usually only one or two, sometimes three. The downside of that is that it's harder to get into grad school. But the upside is that the situation of lower ratios of PhD students to existing professors makes getting academic jobs after graduation easier, because the number of new PhDs graduating is not hugely out of proportion to the number of academic positions opening up.
A short time ago I started with my PhD in mathematics (in Germany, too). IMHO it's rather difficult to get a "Doktorandenstelle" (salary for doing PhD). The reason is that many universities are (in my opinion) underfunded. If you get one - lucky you.
The only other possibility for getting money for doing your PhD is trying to get a scholarship. If you aren't near to either a big religion or a political party (I'm not to any of both), there's virtually only "Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes" (German National Academic Foundation) which has really strict (and many people say: really strange) conditions of admission.
You do not get paid a lot in a PhD program. Where I am the pay is barely enough for one person to live on. There is also the time commitment -- a lot of programs demand 60 or more hours per week from their students. The combination basically means that starting a family is impossible while you are a PhD student, unless you have a spouse who has a comfortable income / family money.
If you do not mind a small adventure, consider moving to another country or continent. PhD positions in some countries (e.g. The Netherlands) are paid quite ok, with few distractions (usually fully focused on research), and a 40-hour work week.
Of course, there is good competition, so it might be harder to get such a position.
In Australia, with a scholarship and a few hours a week TAing during term time, I made enough to buy a half a million dollar apartment with my wife who was on a new-graduate nursing salary. She then got pregnant just as I finished up (good motivation to write fast, that was!)
YMMV but if you're thinking you're being used for cheap slave labour, you're in the wrong university.
I was a PhD student (I stopped to move to SF and work on startups- although now after 2 years I'm thinking of going back), and fwiw I enjoyed TA'ing. Grading papers was the worst part (but with a glass of beer and some motivating music it's not that bad), but I found everything else to be fairly rewarding.
You're right. I would just guess that most people are there there to learn and do research. And TA'ing takes away from that. But plenty of people do from PhD to teaching positions - in which case a TA'ship is perfect and gets your feet in the water.
I wouldn't necessarily agree that TA'ing takes away from teaching and learning. Many of the top researchers are also, in my experience, fantastic teachers.
>>MS student here (maybe PhD in the future). This is exactly why I go to school. I enjoy the learning process. It's not about acquiring skills to make money, it's about learning interesting things in an interesting and creative environment where I'm free to explore to a certain extent.
To me, this process started only after I left the safe and controlled environment that is college. Graduation was like someone lifting the veil: I suddenly started seeing with great clarity and had true freedom in terms of what I wanted to pursue learning (as opposed to only the illusion of freedom given in an academic setting).
I'd say the only advantage academia has is being surrounded by other smart people. Especially now that I live in Southern California, where big biceps are seen as more important than a capable mind, I miss the college environment a lot. But that's the only reason.
I'd say the only advantage academia has is being surrounded by other smart people.
I think you are missing one important advantage: in (good) universities, the environment is set up in such a manner that you can think and experiment all day without being bothered.
This is something I noticed profoundly when I started to work for a company after my PhD: in university there are relatively few distractions - the environment is set up so that you can think and experiment. A company is far more hectic, always has pressing deadlines, etc.
Both have their advantages: in a company there is more frequent gratification and you can leave your work at the door. In academia on the other hand, there is much more time to puzzle until things are really 'right'.
Sure, I'm not making much money (people always bring this up). But who cares? HN is full of posts about how to live minimally, it's kind of a classic hacker challenge, right? I may need money someday, but right now I don't, so I might as well take advantage of the situation.