(no subject)
A recent study of this subject concludes that bioscientists experience a "huge lifetime economic disadvantage": on the order of $400,000 in earnings discounted at 3% compared to PhD fields such as engineering, and about $1 million in lifetime earnings compared with medicine. When expected lifetime earnings of bioscientists are compared with those of MBA recipients from the same university, the study estimated a conservative lifetime difference in earnings of $1.0 million exclusive of stock options, and perhaps double that if stock options are included.
As I've always said, bio sucks, but we all still get owned by MBAs.
There are, of course, many significant non-economic rewards (or "psychic income") associated with careers in science and engineering: the wonderful intellectual challenge of research and discovery; the life of the mind in which fundamental puzzles of nature and the cosmos can be addressed; the potential to develop exciting and useful new technologies. For many, these attractions make science and engineering careers worthy of real sacrifices - "callings" analogous to those of the religious ministry or artistic expression. Happily, some fraction of talented US students will decide out of such personal values and commitments to pursue graduate degrees and careers in science or engineering, even with full knowledge that the career paths may be unattractive in relative terms.
Guess that's why I figure if I lived in any previous time I'd have been called to religion in some form.