[andbberger]

I'll second this. You don't do academia for career stuff, or because you think that's the path to becoming a professor. You do it because it's fun, full-time science for a couple years.

There was a thread the other day where the top-comment was some guy who quit his PhD as soon as he realized professorship wasn't an option. Personally, I find this staggeringly backwards and have trouble relating...

[mettamage]

Quite a bit of first generation students (I am one) could have trouble realizing this. They are grown up in The Netherlands with: university is the best education you can afford and it will make you the most money. And since parents of first generation students are a bit money scarce (not a lot, I'm not saying they're poor), money is important.

And according to them, if you do university education, then you don't have to work like your parents, who started having back problems between 40 and 50 because dad lifts a lot and mum is just unlucky.

Get a white collar job and don't burn your body: go to university.

If that's drilled in for the first 18 years, then yea, your opinion would be considered a new interesting one they've never heard of.