stimulant

***** is thinking about a PhD in economics. SAIS has made her terrified of applying for a job.

Note that more advanced education has made someone more wary of the job market.

The perceived need for an advanced degree to remain competitive is a growing problem. The fact that a diploma is a commodity means that the spiral of credentials’ devaluation will only increase until the feedback loop between skills acquired and jobs available is closed by something more useful than a piece of paper.

More later on the long history of people’s attempts to wrangle the “PhD glut” (since 1982!).