is chemistry phd worth it

Why You Should Get a PhD in Chemistry

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If you are interested in chemistry or another science career , there are multiple reasons why you should consider pursuing your doctorate or Ph.D., rather than stopping at a master's degree or a bachelor's degree.

Let's start with a compelling reason for higher education -- money. There is no guarantee that having a terminal degree will earn the big bucks (don't get into science for money), but there are several states and companies that compute salaries based on education. The education can count for several years of experience. In some situations, a Ph.D. has access to a pay scale not offered to persons without the terminal degree, no matter how much experience he or she has.

More Career Options

In the US, you can't teach college-level courses without at least 18 graduate hours in the same field of study. However, Ph.D.s technically can teach college courses in any field. In academia, a Master's degree may provide a glass ceiling for advancement, especially to management positions. The terminal degree offers more research options, including some lab management positions not available otherwise, as well as post-doctoral positions.

In addition to getting the 'Doctor' in front of your name, having a Ph.D. commands a certain level of respect, particularly in scientific and academic circles. There are individuals who feel a Ph.D. is pretentious, but with work experience too, even these folk usually concede a Ph.D. is an expert in his or her field.

More Affordable Education

If you are seeking a Master's degree, you will probably have to pay for it. On the other hand, teaching and research assistantships and tuition reimbursement usually are available for doctoral candidates. It would cost a school or research facility considerably more money to pay outright for such skilled labor. Don't feel you have to get a Master's degree before pursuing a Doctorate. Different schools have different requirements, but a Bachelor's degree is usually sufficient to get admitted into a Ph.D. program.

It's Easier to Start Your Own Company

You don't need a terminal degree to start a business, but credibility comes with that Ph.D., giving you a leg up gaining investors and creditors. Lab equipment isn't cheap, so don't expect people to invest in you unless they believe you know what you're doing.

Reasons Not to Get a Ph.D. in Chemistry

While there are good reasons to pursue a doctoral degree, it's not for everyone. Here are reasons not to get a Ph.D. or at least to delay it.

Long Term Low Income

You probably didn't finish your bachelor's and master's degree with a lot of excess cash. It might be in your best interest to give your finances a break and start working.

You Need a Break

Don't go into a Ph.D. program if you already feel burnt out, since it will take a lot out of you. If you don't have energy and a good attitude when you start, you probably won't see it through to the end or you may get your degree but not enjoy chemistry anymore.

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Survey of Ph.D. Programs in Chemistry

By Joel Shulman

How does your chemistry Ph.D. program compare to others in terms of department size and student demographics? Requirements for the degree? Graduate student progression and support? Developing skills that go beyond knowledge of chemistry? Answers to these questions and many others can be gleaned from the Survey of Ph.D. Programs in Chemistry recently reported by the ACS Committee on Professional Training (CPT) . Highlights of the survey are given here.

View the full report

The primary objective of the CPT is to facilitate the maintenance and improvement of the quality of chemical education at the postsecondary level. Not only does the Committee develop and administer the guidelines that define high-quality undergraduate education, but it also produces resources such as the ACS Directory of Graduate Education and publishes data on undergraduate and graduate education. Approximately every ten years, CPT fields a survey of Ph.D. programs. The latest survey solicited data from all 196 Ph.D. programs in chemistry and received usable information (base year, 2007) from 139 of these programs.

Figure 1. Size Distribution of Ph.D. Programs

Program size and demographics of students

The 139 reporting Ph.D. programs are divided for purposes of comparison into three groups of approximately equal size according to the total number of graduate students in the program: 44 small (defined as 0 to 40 total graduate students), 46 medium (41 to 105 graduate students), and 49 large programs (106+ graduate students). The number of students in Ph.D. programs ranges from 0 to 394 (see Figure 1) with a total of 13,280 students. Eighteen departments have more than 200 students, accounting for more than one-third (4,460) of the total graduate students in chemistry. The 30 largest programs account for almost 50% of graduate students. The average program size is 96 students (and 23 faculty), while the median program size is 67 students.

Of the doctoral students in responding programs, 27.4% are women, 5.2% are underrepresented minorities, and 42.3% are international students (Table 1). Small programs tend to have a higher percentage of underrepresented minority students (averaging 7.8%), while large programs have a higher percentage of women (28.5%) and a lower percentage of international students (37.3%).

Table 1. Demographics of Graduate Students by Program Size

Requirements for degree (Table 2)

Of course, a doctoral dissertation is required by all Ph.D. programs. Most (71%) graduate programs require entering graduate students to take placement exams, although this requirement tends to be less prevalent as program size increases. The average program requires a minimum of 20 credits (semester hours, corrected for programs on the quarter system) of coursework, a number that does not vary significantly by program size. In addition to course work and dissertation, 96% of programs require at least one of the following: cumulative examinations (58%), an oral preliminary exam (54%), a comprehensive oral exam (50%), and/or a comprehensive written exam (31%). All four of these exams are required by 7% of programs; 17% of programs require three; 43% of programs require two; and 28% require only one. Large programs require cumulative exams less often and oral exams more often than small or medium programs. Only four programs (3%) require students to pass a language exam for the Ph.D.

Table 2. Requirement in Ph.D. Program

Graduate Student Progression and Support (Table 3)

The mean time to the Ph.D. is 5.1 years, a number that varies neither by program size nor by public vs. private institution (data not shown). Most programs place a limit on the amount of time allowed to achieve a Ph.D. (average of 7.8 years) as well as on the number of years of departmental support allowed a student (average of 5.9 years). More than 80% of students choose a research advisor within six months of entering graduate school. A significant number of programs either require or permit laboratory rotations before a final advisor is selected.

Monetary support for Ph.D. students comes from teaching assistantships more often than from research assistantships at small and medium programs, while the reverse is true in large programs. There is wide variation in TA stipends, depending on both program size and geographic location. Most programs have a range of stipends, which on average run from $18,000 to about $20,000 per year. Teaching assistants at larger programs are more likely to teach discussion (recitation) sections than those in small or medium programs.

Table 3. Student Progression and Support in Ph.D. Programs

Developing Student Skills

In addition to chemistry knowledge and laboratory skills, it is important that all Ph.D. chemists develop skills in areas such as critical thinking, oral and written communication, and teamwork. Toward this end, 74% of all programs require students to create and defend an original research proposal (Table 2). All but six programs require students to make presentations (exclusive of the thesis defense) to audiences other than their research group; the average number of required presentations is 2.4, with little variation by program size. When asked whether any graduate students receive student-skills training outside of formal course work, 67% responded that at least some students receive specific training in communications; 59% in ethics/scientific integrity; 43% in grant writing; 37% in mentoring; 37% in intellectual property/patents; and 18% in business/economics. Students in large programs are more likely to receive some training in these skill areas than are students in other programs.

The data from this CPT survey provide a snapshot of graduate student demographics, requirements for the degree, and progression and support in chemistry Ph.D. programs. Survey results highlight similarities and differences among small, medium, and large programs across the country.

Dr. Joel I. Shulman retired as The Procter & Gamble Company's Manager of Doctoral Recruiting and University Relations in 2001 and is now an adjunct professor of chemistry at the University of Cincinnati. He serves the ACS as a consultant for the Office of Graduate Education and the Department of Career Management and Development and as a member of the Committee on Professional Training.

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Chemistry Degrees: Worth it or Useless for Getting a Job?

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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A chemistry degree can be worth it for many people because it leads to a range of well-paid and in-demand careers.

Be be aware that university-level chemistry is reasonably tough, so it’s best to make your choice based on interest as well as future job prospects.

In this article we’ll look at how much money you can make in a chemistry career, what majors you can study , and what you’ll learn .

What Is a Chemistry Degree?

A chemistry degree prepares students in both practical and theoretical skills in chemical analysis. You will learn via laboratory and lecture-based courses in mathematics and natural sciences.

As a chemistry major, students obtain viable grounding in lab work, solid interdisciplinary science education, and higher-level mathematic skills.

Chemistry students explore the structures and properties of compounds and compositions. It’s valuable for students who want to work in chemical engineering and environmental science.

According to this report , this degree is awarded to over 22,000 graduates across the United States annually.

Cities with the biggest concentration of Chemistry degree recipients are:

Pros and Cons of a Chemistry Degree

This major is often referred to as the “central science” due to its powerful insights into the natural sciences. But, just like any degree out there, it too has its pros and cons.

1. Benefits of a Chemistry Degree

A chemistry degree has a plethora of benefits. Here are the perks of investing in a degree such as this one.

• There are jobs out there for Chemistry graduates. Roughly 9,100 job openings for materials scientists and chemists are estimated to become available annually. You will be working in an office or laboratory and enjoy a typical schedule with regular working hours.
• You will gain key research skills, writing, and critical thinking skills. These are paired with collaborative problem-solving skills, which are a valuable component to succeed in the current marketplace.
• There are plenty of chances to do advanced study. These include going on to do a Ph.D. and M.S. degree program.
• University is a great phase of life for socializing and building a network of like-minded individuals.
• You get the chance to conduct research projects in various areas of chemistry.

2. Negatives of a Chemistry Degree

There are many reasons people would choose not to pursue this career path. These cons include:

• Job stress in the chemistry field is often a real problem. Sometimes the tight deadlines can put people on edge.
• You would need to topple the competition in terms of success, efficiency, and dedication. The highly competitive environment can be tough mentally.
• Sometimes, you would need to relocate to different places, depending on the job. Exposure to volatile organic compounds or other chemicals. Although chemists are trained in handling dangerous materials, accidents and misuse can happen. This can be hazardous to their health. Based on a survey , 25% to 38% of lab personnel evaluated stated they’ve been in an accident in the lab or injured on the job without reporting it to a supervisor.

What Jobs Can You Get With A Chemistry Degree?

Getting a degree in chemistry paves the way for a plethora of job opportunities, from a college lecturer to food scientist and materials engineer.

If you are eager to pursue a career in this field, here is a quick look at some of the jobs you can get with your degree.

For some of the above options, you’ll need to go on to do further specialized studies after your bachelor in chemistry degree.

What Chemistry Majors Are There?

A chemist can make a valuable contribution across different industries. But, picking a major remains one of the most crucial aspects to selecting a career path. Here are the common majors you can pursue.

What Are The Requirements For Chemistry Degrees?

To get admitted to a chemistry major in a state university in the United States, students are usually expected to have about a 2.78 average GPA. However, a good GPA score is 3.0 or higher. Getting into higher-ranked schools, a solid GPA ranges from 3.44 to 3.65. That includes options like Duke University or Brown University.

To get into Harvard or other top universities in the region, then a good GPA must exceed 4.15. To get admitted to Yale University, you would need a 4.4 GPA score. While for Columbia University, a 4.12 GPA score should be your top priority.

What Is the Average Salary For Chemistry Graduates?

For a Graduate Chemist in the U.S., the average yearly pay in 2021 is $44,600 or $21 /hour. About 5% of jobs earn less than that, from $25,500 to $29,999. While some recruiters offer pay as high as $75,000 or more.

Your pay often varies based on your location. The pay is subjective according to where you work and how good your qualifications are.

The top cities where the pay for a Graduate Chemist is over the national average are Richmond (California), Stamford (Connecticut), and Bellevue (Washington).

But, with the current market, it can be difficult to land a job. Going into dentistry, for example, can be a more lucrative, although highly different, career path. There is a 19% career growth predicted in the dental field, whereas working in chemistry remains a competitive environment

In my opinion, every field has its ups and downs. So, it’s best to choose something that you feel comfortable with and excited about pursuing.

Skills Learned in a Chemistry Degree

1. soft skills.

• Interpersonal skills
• Analytic skills
• Assessing structures and patterns
• Evaluating results
• Applying logic to problems
• Adaptability
• Strong work ethic
• Maintaining accuracy and precision

2. Hard Skills

• Molecular mathematics
• Polished writing and verbal communication skills
• Extensive research capabilities
• Technical skills
• Designing and presenting
• Explaining complicated topics to non-technical & technical audiences

Final Verdict: Are Chemistry Degree Worth It Or Worthless?

On balance, chemistry degrees are (in my opinion) one of the better degrees to obtain. They directly lead to employment in specific in-demand fields, and the pay generally ends up being higher than the national average after a few years of experience. However, the question you need to ask yourself is whether the degree will lead to a profession that will be satisfying and help you to live a happy life.

Do Further Research on your Degree Choices:

• Is a Liberal Arts Degree Worth It?
• Is a Chemistry Degree Worth It?
• Is an Engineering Degree Worth It?
• Is a Business Degree Worth It?
• Is a Finance Degree Worth It?
• The 6 Types of Degrees
• 15 Jobs you can Get with a Teaching Degree
• Is a Computer Science Degree Worth It?
• Is an Economics Degree Worth It?
• 17 Types of Bachelor Degrees

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 10 Reasons you’re Perpetually Single
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10 Top PhD Programs in Chemistry in 2024

A PhD program in Chemistry can equip you with a range of professional skills and advanced knowledge in the field. With a doctorate in chemistry on your resume, you’ll be able to find prestigious jobs in research labs, industry, academia, or government.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual salary of chemists and material scientists is $79,760 , and jobs are estimated to grow by 6%  over the next decade, in line with growth prospects for all professions.

Which of the best PhD programs in Chemistry is right for you?

Read on to learn about the best programs, including essential information like tuition, acceptance rates, and whether you can get a degree online or not.

Table of Contents

Top PhD Programs in Chemistry

1. massachusetts institute of technology.

PhD in Chemistry

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been ranked first in the nation  for Chemistry, so it’s no surprise that this is one of the best PhD in Chemistry programs. The program is flexible because students can choose courses based on their long-term research goals.

• Courses include: Principles of inorganic chemistry, crystal structure refinement, and heterocyclic chemistry.
• Credits: 48
• Duration: 4 years +
• Tuition:  Full funding
• Financial aid: Fellowships, teaching assistantships, and research assistantships.
• Delivery: On-campus
• Acceptance rate: 7.3%
• Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

2. Stanford University, School of Humanities and Sciences

Stanford University is one of the world’s leading research institutions with innovative and flexible programs. This chemistry PhD program is world-class with a cross-disciplinary approach, collaborating with various other departments and institutes.

• Courses include: Advanced inorganic chemistry, organic polyfunctional compounds, and chemical principles.
• Duration: 5 years
• Tuition: Refer tuition page
• Financial aid: Research assistantship, teaching assistantship, fellowships, grants, and loans.
• Acceptance rate: 5.2%
• Location: Stanford, California

3. California Institute of Technology, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Caltech’s Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering is renowned for its large number of faculty members conducting leading research in chemistry, biochemistry, and chemical engineering. This chemistry doctoral program aims to develop students’ creative and original research abilities.

• Courses include: Bioinorganic chemistry, organic reaction mechanisms, and advanced quantum chemistry.
• Duration: 5.5 years average
• Tuition : $56,364
• Financial aid: Scholarships, grants, work-study, fellowships, assistantships, and loans.
• Acceptance rate: 6.7%
• Location: Pasadena, California

4. Harvard University, The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Harvard University’s faculty in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology division includes several Nobel and Welch Award laureates conducting research in various areas of interest in chemistry. In this PhD program for chemistry, students can pursue interdisciplinary research in various institutes and research centers in the Boston area.

• Courses include: Advanced organic chemistry, materials chemistry, and advanced inorganic chemistry.
• Duration: 5-6 years
• Tuition: Full funding
• Financial aid: Scholarships, research assistantships, and fellowships.
• Acceptance rate: 5%

5. Northwestern University, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences emphasizes interdisciplinary thinking that is adaptive, flexible, and practical in the context of the modern world. This chemistry PhD program aims to provide students with a strong foundation in chemistry and valuable exposure to research projects important to wider society.

• Courses include: Organic chemistry, physical/analytical chemistry, and biological chemistry.
• Financial aid: Fellowships, graduate assistantships, and loans.
• Acceptance rate: 9.3%
• Location: Evanston, Illinois

6. Yale University, Department of Chemistry

Yale is one of the most acclaimed universities in the world, with a diverse student population, including 22%  international students from a total of 115 different nations . This flexible PhD chemistry program allows students to choose their areas of study based on their research subjects rather than maintaining a rigid course list.

• Courses include: Fundamentals of transition metal chemistry, bioinorganic spectroscopy, and organic structures & energetics.
• Financial aid: Stipends, fellowships, and grants.
• Acceptance rate: 6.5%
• Location: New Haven, Connecticut

7. The University of Chicago, Department of Chemistry

The chemistry department was one of the University of Chicago’s first departments to be inaugurated and currently has a strong faculty in organic, inorganic, and physical chemistry, as well as interdisciplinary studies. This is also one of the most flexible Chemistry PhD programs in the country, allowing you to study from different departments as well as giving you the freedom to choose your areas of study.

• Courses include: Complex chemical systems, chemical biology, and chemical dynamics.
• Tuition : $63,936
• Financial aid: Fellowships, research assistantships, health insurance, grants, scholarships, work-study, and loans.
• Location: Chicago, Illinois

8. Princeton University, Department of Chemistry

Princeton University’s prestigious Frick Chemistry Laboratory encourages faculty and students to conduct collaborative and interdisciplinary research in the field. This doctorate degree in chemistry encourages students to pursue individualized studies and conduct original research in specific areas of chemistry.

• Courses include: Advanced quantum chemistry, biophysical chemistry, and synthetic organic chemistry.
• Tuition : $57,410
• Financial aid: Assistantships, fellowships, work-study, veteran benefits, and loans.
• Acceptance rate: 5.6%
• Location: Princeton, New Jersey

9. The University of California, Berkeley, College of Chemistry

The University of California was founded with a vision for a better future and is well-known as a pioneer in various areas, including diversity and free speech. This graduate program offers three concentrations: physical chemistry, synthetic chemistry, and chemical biology.

• Courses include: Chemical kinetics, coordination chemistry, and organic reactions.
• Tuition : $14,476
• Financial aid: Fellowships, teaching assistantships, research assistantships, grants, and loans.
• Acceptance rate: 17.5%
• Location: Berkeley, California

10. Cornell University, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Cornell’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology has a history of discovery and innovation and boasts Nobel laureates as well as National Academy Members among its faculty. The TATP (Teaching Assistant Training Program) is an integral part of this PhD program, and a satisfactory performance in this program is a mandatory part of the doctorate.

• Courses include: Engineering general chemistry, principles of organic chemistry, and physical chemistry of proteins.
• Financial aid: Teaching assistantship, research assistantship, fellowships, grants, stipend, and health insurance.
• Acceptance rate: 10.7%
• Location: Ithaca, New York

What Do You Need To Get a PhD in Chemistry?

To be admitted as a PhD candidate , you’ll generally need a master’s in chemistry or a related field. As part of the application process, you’ll typically need to submit academic transcripts, letters of recommendation, GRE scores, and a personal statement or research proposal.

Other documentation may be required depending on the program you want to apply for, so check the requirements with the admissions office.

Most PhD in chemistry programs involve a mix of coursework, which may cover chemistry courses and related sciences, and a research thesis or dissertation.

To earn your doctorate in chemistry, you typically also need to participate in seminars, pass oral and written exams, and complete a teaching assistantship.

Preparing for a Chemistry Doctorate Program

A PhD in chemistry is a technical, relatively-difficult advanced degree, so it’s important to prepare well to get the best results. Ahead of commencing, or even applying for the program, familiarize yourself with the latest developments and research in the field.

It can be a good idea to join professional associations, take advantage of other networking opportunities, and seek out extra-curricular activities in the field. Practical experience can also be very valuable, so try to work in a lab if possible.

Things To Consider When Choosing a Chemistry PhD Program

There are a range of chemistry doctorate programs offered by different institutions and covering several different concentrations. Before choosing the right program for you, it’s important to carefully consider your interests, passions, and career goals in order to decide on your preferred area of study.

From there, look for strong programs in this discipline with renowned faculty specializing in your area of interest.

Other key factors to consider include the following:

• Mode of delivery: on-campus, online, or hybrid
• School location, accessibility, and affordability to live in the area if you’re planning on studying on campus
• Program costs, including not only tuition but also fees and other expenses
• Financial aid options

Why Get a Doctorate in Chemistry?

A PhD in chemistry is one of the most in-demand and highest-paying PhDs . Graduates with a PhD chemistry are highly employable, with most finding roles in private industry. According to Duke University , from their 242 candidates, 118 were employed in business/industry, and Boston University  also tells us that most PhD Chemistry holders are employed in the private sector.

The benefits of studying for a doctorate in chemistry include:

• High level of prestige
• Many chemistry PhD programs are fully-funded or offer access significant to financial aid
• Wide range of job prospects in academia, research, and management
• Access to senior leadership positions and opportunities to manage research projects

Jobs you can land with a PhD in Chemistry include:

• Post-doctoral Research Assistant ( $52,672 )
• Chemical Materials Scientist ( $130,008 )
• Professor of Chemistry ( $94,914 )
• Development Chemist ( $59,802 )
• Director of Research ( $107,150 )

The tuition for a PhD in chemistry can range from $10,000 to $70,000 based on various factors, with public schools being much more affordable than private schools. On top of tuition, you also need to consider other expenses, such as fees, study materials, and living expenses. However, many chemistry doctorates offer scholarships, grants, and even full funding.

For most programs, you’ll take around five years to complete a chemistry PhD when studying full-time. However, it can take up to seven years or even longer in some cases.

What Skills Do You Gain When Doing a Ph.D. in Chemistry?

You’ll build a range of advanced skills as part of a PhD in Chemistry program, most notably:

• Research skills
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Mentoring and teaching skills
• Leadership skills
• Organizational skills

PhD in Chemistry FAQs

How long does a phd in chemistry take.

A PhD in Chemistry takes five years to complete on average, though the duration can typically be anywhere between three and seven years.

Which Field of Chemistry Is Best for a PhD?

There is no single field that is best for a PhD in Chemistry. The best option for you will depend on your preferences, interests, and career ambitions. Common specializations include organic,         inorganic, physical, analytical, and computational chemistry.

What Can You Do With a PhD in Chemistry?

A PhD in chemistry is typically considered the most advanced degree in this scientific field and opens up a range of positions in academia, research, and the private sector. Positions for graduates with PhD doctorates include lecturers, professors, research leaders, environmental scientists, and materials scientists.

Is It Hard To Get a PhD in Chemistry?

Given that chemistry is a highly technical field and a PhD is an advanced degree, it’s not surprising that a PhD in chemistry is an in-depth, involved, and relatively-challenging degree. There’s no denying that you’ll need a background in the field and a certain degree of dedication to earn your doctorate in chemistry, but it’s certainly not impossible with some hard work and a little passion!

Key Takeaways

A PhD in chemistry is a valuable, advanced degree that opens up a wide range of career prospects, including senior-level positions in research, industry, and academia. There are a number of high-quality PhD programs in chemistry offered by renowned institutions across the country, covering a range of disciplines and including both on-campus and online programs .

Be clear on your areas of interest and career objectives, do your research to choose the best program for you, and you can’t go wrong!

For more options, look at our guide to the best online PhD programs , or if you’re ready to start preparing your application, check out our ultimate grad school test guide .

Lisa Marlin

Lisa is a full-time writer specializing in career advice, further education, and personal development. She works from all over the world, and when not writing you'll find her hiking, practicing yoga, or enjoying a glass of Malbec.

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• Doing a PhD in Chemistry

A PhD in Chemistry aims to prepare highly qualified researchers who are able to bring about new advances in the chemistry fields, including Chemical Engineering, Materials Science and Nanoscience etc. In other words, the core objective of a Chemistry PhD is to train researchers to join or lead research groups in universities, independent R&D departments other public or private organisations to meet the growing demands of society.

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In-situ disposal of cementitious wastes at uk nuclear sites, capturing vibration to drive chemical change, development of fluorescent organic molecules for application in super-resolution imaging techniques, atomic layer deposition of novel nanolayer materials for solar cells, coventry university postgraduate research studentships, what does a phd in chemistry involve.

As a research student, your daily activities will largely depend on two factors: what your specific research project is and what training objectives your department sets.

In short, your daily activities will focus on advancing your project, such as designing and conducting experiments, preparing your thesis and attending conferences etc., all while achieving your training objectives. Although training objectives vary from department to department, you can expect them to include outcomes such as:

• Ability to independently devise, plan and carry out scientific research projects.
• Acquire the skills to integrate effectively into any R&D team in the chemical sciences and technologies fields.
• The ability to advise public and private institutions from a scientific and technical perspective.
• To contribute to the development of knowledge, the latest techniques and instrumentation in relation to your specific field of specialisation.
• Ability to update their scientific and technical expertise autonomously and continuously.

Since almost all doctoral degrees in chemistry are highly laboratory-based, your research will likely see you using advanced and innovative equipment. Depending on your research topic and your universities facilities, you may have to opportunity to use, for example, a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer (NMR), Electron Spin Resonance Spectrometer (EPR), Infrared-Raman Fourier Spectrophotometer (FT-IR), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometer (ICP) as part of your research.

Lines of Research

As with most STEM subject PhDs, the potential research themes encompassing Chemistry PhDs are numerous; a School of Chemistry may traditionally base their research around the areas of Physical and Theoretical, Organic and Biological and Materials and Inorganic Chemistry.

Academic staff at your particular institution will also have a broad range of research interests they want to pursue, and it’s common to find postgraduate research students involved in a range of projects that overlap with the other sciences.

The following list, whilst not exhaustive, should give you an idea of how many topics you could choose from as part of your doctorate:

• Physical Chemistry,
• Medicinal Chemistry,
• Theoretical Chemistry,
• Materials Chemistry,
• Environmental Chemistry,
• Structural Chemistry,
• Biological Chemistry ,
• Computational Chemistry,
• Supramolecular Chemistry,
• Organometallic Chemistry,
• Atmospheric Chemistry.

Within these topics, there will be numerous specialist areas, one of which will form the central focus of your original research project. Examples of these specialist areas are:

• Electrochemical Sensors and Biosensors,
• Liquid chromatography and electrophoresis,
• Basic and technological aspects of ceramic materials,
• Organometallic chemistry and catalysis,
• Asymmetric catalysis with metal complexes and organocatalysis,
• Organic chemistry of metal compounds,
• Synthesis of pharmacologically interesting compounds from chiral precursors,
• Distereo- and enantioselective synthesis of biologically active natural products,
• Photoactive molecules, macromolecules and nanoparticles.

How long does it take to get a PhD in Chemistry?

In the UK, a full-time doctoral student usually takes 3 years to complete their postgraduate study, while part-time study will usually take closer to 6 years.

Most Chemistry PhD students will first register as MPhil students , after which they will complete an upgrade viva after 18 months before they are officially registered as a PhD student. While your supervisor will provide mentorship, it’s ultimately the responsibility of postgraduate students to ensure their project and studies run on time and that they meet their agreed deadlines.

What are the typical entry requirements for a Chemistry PhD Programme?

Most UK universities require at least a 2:1 undergraduate masters degree or the equivalent grade from a university outside the UK. The degree must be in a field that is directly relevant or that can demonstrate your understanding of chemistry as a graduate student to the level expected of your prospective supervisor .

If English is not your first language, you will be expected to meet the English language requirements of the university where you applied to prove your proficiency. This usually means obtaining formal English language qualifications such as an IELTS, which, for research programmes, typically requires a minimum test score of 6.5 as part of your application.

How much does a Chemistry PhD cost?

As a postgraduate researcher in the UK, you should expect annual tuition fees of around £4,500 per academic year . Part-time students should expect approximately half this fee at £2,250 per academic year.

For international students, including now-EU students, the annual tuition fee is considerably higher; for example, the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham sets international fees at £23,580/year, equating to over £70,500 assuming your PhD project takes three years to complete.

As with every PhD degree, potential students will need to consider additional costs such as living costs and any bench fees that may be expected from their respective project or graduate school. It’s a good idea to discuss these with your potential supervisors before starting your postgraduate degree.

Funding opportunities

Several funding opportunities are available for a Chemistry PhD research project. The opportunities include:

• Government funding eg. UKRI BBSRC , EPSRC, ESRC, GATEway for research degrees.
• Industry funding eg. AstraZeneca, BP, NC3D, (UK) DSTL (USA), assuming the topic of your PhD study aligns with their research interests.
• Independent funding eg. Grants or Specialist Institutes for research projects in Chemistry or other scientific fields supporting the PhD programme.
• Research charities eg. Cancer Research, MacMillan.
• University funding eg. Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) funding in the form of scholarships/studentships which cover tuition fees and, in some cases, also provide a living allowance.

Thesis grants may also be available to assist with the costs of writing and presenting your thesis at an overseas conference or workshop. These can be awarded directly by institutions or even employers as part of a career development scheme.

What can you do with a PhD in Chemistry?

A PhD degree in Chemistry opens up a wide range of career opportunities, both within academia and industry.

Many graduates follow a career path of becoming postdoctoral researchers, then lecturers and possibly a professor of Chemistry too. Others may see their PhD projects linking with industry partners of the university, naturally leading to opportunities there. This may see graduates going on to work within the chemical engineering field, becoming materials scientists or working within environmental sciences.

With this in mind, the most common career paths after a PhD in Chemistry are:

• University Lecturer A university lecturer may teach and run courses but may also advise on undergraduate study or research, supervise students, and be involved in developing education programs.
• Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship Most chemistry PhDs go on to secure a post-doctoral position within an institution such as a university, governmental department, research charity or a Commercial Research Organisation (CRO).
• Environmental Scientist An Environmental Scientist conducts research to assess and control the impact of human activity on the environment.
• Patent Attorney A patent attorney is often employed by organisations that develop new technology. They are responsible for drafting the application for patents to protect a client’s intellectual property rights, focusing on chemical compounds, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology products.

• Cosmetic Chemist The Personal Care industry employs over 500,000 people in the UK alone and is an expanding market in the UK and global economy. The ingredients used in these products are often chemical compounds with large molecular structure, which is why they are typically developed by a chemist or chemist-biologist.
• Process Engineer (Chemical Industry) A Process Engineer works on designing chemical processes and equipment to increase efficiency and profitability for an organisation. The role requires extensive knowledge of chemical engineering practices, operating conditions, instrumentation and mathematical techniques.

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• Jul 22, 2022
• 11 min read

Is a PhD Worth It? The Pros and Cons of Getting a Doctorate

To get a PhD or not to get a PhD? That is the question.

Valerie David

Lifestyle and Career Expert

Reviewed by Hayley Ramsey

Entering the job market for the first time can be a stressful experience, especially if you don't feel completely prepared. When deciding how to take those first steps toward your ultimate career , and how to give yourself a chance at the best jobs, you may find yourself asking: “Should I do a PhD?”.

While academics looking forward to a life of learning may consider this a no-brainer, there are important factors for everyone to consider. Finances, job prospects and quality of life issues can greatly affect the success of furthering your education.

To help you decide if the time and effort of a PhD is worth it, here are the major benefits and disadvantages of getting that doctorate.

After four or more years of intellectual pursuits, adding a PhD may seem like overkill. Before you make your choice, let's look at all the benefits that are exclusive to earning the most advanced degree.

1. You can contribute new knowledge to the world

Embarking on a PhD programme means delving into your preferred subject in a much deeper way than you have in any of your previous studies. The beauty of this advanced degree is that it allows you to sail in uncharted waters. Your goal is to find new information, draw new conclusions and, hopefully, make a significant contribution to your field.

Your intensive research, travel, collaboration and study will lead you on an unpredictable path to telling a story that no one has heard before. For some students, this pursuit of knowledge and discovery is enough to make all the hard work of earning a PhD worth it.

2. You'll have access to more prestigious jobs

One of the key benefits of a PhD is that it opens doors to careers at the highest levels. This can include leadership positions in science and engineering, government roles in economics and political science, and prestigious teaching posts for English and arts majors. Even if an advanced degree isn't required for the job you want, that PhD can give you an extra air of authority in your field and an edge over other candidates.

Another obvious upside to continuing your postgraduate studies is that landing these powerful positions can lead to large financial rewards. Some areas of study, like medicine and the law, tend to be more lucrative, but it can also depend on the type of job. For example, a university professor or researcher post can pay well for a wide variety of disciplines. Check out sites like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Careers Service to investigate potential salaries.

3. Employers look for candidates with your superior writing skills

A study arranged by the National Commission on Writing discovered that blue-chip businesses (long-standing companies with stable stock growth) are spending more than $3 billion a year on remedial writing course for current employees. This includes staff with undergraduate degrees.

So, when a hiring manager peruses your résumé and sees that you've earned a PhD, they'll know immediately that you've spent years honing your skills at compiling research, organizing mountains of data and writing about your results in a cohesive and persuasive way. This will clearly set you apart from your competition, while landing your dream job will prove that pursuing that advanced degree was worth it.

4. You'll improve on all your soft skills

While pursuing your undergraduate degree, you likely noticed that you were learning more than just the subject matter taught in each class. Completing your studies also required time management skills , focus and problem solving .

Getting a doctorate degree requires even more of the soft skills that employers look for in applicants . Your intensive study and finished thesis should lead to improvements in your problem solving, critical thinking , patience and adaptability . These desirable skills won't just help you land a job but also excel in whatever career you choose to pursue .

5. You'll collect an extensive network of professional colleagues

When weighing the pros and cons of earning a PhD, consider all the professional contacts you'll make during the course of your studies. Working closely with professors, department heads, experts in your field, as well as fellow researchers, helps you develop an important resource. This network of colleagues can provide continual assistance with references, job leads, career advice and collaboration.

6. You can wait for a more favorable job market

Job prospects may not look that promising when you've completed your undergraduate degree, or even after you've been in the workforce for a few years. While there's no guarantee things will improve after a delay, some students may appreciate the benefit of a steady graduate assistant salary while they work on enhancing their résumé with a doctorate.

If you couldn't get a good internship during or after your undergrad studies, the PhD work also gives you the time to build that professional network . These contacts could prove to be the key to breaking into a specialized or highly competitive field.

You may still be thinking about all that time and commitment and wondering, “Is a PhD worth it?”. While there are always positive results from improving your education, there are some downsides to getting your doctorate.

1. It's expensive

This is a substantial factor for many students when weighing the merits of pursuing a PhD versus entering the job market right away. If you already have student loans , continuing your education will just increase your burden and add substantial pressure when you eventually begin your job search.

If cost is a concern, investigate graduate assistant jobs that help with expenses. Some programmes offer tuition assistance in return for teaching or research work. For those who already work full time and are hoping a PhD will help them advance in their career, consider keeping that job and pursuing your studies on a part-time basis.

2. Getting a PhD can be a lonely experience

Despite your interactions with professors and other students, pursuing a doctoral degree is ultimately a solitary pursuit. Your thesis topic is unique to you, and you'll spend a lot of time alone doing research and writing. Your social life can suffer, especially if you're also working in addition to your studies.

Career experts often talk about the necessity of work-life balance for physical and mental health, and this is just as important for PhD students as anyone else. It may take you a little longer to complete your degree, but it's worth taking the time to visit family and hang out with your friends. These positive interactions can help you stay motivated through the most tedious parts of your work.

3. You'll experience extreme stress and frustration

Pursuing a PhD may seem like a noble and interesting endeavor, and extended life as a student can appear more attractive than wading into the job market. You must be aware, however, that getting a doctorate can be a very stressful and frustrating experience.

A topic that seemed intriguing at first may not live up to years of scrutiny, causing boredom at best or requiring a complete thesis change at worst. Not all programmes are well-run, either, and you may have a supervisor who is too critical, offers poor advice or is just unavailable and unhelpful.

The difficulties of a PhD programme lead to rather substantial dropout rates. In the US alone, only 57% of PhD students obtained their degree within a decade of enrolling. If you want to be in the successful half of those stats, take extra time to review your choice of supervisor and topic focus. Ask every professor you have for advice on making the right decisions and talk with current graduate students to see what their experience has been.

4. There may be limited job openings

While getting a PhD can qualify you for better and higher-paying jobs , it can also put you in a position where you're competing for an extremely limited number of job openings. This is especially true of university jobs, where the number of advanced degree graduates far outpaces the need for full-time instructors, researchers and administrators.

Earning your PhD with a very obscure thesis in a niche speciality can also limit your options. When there are only a handful of jobs that suit your expertise, and they're already occupied, it can make you feel that your doctorate was a waste of time. Consider the job market before you make decisions about getting another degree. If you're determined to study in a niche area, think ahead of time about related fields or industries where your knowledge and skills will also prove useful to employers.

5. There may be little to no financial reward

While most studies concur that having a PhD increases your income potential substantially over the lifetime of your career, it's not a guarantee of job security or a financial windfall. A study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that 5 years after earning their doctorates , 45% of grads in Germany were still on temporary contracts and 13% ended up in lowly occupations.

Other European countries, including Slovakia, Belgium and Spain, had similar results. In the US, in fields like engineering, the difference in pay scales between employees with a master's degree and a PhD was a mere 7%. When that small bump in salary is weighed against the amount of debt taken on in order to get your degree, you may decide it's not worth it.

6. You could lose out on valuable job experience

New forms of technology continue to change how organizations operate, and those changes can happen fast. If you've already spent several years in school, toiling away in solitary study of obscure subjects can cause you to fall further behind in learning the skills you'll actually need for a future career.

Before you invest in getting a PhD, research your chosen field and learn which type of degree will give you the most value. Many scientific, financial and computing careers rely more on skills acquired on the job, rather than in coursework that can quickly become outdated.

Questions to ask yourself

You’ve listed out the pros and cons, but that still may not be enough to help make your decision. When it comes to a life-altering change like getting a doctorate, it’s okay to take enough time to ask yourself specific questions to ensure you’re making the right move. Consider asking yourself the following:

• Why do I want to get a PhD?
• Do I have the pre-requisites to move forward to a PhD?
• What are my strengths and limitations?
• Am I financially prepared?
• Am I mentally prepared?
• How will this affect my relationship with my family or friends?
• Where will I study?
• What am I trying to achieve?
• What jobs will be available to me after I get my PhD?
• Are there other options or avenues to consider?

Unfortunately, you may not have the answer to every one of these questions, because let’s face it, you don’t know what you don’t know. You might not know how it will affect your relationship with family or friends, but why not ask them? Reach out to those closest to you and see how you pursuing this degree could trickle down to them and allow that to play into your decision. Evaluate the answers to these questions and use it to help you make an educated decision on your future moving forward.

The best PhD degrees

If you’ve weighed out the pros and cons, asked all the important questions, and now you’re set on getting your PhD, congratulations! To help you along the way, let’s look at a list of the most valuable PhD programs to start you on your way to this degree.

• Criminal Justice
• Engineering
• Cybersecurity
• Business Administration

These fields are rapidly growing and are among the highest-paying doctorate degrees in 2022 , so they might be worth considering as you start your journey.

Key takeaways

Pursuing your PhD requires an incredible amount of commitment, and it's important to take the necessary time to make the decision. As you’re evaluating a doctorate degree, remember the following:

• Evaluate the pros and cons list right from the beginning to ensure you’re weighing out both sides of the coin.
• Ask yourself the necessary questions. A doctorate degree commitment can affect more than just you, so be sure you’re factoring that into your decision.
• Review specifically which PhD would be best for you and your field progression.
• Research your chosen field carefully and evaluate the job market before you finalize your degree choice.
• Once you’ve selected your degree, stay focused and stay driven. It’s going to be a hard few years, but it will be worth the work!

Who knows, this may prompt you to move on to postgraduate study — never stop achieving!

Have you decided to pursue your PhD, or are you still considering your options? Join us in the comments below and let us know what’s stopping or encouraging you from getting a PhD.

Originally published on July 24, 2019. Updated by Shalie Reich.

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Speaker 1: The first thing you need to do if you want to work out if something is worth it, specifically a PhD in chemistry, is you need to start with the end in mind. When I did my PhD, the last thing I did was think of what I would do after I created this massive awesome book of knowledge. Now the problem is too many people get into chemistry because firstly they like learning chemistry, which is completely understandable. That's why you would do it at university and go on to do a PhD. The thing is, is that every single job that I've ever had is not like learning chemistry. It's like a job and so you've got to start with the end in mind and think about the sort of jobs that you're going to get after your degree. So the first thing I would do is head over to something like this Indeed or Seek or another kind of career guide. I would start googling the sorts of careers you can do with a chemistry PhD to see if any of them tickle that interest. Tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle. So this is from 2022 so it's a little bit old but not too old. You've got what is a PhD in chemistry, you've got all the different sort of like types of chemistry which is great but this is what I'm interested in. I go all the way down here and I want to know the money right? Because ultimately and the reality of this is a lot of people value their skills based on how much they can earn with those skills. So after doing all this effort going through an entire research project and PhD and producing your thesis, you want to be well rewarded. So I'd go here and I'd look at technical writer. Okay with a PhD I could become a technical writer and I could earn $57, $373 per year. That's not too much is it? That's not enough for me to do all of this effort. Anyway let's have a look at the rest of them. $65. Okay and this is US dollars by the way. Starting to get there. Chemical engineer. Now the thing is is that with my chemistry PhD I could not be a chemical engineer. I was like a physical chemist so this means that if I wanted to be a chemical engineer maybe I should do a degree, a PhD in chemical engineering. Pattern attorney. $154,000 US dollars a year. Okay I like that money but also I thought I would become a pattern attorney at one point and I actually went to a number of different pattern attorney offices to see what it was like and let me tell you it was snore boring. It was so very very dull that I was like I don't care how much money you pay me I would not want to spend the rest of my life in these little cubicles looking over the pattern attorney stuff, looking over the pattern applications. No thank you. So this didn't stand out to me. So this just tells me like you know starts to give me that little inkling of these are the sorts of things I can expect with a PhD in chemistry. So I would look at that. The second thing I would go to is just look for jobs that currently exist. So if you're pre PhD this is so very important. I just wish more people would do this. So go to something like seek.com. This is the Australian version and just type in chemistry. This will tell you whether or not there are jobs out there that you want that actually require a PhD in chemistry because quite often you can get a load of jobs that you actually want with an undergraduate, with a master's in chemistry. So I would start with the end in mind and do this. Let's have a look. I want to go through all of these. Production chemist. Does that interest me? It's in Melbourne. Melbourne's a little bit too trendy for me. There's lots in Sydney, Melbourne but research chemist, minerals, graduate chemist, junior lab base role. So none of these are actually sort of like you know utilize your PhD background. So this one requires me to have a PhD and they want to pay me 56 to 63 dollars an hour. That's not so bad. Is that what I want to do though? Postdoc research fellows. This is in a university. You'll find that there's a lot of PhD scholarships. There's a lot of postdoc stuff. The thing about a postdoc is it has to be very very closely related to your PhD. Otherwise you don't stand a chance in hell in getting called for an interview. So all of these are very very specific. I would need to know about computational materials chemistry and have a PhD in that to get this postdoc. Dulux group. Dulux. Dulux group. Research scientists. R&D associates. So I've gone through these and I'm starting to think do any of these actually capture my interest? Are these things that I would want to do for a long time to earn money to live? And to be honest with you a lot of the things that I saw after I graduated from my PhD I was like this is very boring. I wouldn't want to work in you know a quality assurance lab. I don't want to work as a lab chemist. You know I enjoyed learning the things. So this is how you make sure it's worth it for you. Go out and make sure that the qualification you're getting actually opens the doors that you want to be opened so you can make your life better. In fact I'm not sure I would have done a PhD if I knew this was on the other side of it. But there are reasons for doing a PhD beyond just this job sort of like outcome and I'm very pleased I did a PhD in chemistry but it took me a number of years to get there. This is what I mean. So since graduating with my PhD in physical chemistry I have become an explosives chemist. I have had my own startup. I've also worked as a science writer for Cosmos magazine, for Science Alert, for the Royal Institution Australia RIRs. So I've had a number of different jobs and I've actually enjoyed every single one of them for different reasons. Right now it's this. It's my YouTube channel and I'm just so amazed that I've been able to use my PhD to end up here. I absolutely love what I'm doing at the moment and let me tell you is that when I've jumped from job to job normally it's because the job that I've got isn't satisfying me in some way. It doesn't have that perfect combination of being something I really enjoy, being well paid and something the world needs and I think it's that overlap of things that makes something your purpose or the reason you get up in the morning and importantly you enjoy it. So for example science writing I really liked but no one was paying good money for it so I had to stop because there was no future in it. So in that case I moved on to start my own startup. Once again I really liked it. There was actual money in it but the world didn't need what I was offering them so I had to move on and now I feel like I've just found that perfect overlap of all of those three things. So you can shortcut that process. That took me you know 10 years after my PhD to make sure that I actually ended up with something, a job, a career, a purpose that I actually actually loved and so you can shortcut that by just understanding what it's like going into a PhD. Do the searches, make sure that you understand what the options are when you come out of a PhD and the skills that you develop are so so useful it's just a lot of people don't know how to market themselves outside of their PhD so let's talk about that. I hear it all the time from PhD chemistry graduates saying I don't know what I would do if it wasn't PhD chemistry related stuff. Now let me tell you we all end up very very institutionalized like we're behind bars and we're like I don't know what I would do if I wasn't in chemistry. The thing is is there's so many things you can do it's just we're really bad at marketing ourselves and also our ego gets in the way because we're like I've got this many papers, I have this research experience but the outside world gives no shits about that at all and so what happens is is that we misalign our offering to the world with what the world wants in industry or outside of academia. So for each and every one of these jobs that I've been talking about you need to make sure that you delve into the skills you have specific for that individual job because otherwise you're just screaming into the world that you think are very important and you've been told and led to believe that are very important in academia and the outside world's like so and that is where a lot of frustration comes in after your PhD and I see so many people saying a chemistry PhD, a STEM PhD isn't worth it because your skills aren't valued outside and I think we need to take a look at ourselves and say this is now how I need to market myself to the outside world. They don't care about publications, they don't care about the amount of grant money you've brought in what they do care about is how you can make their money or how have you provided value to all of the stakeholders in a project. It's all of that sort of stuff we need to get used to sort of like marketing ourselves as if we're going to see value in our PhD in chemistry or our PhD in STEM because otherwise it's just going to be a frustrating journey for you. So let me know in the comments if your PhD in chemistry has been worth it and if you like this video go check out this one where I talk about whether a PhD is really worth the effort. It's a really great watch, go check it out. you

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Is a Science Ph.D. a Waste of Time?

Don’t feel too sorry for graduate students. it’s worth it..

What does a doctorate do for you these days?

Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images.

Few people spend 11 years in college. Most stay for four or five before the urge to leave campus and earn a salary kicks in. Barring a thesis defense meltdown, I’ll be one of about 50,000 graduate students across the United States and Canada to get a Ph.D. in science this school year. After seven years in graduate school, I’m left wondering if the time and effort was worth it. What do scientists do these days, anyways?

According to several recent reports, not much. The problem, stated last month in the Washington Post , is that academic jobs have all but disappeared . A 2011 report in Nature concurs : “People who have trained at great length and expense to be researchers confront a dwindling number of academic jobs, and an industrial sector unable to take up the slack.” A 2010 article in the Economist subtitled “Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time” is even more damning of doctorates . To be fair, that article targeted all Ph.D.s, but the reporter made science doctorates seem particularly worthless, writing that she “slogged through a largely pointless PhD in theoretical ecology.” After crunching the numbers and talking to about a dozen people with science doctorates, though, I’ve concluded that for everything these accounts get right, they get just as much wrong. In short, science Ph.D.s are just about the last group of people the media should be worrying about. Let me explain.

Almost everyone agrees that academic jobs in the sciences are scarce. Over the past 40 years, the number of doctorates pumped out by universities each year in the United States has increased while the number of academic positions has declined. There are more people with Ph.D.s and fewer professorships. As Nature reported, in 1973 about 55 percent of people with doctorates in the biological sciences got stable academic jobs ; in 2008, the National Science Foundation pegged that number at 14 percent. Across all scientific fields, NSF data suggest that only about 23 percent of Ph.D.s land tenure or tenure-track positions at academic institutions within three to five years of finishing grad school . If you assume that every science Ph.D. wants a career in academia, this seems like a dismally low employment rate. But academic jobs aren’t as coveted by people trained in science as you might think.

A 2012 study examined the career preferences of more than 4,000 biology, chemistry, and physics Ph.D. students at top-ranked American universities. When asked to ignore actual job availability and rate a range of careers, only about 50 percent gave an academic research career the highest rating; more than 40 percent gave top marks to research jobs in the private sector, while about 30 percent thought working for a startup would be pretty great. (The numbers add to more than 100 percent because the students were allowed to give high marks to multiple occupations.)

Although it’s unknown how these preferences translate into the careers people actually pursue, the implication is that only about half of doctoral science students are really gunning for academic positions. NSF data support this. In 2010, about 50 percent of new science Ph.D.s went on to do postdoctoral research at a university —the contract job long considered a necessary step for landing a professorship.

There have almost always been more doctorates than academic positions , and Ph.D.s, unlike J.D.s and M.D.s, have a long history of pursuing a range of careers after their training. A science Ph.D. is still an attractive credential outside of the university. According to a 2008 survey by the NSF (a summary is available here ), there were about 662,600 work-ready science Ph.D.s in the United States, and only 11,400 of those people were unemployed. That’s an unemployment rate of 1.7 percent .

Of course, some of those jobs have disappeared since the NSF survey was taken. The pharmaceutical industry, the Washington Post reported, has cut scores of chemists. Even so, the American Chemical Society told me the unemployment rate among its Ph.D. members is 3.4 percent this year, down from 3.9 percent last year . During these rough economic times, the unemployment rate of scientists in one of the hardest hit fields is less than half the national average . Why? Because scientists learn more in graduate school than how to peer into microscopes and pour chemicals ever so carefully from one Erlenmeyer flask to another. As one biologist told me, the statistics and computer programming she learned during her degree can be applied just about anywhere. More generally, scientists know how to solve complex problems, and finishing a doctoral dissertation shows that you can get things done.

A mathematician who graduated in 2010 told me he was hired by the investment bank Goldman Sachs after a short search. Many of his colleagues, he said, have doctorates in math, physics, or computer science; his bonus can be a multiple of his salary. A biologist was offered a position as a medical writer seven days before graduating last year. A chemist got a job at a battery company two years ago after a short stint as a postdoctoral researcher, doubling his salary. Even the Economist , despite its disdain for “pointless” Ph.D.s, likes to hire scientists. As the ad for their science-writing internship reads , “Our aim is more to discover writing talent in a science student or scientist than scientific aptitude in a budding journalist.”

The employment rate of science Ph.D.s makes the Washington Post’s claim that “the jobs aren’t there” seem strange, almost as strange as the paper’s statement that a science Ph.D. “can leave graduates buried in debt”—it almost never does. The majority of science doctoral students receive government grants, university stipends, teaching assistantships, or research fellowships through their adviser’s grants that cover living expenses and pay tuition. In a study of people who earned Ph.D.s in 2010, about 75 percent of life sciences, physical sciences, and engineering doctoral recipients had zero education-related debt .

Still, if you pursue a doctorate in the sciences purely for future financial gain, seven years of lost wages—the average amount of time science Ph.D.s spend in graduate school —might not be worth it. This income loss is especially true for scientists who stay in academia after graduating. Postdoctoral fellowship positions pay 30-year-olds with more than a decade of higher education about $40,000 a year, and they don’t guarantee an academic job. And in 2008, the median salary of fully employed science Ph.D.s, the NSF reported, was about $100,000 a year. (Chemical and computer engineers, in case you were wondering, make the most.) That’s a great salary, of course, but much less than what people with MBAs and M.D.s earn.

But focusing on this hypothetical financial loss ignores why many graduate students pursue a Ph.D. in the first place: intellectual curiosity. The biggest perk of graduate school in science is getting paid to learn. Many of the people I spoke to missed the intellectual and logistical freedom of graduate school—being able to set their own hours and pursue a wide range of academic activities. Nobody expressed regret about working toward a science Ph.D.; graduate school, most said, was a lot of fun. I’d have to agree.

Near the end of writing my dissertation, there were many 80-hour weeks and vending-machine dinners. Much of the time, science is a slog. But there were also the four months I took off in the middle of my degree to intern at a magazine, and the eight months I spent on exchange in a lab in London stimulating brains with magnets. (Not to mention weekday afternoon pints at the grad-student pub, guest lectures by the likes of Stephen Pinker and Daniel Dennett, and paid trips to Europe for conferences.)

You might argue that if I leave academia to, say, teach high school or become a journalist, I’ve wasted my laboratory training. This argument is ridiculous. Since the Ph.D.’s inception in 18 th century Germany , the product of a doctoral education has been a dissertation—a body of research that, in a small way, moves a field forward. There’s nothing wrong with contributing to science and then moving on. The work won’t disappear. Dissertations are published, and doctorates last a lifetime.

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9 things you should consider before embarking on a PhD

June 23, 2021 | 15 min read

By Andy Greenspon

The ideal research program you envision is not what it appears to be

Editor's Note:  When Andy Greenspon wrote this article, he was a first-year student in Applied Physics at Harvard. Now he has completed his PhD. — Alison Bert, June 23, 2021

If you are planning to apply for a PhD program, you're probably getting advice from dozens of students, professors, administrators your parents and the Internet. Sometimes it's hard to know which advice to focus on and what will make the biggest difference in the long-run. So before you go back to daydreaming about the day you accept that Nobel Prize, here are nine things you should give serious thought to. One or more of these tips may save you from anguish and help you make better decisions as you embark on that path to a PhD.

1. Actively seek out information about PhD programs.

Depending on your undergraduate institution, there may be more or less support to guide you in selecting a PhD program – but there is generally much less than when you applied to college.

On the website of my physics department, I found a page written by one of my professors, which listed graduate school options in physics and engineering along with resources to consult. As far as I know, my career center did not send out much information about PhD programs. Only after applying to programs did I find out that my undergraduate website had a link providing general information applicable to most PhD programs. This is the kind of information that is available all over the Internet.

So don't wait for your career center or department to lay out a plan for you. Actively seek it out from your career center counselors, your professors, the Internet — and especially from alumni from your department who are in or graduated from your desired PhD program. First-hand experiences will almost always trump the knowledge you get second-hand.

2. A PhD program is not simply a continuation of your undergraduate program.

Many students don't internalize this idea until they have jumped head-first into a PhD program. The goal is not to complete an assigned set of courses as in an undergraduate program, but to develop significant and original research in your area of expertise. You will have required courses to take, especially if you do not have a master's degree yet, but these are designed merely to compliment your research and provide a broad and deep knowledge base to support you in your research endeavors.

At the end of your PhD program, you will be judged on your research, not on how well you did in your courses. Grades are not critical as long as you maintain the minimum GPA requirement, and you should not spend too much time on courses at the expense of research projects. Graduate courses tend to be designed to allow you to take away what you will find useful to your research more than to drill a rigid set of facts and techniques into your brain.

3. Take a break between your undergraduate education and a PhD program.

You are beginning your senior year of college, and your classmates are asking you if you are applying to graduate school. You think to yourself, "Well, I like studying this topic and the associated research, and I am going to need a PhD if I want to be a professor or do independent research, so I might as well get it done as soon as possible." But are you certain about the type of research you want to do? Do you know where you want to live for the next five years? Are you prepared to stay in an academic environment for nine years straight?

Many people burn out or end up trudging through their PhD program without a thought about what lies outside of or beyond it. A break of a year or two or even more may be necessary to gain perspective. If all you know is an academic environment, how can you compare it to anything else? Many people take a job for five or more years before going back to get their PhD. It is true though that the longer you stay out of school, the harder it is to go back to an academic environment with lower pay and a lack of set work hours. A one-year break will give you six months or so after graduation before PhD applications are due. A two-year gap might be ideal to provide time to identify your priorities in life and explore different areas of research without having school work or a thesis competing for your attention.

Getting research experience outside of a degree program can help focus your interests and give you a leg up on the competition when you finally decide to apply. It can also help you determine whether you will enjoy full-time research or if you might prefer an alternative career path that still incorporates science, for example, in policy, consulting or business — or a hybrid research job that combines scientific and non-scientific skills.

I will be forever grateful that I chose to do research in a non-academic environment for a year between my undergraduate and PhD programs. It gave me the chance to get a feel for doing nothing but research for a full year. Working at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in the Space Division, I was the manager of an optics lab, performing spectroscopic experiments on rocks and minerals placed in a vacuum chamber. While my boss determined the overall experimental design, I was able to make my own suggestions for experiments and use my own discretion in how to perform them. I presented this research at two national conferences as well — a first for me. I was also able to learn about other research being performed there, determine which projects excited me the most, and thus narrow down my criteria for a PhD program.

4. Your current area of study does not dictate what you have to study in graduate school.

You might be studying the function and regulation of membrane proteins or doing a computational analysis of the conductivity of different battery designs, but that doesn't mean your PhD project must revolve around similar projects. The transition between college or another research job to a PhD program is one of the main transitions in your life when it is perfectly acceptable to completely change research areas.

If you are doing computation, you may want to switch to lab-based work or vice versa. If you are working in biology but have always had an interest in photonics research, now is the time to try it out. You may find that you love the alternative research and devote your PhD to it, you might hate it and fall back on your previous area of study — or you may even discover a unique topic that incorporates both subjects.

One of the best aspects of the PhD program is that you can make the research your own. Remember, the answer to the question "Why are you doing this research?" should not be "Well, because it's what I've been working on for the past few years already."While my undergraduate research was in atomic physics, I easily transitioned into applied physics and materials science for my PhD program and was able to apply much of what I learned as an undergraduate to my current research. If you are moving from the sciences to a non-STEM field such as social sciences or humanities, this advice can still apply, though the transition is a bit more difficult and more of a permanent commitment.

5. Make sure the PhD program has a variety of research options, and learn about as many research groups as possible in your first year.

Even if you believe you are committed to one research area, you may find that five years of such work is not quite what you expected. As such, you should find a PhD program where the professors are not all working in the same narrowly focused research area. Make sure there are at least three professors working on an array of topics you could imagine yourself working on.

In many graduate programs, you are supposed to pick a research advisor before even starting. But such arrangements often do not work out, and you may be seeking a new advisor before you know it. That's why many programs give students one or two semesters to explore different research areas before choosing a permanent research advisor.

In your first year, you should explore the research of a diverse set of groups. After touring their labs, talking to the students, or sitting in on group meetings, you may find that this group is the right one for you.

In addition, consider the importance of who your research advisor will be. This will be the person you interact with regularly for five straight years and who will have a crucial influence on your research. Do you like their advising style? Does their personality mesh with yours? Can you get along? Of course, the research your advisor works on is critical, but if you have large disagreements at every meeting or do not get helpful advice on how to proceed with your research, you may not be able to succeed. At the very least, you must be able to handle your advisor's management of the lab and advising style if you are going to be productive in your work. The Harvard program I enrolled in has professors working on research spanning from nanophotonics to energy materials and biophysics, covering my wide range of interests. By spending time in labs and offices informally chatting with graduate students, I found an advisor whose personality and research interests meshed very well with me. Their genuine enthusiasm for this advisor and their excitement when talking about their research was the best input I could have received.

6. Location is more important than you think — but name recognition is not.

The first consideration in choosing a PhD program should be, "Is there research at this university that I am passionate about?" After all, you will have to study this topic in detail for four or more years. But when considering the location of a university, your first thought should not be, "I'm going to be in the lab all the time, so what does it matter if I'm by the beach, in a city, or in the middle of nowhere." Contrary to popular belief, you will have a life outside of the lab, and you will have to be able to live with it for four or more years. Unlike when you were an undergraduate, your social and extracurricular life will revolve less around the university community, so the environment of the surrounding area is important. Do you need a city atmosphere to be productive? Or is your ideal location surrounded by forests and mountains or by a beach? Is being close to your family important? Imagine what it will be like living in the area during the times you are not doing research; consider what activities will you do and how often will you want to visit family.

While many of the PhD programs that accepted me had research that truly excited me, the only place I could envision living for five or more years was Boston, as the city I grew up near and whose environment and culture I love, and to be close to my family.

While location is more important than you think, the reputation and prestige of the university is not. In graduate school, the reputation of the individual department you are joining — and sometimes even the specific research group you work in — are more important. There, you will develop research collaborations and professional connections that will be crucial during your program and beyond. When searching for a job after graduation, other scientists will look at your specific department, the people you have worked with and the research you have done.

At the Asgard Irish Pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Andy Greenspon talks with fellow graduate students from Harvard and MIT at an Ask for Evidence workshop organized by Sense About Science. He grew up near Boston and chose to go to graduate school there.

7. Those time management skills you developed in college? Develop them further.

After surviving college, you may think you have mastered the ability to squeeze in your coursework, extracurricular activities and even some sleep. In a PhD program, time management reaches a whole new level. You will not only have lectures to attend and homework to do. You will have to make time for your research, which will include spending extended periods of time in the lab, analyzing data, and scheduling time with other students to collaborate on research.

Also, you will most likely have to teach for a number of semesters, and you will want to attend any seminar that may be related to your research or that just peaks your interest. To top it all off, you will still want to do many of those extracurricular activities you did as an undergraduate. While in the abstract, it may seem simple enough to put this all into your calendar and stay organized, you will find quickly enough that the one hour you scheduled for a task might take two or three hours, putting you behind on everything else for the rest of the day or forcing you to cut other planned events. Be prepared for schedules to go awry, and be willing to sacrifice certain activities. For some, this might be sleep; for others, it might be an extracurricular activity or a few seminars they were hoping to attend. In short, don't panic when things don't go according to plan; anticipate possible delays and be ready to adapt.

8. Expect to learn research skills on the fly – or take advantage of the training your department or career center offers.

This may be the first time you will have to write fellowship or grant proposals, write scientific papers, attend conferences, present your research to others, or even peer-review scientific manuscripts. From my experience, very few college students or even PhD students receive formal training on how to perform any of these tasks. Usually people follow by example. But this is not always easy and can be quite aggravating sometimes. So seek out talks or interactive programs offered by your department or career center. The effort will be well worth it when you realize you've become quite adept at quickly and clearly explaining your research to others and at outlining scientific papers and grant proposals. Alternatively, ask a more experienced graduate student or your advisor for advice on these topics. In addition, be prepared for a learning curve when learning all the procedures and processes of the group you end up working in. There may be many new protocols to master, whether they involve synthesizing chemicals, growing bacterial cells, or aligning mirrors on an optical table. In addition, the group may use programming languages or data analysis software you are unfamiliar with. Don't get discouraged but plan to spend extra effort getting used to these procedures and systems. After working with them regularly, they will soon become second nature. When I first started my job at Johns Hopkins, I felt overwhelmed by all the intricacies of the experiment and definitely made a few mistakes, including breaking a number of optical elements. But by the end of my year there, I had written an updated protocol manual for the modifications I had made to the experimental procedures and was the "master" passing on my knowledge to the next person taking the job.

9. There are no real breaks.

In a stereotypical "9-to-5" job, when the workday is over or the weekend arrives, you can generally forget about your work. And a vacation provides an even longer respite. But in a PhD program, your schedule becomes "whenever you find time to get your work done." You might be in the lab during regular work hours or you might be working until 10 p.m. or later to finish an experiment. And the only time you might have available to analyze data might be at 1 a.m. Expect to work during part of the weekend, too. Graduate students do go on vacations but might still have to do some data analysis or a literature search while away.

As a PhD student, it might be hard to stop thinking about the next step in an experiment or that data sitting on your computer or that paper you were meaning to start. While I imagine some students can bifurcate their mind between graduate school life and everything else, that's quite hard for many of us to do. No matter what, my research lies somewhere in the back of my head. In short, your schedule is much more flexible as a PhD student, but as a result, you never truly take a break from your work.

While this may seem like a downer, remember that you should have passion for the research you work on (most of the time), so you should be excited to think up new experiments or different ways to consider that data you have collected. Even when I'm lying in bed about to fall asleep, I am sometimes ruminating about aspects of my experiment I could modify or what information I could do a literature search on to gain new insights. A PhD program is quite the commitment and rarely lives up to expectations – but it is well worth the time and effort you will spend for something that truly excites you.

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What Can You Do With A PhD In Chemistry?

• Posted on August 14, 2020

Homar Murillo

If you’re wondering what you can do with a PhD in chemistry, this article will help you identify some of the possible career paths that will be open to you. 

In this post:

What Is A Chemistry PhD?

A chemistry PhD is a postgraduate degree that is usually focussed on a specific subject in chemistry. At this level of education, you are able to conduct advanced independent research into an area of chemistry that you are passionate about. 

Just like in any field, a PhD is the highest academic degree that can be earned in chemistry. Also known as a doctoral degree, having a doctorate in chemistry can lead to a wide range of high-paying and prestigious positions, either in government or the private and public sectors. 

How To Get A PhD In Chemistry

A PhD in chemistry is one of the more difficult postgraduate courses to be accepted onto. This is not only because of its highly technical subject matter, but also because it is highly competitive. Indeed, the requirements and screening process for a chemistry PhD are often tougher than for other PhD courses:

• Chemistry usually requires higher grades and a competency within a specialised area
• Some universities require PhD applicants to pass an entrance exam before being considered
• These entrance exams usually cover subjects related to science and mathematics, as well as IQ tests

Aside from having the minimum grade requirements and prerequisites, an applicant for a PhD programme in chemistry must also have good aptitude in mathematics. An analytical, logical mind is also very important if you want to thrive in this academic setting.

That said, the requirements for a chemistry PhD will vary depending on the institution you apply to. While some universities require PhD applicants to have a master’s degree in a related course, others may only require a bachelor’s degree, as long as it is above the required grade. Applicants who have significant industry experience, on the other hand, can be accepted for a PhD in chemistry even if they have none of the above.

Moreover, international applicants will be asked to adhere to an additional set of requirements, including:

• The online TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam
• An English proficiency test, such as the Pearson Test of English (PTE) 
• An IELTS exam, otherwise known as the International English Language Testing System
• Other standard documentary requirements, like a passport, visa and birth certificate

Earning a PhD in chemistry is no easy feat, and will require at least two years of research work. You will also need to attend lectures and conferences. After completing your research, you’ll typically then go on to present and defend your dissertation before a panel of professors in your field. Oftentimes, passing a comprehensive examination is also required for PhD candidates to graduate.

How Long Does It Take To Get A PhD In Chemistry?

In the UK, a PhD in chemistry is normally finished within three to five years for those who study full-time. For part-time students, however, it could take up to seven or even eight years to complete a PhD in chemistry. 

How long it takes someone to complete their chemistry PhD ultimately depends on their field of study. The main aspects of a PhD that might lengthen its completion time are:

• Lab work and experiments
• What is being researched and how
• The nature of the dissertation
• How long it takes to complete the dissertation 

While earning a PhD takes significantly longer than completing a bachelor’s or master’s degree, the benefit is that you gain a lot of experience. This will position you as an expert in your field and ultimately open up prestigious job opportunities.

What Jobs Can You Get With A PhD In Chemistry?

A PhD in any field can provide you with better career opportunities in terms of position, salary, authority and prestige. But those with a PhD in chemistry are particularly desirable because of the specialised knowledge they gain, as well as the fact that they are becoming difficult to find. 

For the past several years, there has been a significant decline in the number of experts in chemistry who hold a PhD. In fact, in the UK, those with PhDs constitute only 1.4% of the total population ; and those with a doctorate specifically in chemistry constitute less than 1% of that. This is in line with the general STEM skills shortage , which is a concern for the government and many in the various STEM-related industries.

The subsequent demand for chemistry experts in private sectors, public sectors, academic professions and government positions has skyrocketed, meaning that graduates of chemistry PhDs are highly valuable. Here are five of the most common career paths for those with a PhD degree in chemistry:

Lecturer, Researcher or Professor

Those who hold a chemistry PhD are qualified to become a lecturer, researcher or professor in a range of postsecondary education settings. This includes institutions like colleges, universities and vocational schools. As a researcher, you will continue to conduct independent research for the institution you’re working for. Your expertise may also lead you on to publish academic journals based on this research.

As a lecturer or professor, you’ll be able to apply the knowledge gained through your PhD to teaching students about specific topics in chemistry. Based on your experience, you may even be offered a tenured position as a professor of chemistry.

      2. Environmental Science Specialist

As an expert in chemistry, you can pursue a career in environmental science. This is an exciting area because it involves a lot of fieldwork, which might be attractive to PhD graduates after completing several years of intensive study. 

Environmental scientists are often consulted by businesses to help ensure environmental compliance. In this career, you may also lead teams that identify environmental hazards. You can then provide recommendations or design systems that will eliminate, or at least mitigate, the impact of these hazards. As such, environmental scientists have particular influence in policymaking because their research often serves as the basis for implementing government regulations. 

      3. Chemical Engineer

With a PhD under your belt, you can also apply your knowledge in chemistry to designing scientific instruments and industrial machines that process chemicals. A career in chemical engineering can be a very lucrative path, and places you at the centre of many chemical manufacturing processes. 

While this career can be obtained without a PhD, and even without any formal education, a specialised understanding of chemistry, biology and physics gained from a PhD will improve your skills and set you apart from competitors. 

      4. Materials Scientist

As a materials scientist, you can work with government institutions like the Defence Department. You can also work with private corporations that research cutting edge technology. Material scientists can even do private research at their chosen university by securing grants from funding agencies. 

If this is your chosen career, you’ll also be responsible for overseeing other scientists’ research work. You will be expected to use your expertise to improve the testing methods that are currently being used by your employer or client. Research projects for material scientists can range from testing pre-existing materials, to developing new types of materials, such as those used in nanotechnology and 3D-printing .

      5. Medicinal Chemist

Another common career path for those with PhDs in chemistry is as a medicinal chemist. This role usually requires a PhD in medicinal, synthetic, or organic chemistry, as well as some form of experience in the biopharma industry. 

As a medicinal chemist, you’ll be involved in evaluating and developing chemical compounds into pharmaceutical drugs. Typically a lab-based job, this career is well-suited to those with a keen interest in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery.

Though the process may take a number of years, a range of career opportunities await you when you obtain a PhD in chemistry. Whether you’re already passionate about a particular area of study and would like to pursue it, or whether you’re unsure about what area of chemistry to specialise in, a chemistry PhD is a great way to develop your skills and experience so that you can secure a promising career.

Find out more in our  careers in chemistry resources hub.

About the author

Science Writer

All content published on the  ReAgent.co.uk  blog is for information only. The blog, its authors, and affiliates cannot be held responsible for any accident, injury or damage caused in part or directly from using the information provided. Additionally, we do not recommend using any chemical without reading the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), which can be obtained from the manufacturer. You should also follow any safety advice and precautions listed on the product label. If you have health and safety related questions, visit  HSE.gov.uk .

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• Master’s vs PhD | A Complete Guide to the Differences

Master's vs PhD | A Complete Guide to the Differences

Published on November 27, 2020 by Lauren Thomas . Revised on May 10, 2024.

The two most common types of graduate degrees are master’s and doctoral degrees:

• A master’s is a 1–2 year degree that can prepare you for a multitude of careers.
• A PhD, or doctoral degree, takes 3–7 years to complete (depending on the country) and prepares you for a career in academic research.

A master’s is also the necessary first step to a PhD. In the US, the master’s is built into PhD programs, while in most other countries, a separate master’s degree is required before applying for PhDs.

Master’s are far more common than PhDs. In the US, 24 million people have master’s or professional degrees, whereas only 4.5 million have doctorates.

Table of contents

Master’s vs phd at a glance, which is right for you, length of time required, career prospects, costs and salaries, application process, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about master's and phd degrees.

The table below shows the key differences between the two.

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A PhD is right for you if:

• Your goal is to become a professor at a university or some other type of professional researcher.
• You love research and are passionate about discovering the answer to a particular question.
• You are willing to spend years pursuing your research even if you have to put up with a lot of dead ends and roadblocks.

A master’s degree is the better choice if any of the following apply:

• You want to continue studies in your field, but you’re not committed to a career as a professional researcher.
• You want to develop professional skills for a specific career.
• You are willing to pay a higher upfront cost if it means finishing with your degree (and thus being able to work) much faster.
• You want the option to study part-time while working.

The length of time required to complete a PhD or master’s degree varies. Unsurprisingly, PhDs take much longer, usually between 3–7 years. Master’s degrees are usually only 1–2 years.

Length of a master’s

Master’s degrees are usually 2 years, although 1-year master’s degrees also exist, mainly in the UK.

Most of the degree consists of classes and coursework, although many master’s programs include an intensive, semester-long master’s thesis or capstone project in which students bring together all they’ve learned to produce an original piece of work.

Length of a PhD

In the US, a PhD usually takes between 5 and 7 years to complete. The first 2 years are spent on coursework. Students, even those who choose to leave without finishing the program, usually receive a master’s degree at this point.

The next 3–5 years are spent preparing a dissertation —a lengthy piece of writing based on independent research, which aims to make a significant original contribution to one’s field.

Master’s degrees tend to prepare you for a career outside of academia, while PhDs are designed to lead to a career in research.

Careers for master’s graduates

There are two types of master’s degrees: terminal and research-intensive. The career prospects are different for each.

Terminal master’s degrees are intended to prepare students for careers outside of academia. Some degrees, known as professional degrees, specifically prepare students for particular professions; these include the Master of Public Policy (MPP), Master of Business Administration (MBA), Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT), Master of Fine Arts (MFA), and Master of Public Health (MPH) degrees.

Other master’s degrees, usually Master of Arts (MA) or Master of Sciences (MS or MSc) degrees, do not necessarily lead to a specific career, but are intended to be a final degree. Examples include an MS in Communications or MS in Data Analytics.

In research-intensive master’s programs, students take coursework intended to prepare them for writing an original piece of research known as the master’s thesis . Such programs are usually intended to prepare for further study in a doctoral program.

Careers for PhD graduates

As research degrees, PhDs are usually intended to lead to an academic career. A PhD can be thought of like an apprenticeship, where students learn from professional researchers (academics) how to produce their own research.

Most students aspire to become a university professor upon the completion of their degree. However, careers in academia are highly competitive, and the skills learned in a doctoral program often lend themselves well to other types of careers.

Some graduates who find they prefer teaching to producing research go on to be teachers at liberal arts colleges or even secondary schools. Others work in research-intensive careers in the government, private sector, or at think tanks.

Below are a few examples of specific fields and non-academic careers that are common destinations of graduates of those fields.

• Computer Science
• Lab Sciences

Many government jobs, including economists at a country’s central bank, are research-intensive and require a PhD. Think tanks also hire economists to carry out independent research.

In the private sector, economic consulting and technology firms frequently hire PhDs to solve real-world problems that require complex mathematical modeling.

Graduate students from the humanities are sometimes hired by museums, who can make use of their research and writing skills to curate exhibits and run public outreach.

Humanities PhDs are often well-suited to research and grant-writing roles at nonprofits. Since so much of research is funded by grants, PhD students often gain a lot of experience applying for them, which is a useful skill in the nonprofit sector.

There are a wide range of non-academic research jobs for lab scientists with doctorates in subjects like chemistry, biology, ecology and physics.

Many PhD graduates are hired by pharmaceutical companies that need to perform research to create and test their products. Government agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), also hire lab scientists to work on research projects.

Job prospects after graduation vary widely based on the field. In fields like management, computer science, statistics, and economics, there’s little underemployment—even graduates from less well-known programs can easily find jobs that pay well and use the skills they’ve gained from the PhD.

However, in other fields, particularly in the humanities, many PhD graduates have difficulty in the job market. Unfortunately, there are far more PhD graduates than assistant professor roles, so many instead take on part-time and low-paid roles as adjunct instructors. Even non-academic careers can sometimes be difficult for PhDs to move into, as they may be seen as “overqualified”  or as lacking in relevant professional experience.

Because career options post-PhD vary so much, you should take the time to figure out what the career prospects are in your field. Doctoral programs often have detailed “placement” records online in which they list the career outcomes of their graduates immediately upon leaving the program. If you can’t find these records, contact the program and ask for them—placement information should play an important role in your choice of PhD program.

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Although PhDs take far longer to complete, students often receive a living stipend in exchange for being a teaching or research assistant. Master’s degrees are shorter but less likely to be funded.

Both master’s degrees and PhDs lead to increased salaries upon graduation. While PhDs usually earn a bit more than those with a master’s degree, in some fields, the wages are identical, meaning that no financial benefit is gained from going on to a PhD.

Cost of a master’s

The upfront cost of a master’s degree is usually higher than a doctoral degree due to the lower amount of financial aid available. However, increased salaries also arrive faster than with a doctoral degree, because people graduate much earlier from a master’s program.

Some master’s students do receive stipends for their degrees, usually as compensation for being a teaching or research assistant. In addition, many people complete master’s degrees part time while working full-time, which allows them to fund their living costs as well as tuition.

The cost varies significantly by school and program. Public schools are usually cheaper than private ones. Some master’s degrees, such as MBAs, are notoriously expensive, but also result in much higher wages afterwards that make up for the high cost.

The master’s wage premium , or the extra amount that someone with a master’s degree makes than someone with just a high school diploma, is 23% on average. Many universities provide detailed statistics on the career and salary outcomes of their students. If they do not have this online, you should feel free to contact an administrator of the program and ask.

Cost of a PhD

PhDs, particularly outside the humanities, are usually (though not always) funded, meaning that tuition fees are fully waived and students receive a small living stipend. During the last 3–5 years of a PhD, after finishing their coursework (and sometimes before), students are usually expected to work as graduate instructors or research assistants in exchange for the stipend.

Sometimes students can apply for a fellowship (such as the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Program in the United States) that relieves them of any obligations to be a teaching or research assistant. Doctoral programs in the US tend to be better funded than in the rest of the world.

Sometimes, PhD degrees can be completed part-time, but this is rare. Students are usually expected to devote at least 40 hours a week to their research and work as teaching or research assistants.

The main cost of doctoral programs comes in the form of opportunity cost—all the years that students could be working a regular, full-time job, which usually pays much better than a graduate school stipend.

The average wage premium for PhDs is 26%, which is not much higher than the master’s degree premium.

In the US, the application process is similar for master’s and PhD programs. Both will generally ask for:

• At least one application essay, often called a personal statement or statement of purpose .
• Letters of recommendation .
• A resume or CV .
• Transcripts.
• Writing samples.

Applications for both types of programs also often require a standardized test. PhDs usually require the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), which tries to measure verbal reasoning, quantitative, critical thinking , and analytical writing skills. Many master’s programs require this test as well.

Applying for a master’s

Master’s degrees programs will often ask you to respond to specific essay prompts that may ask you to reflect upon not just your academic background, but also your personal character and future career ambitions.

Northwestern University’s Kellogg Business School requires Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) applicants write two essays, one about a recent time they demonstrated leadership and the second about their personal values.

Who you should ask for your letters of recommendation varies by program. If you are applying to a research-intensive master’s program, then you should choose former professors or research supervisors. For other programs, particularly business school, current work supervisors may be a better choice.

Some professional master’s programs require a specific test. For example, to apply to law school, you must take the Law School Admissions Test, or LSAT. For business school, you must take either the GRE or the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT).

Applying for a PhD

When applying for a PhD, your resume should focus more on your research background—you should especially emphasize any publications you’ve authored or presentations that you’ve given.

Similarly, your statement of purpose should discuss research that you’ve participated in, whether as an assistant or the lead author. You should detail what exactly you did in projects you’ve contributed to, whether that’s conducting a literature review, coding regressions, or writing an entire article.

Your letters of recommendations should be from former professors or supervisors who can speak to your abilities and potential as a researcher. A good rule of thumb is to avoid asking for recommendations from anyone who does not themselves have a PhD.

If you want to know more about college essays , academic writing , and AI tools , make sure to check out some of our other language articles with explanations, examples, and quizzes.

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A master’s is a 1- or 2-year graduate degree that can prepare you for a variety of careers.

All master’s involve graduate-level coursework. Some are research-intensive and intend to prepare students for further study in a PhD; these usually require their students to write a master’s thesis . Others focus on professional training for a specific career.

A PhD, which is short for philosophiae doctor (doctor of philosophy in Latin), is the highest university degree that can be obtained. In a PhD, students spend 3–5 years writing a dissertation , which aims to make a significant, original contribution to current knowledge.

A PhD is intended to prepare students for a career as a researcher, whether that be in academia, the public sector, or the private sector.

This depends on the country. In the United States, you can generally go directly to a PhD  with only a bachelor’s degree, as a master’s program is included as part of the doctoral program.

Elsewhere, you generally need to graduate from a research-intensive master’s degree before continuing to the PhD.

This varies by country. In the United States, PhDs usually take between 5–7 years: 2 years of coursework followed by 3–5 years of independent research work to produce a dissertation.

In the rest of the world, students normally have a master’s degree before beginning the PhD, so they proceed directly to the research stage and complete a PhD in 3–5 years.

A master’s degree usually has a higher upfront cost, but it also allows you to start earning a higher salary more quickly. The exact cost depends on the country and the school: private universities usually cost more than public ones, and European degrees usually cost less than North American ones. There are limited possibilities for financial aid.

PhDs often waive tuition fees and offer a living stipend in exchange for a teaching or research assistantship. However, they take many years to complete, during which time you earn very little.

In the US, the graduate school application process is similar whether you’re applying for a master’s or a PhD . Both require letters of recommendation , a statement of purpose or personal statement , a resume or CV , and transcripts. Programs in the US and Canada usually also require a certain type of standardized test—often the GRE.

Outside the US, PhD programs usually also require applicants to write a research proposal , because students are expected to begin dissertation research in the first year of their PhD.

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Is a PhD really worth your time and money?

Grad students weigh in on the challenges and benefits on the road to a PhD

Investing in a PhD is a big decision. It usually means pushing an already long academic career in post-secondary education up to the 11-year mark, at least. In the words of one professor, it can mean “working for years for very little money while you watch your friends get rich.”

Not only that, the PhD itself is in flux. Academic jobs, the stereotypical application of the degree, can be hard to come by. Universities get strong, qualified applicants all the time, and yet many of these job seekers leave disappointed, or suspended in part-time positions with little job security .

And yet the number of students starting their doctorate has been rising steadily for years.

While the PhD is changing, the shifts are far more complex than the changes in academic employment. For many students, it means more work and a more creative approach, but not necessarily a sense of impending doom.

It turns out that the potential outcomes from PhD students are myriad, but the challenges they must face are no less numerous.

As for the reasons why people decide to extend their academic lives, in the lab or in the library—well, there are plenty of those, too.

Why take a PhD?

The number of students enrolled in PhD programs in Ontario nearly doubled between 2000 and 2013, according to Statistics Canada , swelling to around 20,000 students.

So what is it that’s causing a growing number of students to take the plunge?

For some, it’s about their career. If you want to work in some high-level jobs in academia, or in the private sector, especially on the science side, you need the fancy degree. And of course, the prestige doesn’t hurt. For others, passion is the catalyst.

Jennifer Dumoulin is doing her PhD in the Department of Communications at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Arts. “I was in law school, and I had the idea for the topic that I ended up working on now, and then I saw an advertisement for the communications (PhD) program,” she said. “I just kind of had this feeling that that’s where I should be.”

Alexandre Sicard, a PhD student in chemistry, says that for him, the thrill of discovery is a big driver. “When you get a great success, it feels amazing, you feel like a brilliant scientist,” he said. “You’ve created a new compound, you’ve combined the elements in such a way that have never heretofore been combined, you have something to stamp your name on that is yours.”

This passion extends to a wide swathe of fields. And while social sciences and the physical and life sciences make up a large chunk of Ontario doctoral students (around 20 per cent each), there are people taking PhDs in fields from architecture to visual arts.

While all these fields have their own distinct paths, there are challenges that affect students across all disciplines.

But will it get me a job?

One thing’s for sure, the myth of the PhD being a clear, non-forking path leading to a cushy, full professorship has been busted.

According to research from the Conference Board of Canada, only around 19 per cent of PhDs end up as full-time university professors, and more than half don’t end up in academia at all.

Jennifer Polk is a PhD graduate in history from the University of Toronto who runs a company called Beyond the Professoriate, which is designed to help PhD students find careers. She says that while in many cases the PhD is useful in getting these jobs, in some cases it isn’t the leading factor in gaining employment.

Polk says that when people end up working in fields different from what their PhD was in, the degree doesn’t necessarily give them an advantage. “I don’t think that the way the PhD programs are structured now are doing as good a job as they could at giving PhDs skills that are transferable to other industries.”

In other cases, it just might be a longer path to get where you want to go. Christelle Paré, a part-time professor at the U of O’s Department of Communications, is teaching one part-time class, while doing a postdoctoral fellowship, and teaching at the École nationale de l’humour in Quebec. She eventually plans to get a full-fledged professorship, but she says it can be a tedious path, even for part-time gigs.

“You need to find an opening in your field, and not only in your field, but with your profile,” she said. “You can be very competent, be extremely smart, have a very nice resume, but if your personality or your research projects do not fit with some of the professors’ ideology or priorities, then they will pick somebody else.”

Dumoulin says she’s heard all about the problems with getting a job with a PhD in Communications. “In the PhD world, they talk about ‘publish or perish,’ they talk about how professors aren’t hiring, that it’s really hard to get tenure, and the issue with the part-time professors now,” she said. “There’s all kinds of negativity around there.”

But on the other hand, depending on your field, a PhD might give you a competitive advantage. Bela Joos, assistant chair, academic (Graduate Studies) and full professor in the Department of Physics at the U of O, says that in some cases, people use the technological knowhow gained in a PhD to start a company of their own, or transition into industry in some other way.

“You discover a new way of doing things,” he said.  “If you push science to the limit, answering questions which are of interest, then you can advance technology.”

Sicard said that while a PhD can be hard in the short-term, it can be the only way to open some doors in your future, both in academics and in industry. “When you do your PhD it’s inherently a long game proposition,” he said. You’re knowing that you’re going to suffer in the trenches for a little bit longer early on, but when you leave and then you go and find a job—for certain kinds of jobs—there can be a bit more vertical mobility in STEM fields.”

By all accounts, demand for a specific field of study affects if a PhD leads to a job. But one student says it’s foolish to let that be the deciding factor. Dumoulin says that whether or not there’s a clear demand for her specific area of studies, studying the use of metaphor in fiction to discuss diseases like HIV/AIDS, she plans to take an entrepreneurial approach and show her desired employers why they do, in fact, need her skills after all.

“I don’t think there is a traditional career path after a PhD program,” she said. “Maybe teaching at a high-level university isn’t the way to go, maybe you want to teach at a smaller place first, or maybe you want to teach college courses, or maybe you need to be creative and teach online classes… I don’t really buy into the negativity.”

But getting the job isn’t the whole story. It can be the case that a PhD gets you a job, but not one you find fulfilling.

“It can be depressing if you don’t get the job you want,” said Tom Baker, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the U of O. “You could get to a job where you’re maybe just making chemicals every day and that’s not what you want, you really want something that has more of a research component, a problem solving component.”

The ups and downs of finishing a PhD

There’s only one thing standing in the way of walking away with that prized piece of PhD paper—the small matter of dedicating four years (maybe more) to rigorous, self-directed academics, often while only scraping by financially.

First things first, let’s talk about the almighty dollar. In terms of short-term finances, the prospects aren’t great.

Even if a PhD happens to open up more career options, it definitely doesn’t guarantee you a huge starting salary. A report from the Conference Board of Canada found that the average starting salary for a PhD is around $5,000.

“It’s a sacrifice … they’re not making very much money,” said Baker. “It’s just enough to keep the lights turned on in your apartment, and usually you would need a little supplemental help from your family.”

“It is hard to see people who you did your bachelor’s with, and see them have ‘grown-up jobs’,” said Sicard. “They’re working for a bank, or a law firm, and they’re having a mortgage, and you’re thinking, ‘gee, I’m still in school, struggling, with a project that’s not even working.”

But he says that feeling can be worth it in the long-run, knowing that without a PhD, he wouldn’t have access to some of the higher-end jobs he seeks.

Many doctoral students are also keeping a close eye on the clock during their studies, because after the standard four-year time frame the funding starts to dry up.

Timothy Stanley, a professor in the Faculty of Education, says that in many cases the scholarship system for PhDs in Ontario is only set up for people who take four years to finish their PhD. However, he says that many students end up taking longer.

“What happens to a student when they get to their fifth year is they’re out of money, and often have to go back to work, or do a lot of part-time work, all of which takes them longer to finish.”

In addition to their cash, PhD students must be judicious with their time. Managing academic work along with networking and attending conferences, TA positions, research grants, and other elements of the position requires some attentive planning.

“A lot of people can get overwhelmed that they have to set up five or six (chemical) reactions in a day, and they have to do marking, and TA-ing, and take courses and eventually worry about your seminar,” said Sicard. “And so eventually it appears to be so much work, so if you don’t have the practice in managing your time properly you can get easily overwhelmed.”

Perhaps even more important than managing time is motivating yourself to follow through, according to some students. This is especially true when you aren’t having any breakthroughs, and can’t even be sure any are forthcoming.

“Depending how uncharted territory your project is, you have to deal with a lot of failures and a lot of coming to terms with the fact that no matter now excited you were about your idea, it could just be a dud,” said Sicard. “At least half of the time I invested in my master’s degree resulted in a project that was eventually abandoned.” He said the process can be similar, or worse at the PhD level.

The state of the system

Completing a PhD is in many ways a solitary task, so it’s easy to forget there is an entire academic system that surrounds these students.

The goal of the system is to get students through their doctorate degrees, but the prevalence of several common issues affecting students is leading some professors to think the system needs serious adjustment.

One important piece of the puzzle is mental health resources for PhD students.

A survey done by the University of California, Berkeley found that, of those surveyed, 47 per cent reached the threshold considered depression. This was a higher level than seen in master’s students, which was 37 per cent.

The report found that the number one factor determining levels of satisfaction with life and depression was career outlook, followed by physical health, living conditions, academic engagement, social support, and financial confidence.

“I think that as a university, we’re only beginning to see how challenging it is to deal with the mental health challenges of our graduate students,” said Michael Orsini, vice-dean of graduate studies in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the U of O.

He also says that in some cases, there’s an implicit assumption by some people that grad students should be able to handle themselves. “Somehow there’s an assumption that you can’t be a graduate student but also experiencing these mental health challenges, and I think that’s wrong.”

Orsini said the PhD process can be difficult in itself, especially the periods of isolation that can come with it. “It’s not surprising that we’re encountering students who are really struggling,” he said. “I really do think it’s one of the biggest challenges facing us in graduate studies right now.”

Another factor is the gap in costs for international students, who face significantly higher tuition rates than domestic students at Canadian universities. This means they may not be able to attend them, and even if they are able to go, professors with research budgets may not be able to afford to take them.

“It’s hard for (international students) to actually afford to go here,” said Baker.  “When they apply, I write them back and say, you realize you’re going to have to pay all this money, I can’t give you more money so you can cover three times the tuition, so then I don’t hear from them again usually.”

Yahya Albkari, a PhD student in chemistry who originally hails from Libya, said it was hard to find a supervisor when he was applying. “You have to find a supervisor, it’s very difficult because of the tuition fees,” he said. While some professors have research budgets to pay PhDs, the high cost of international students can get in the way. “Most supervisors can’t do that, so it’s very, very tough to get accepted, especially here in Canada for international students.”

Baker said that the lack of international students in PhD programs is not ideal for him. “I would like to have some of the best students from other countries as well, because you’re really looking for the quality student, and other people who want to succeed,” he said.

“It’s just an unfortunate thing for the international students, because they’re excited to come, and then I have to tell them ‘maybe you want to go to a different university.’”

So… is it worth it?

So, after contending with all these factors that are affecting today’s PhD students, what’s the final verdict? Is it worth it?

Well, anyone at least partially steeped in the world of academia won’t be surprised by the answer—it depends.

The fact is, outcomes vary widely based on the the topic of the PhD, the person themselves, and other factors like a chance scientific discovery. But it can’t be denied that there are serious challenges students have to overcome to finish and profit from their doctoral degrees.

There are many factors to consider beyond if you like the subject or want a job in it. Studying the job market and how it might change is important, as is learning about the lifestyle of those taking and graduated from the PhD program. There are still large problems to be fixed, like the lack of full understanding of how to adapt to people’s mental health needs. And in some cases, like those of international students, you may not even be afforded the choice of completing a PhD in Canada.

The decision to get a PhD is more complex than ever. So if you are considering it, make sure to study up.

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