NM is definitely NOT back to normal . <| sep |> Shit , you ' re right <| sep |> Take my upvote ! Someone else who ' s not a Harry Potter zombie ! <| sep |> Quem falou em lutar , papi ? <| sep |> You ' re welcome , and feel free to pm if you have more questions . I do want to make one response to this comment I think I ' ll do a combined MastersPhD so I can work clinically if academia goes poorly . It ' s important to emphasize that having a PhD won ' t necessarily help you if you decide not to go into academia . If you do poorly in a PhD program , you could very well be worse off . It ' s not the same in all fields , but in hard science where I work , having a PhD makes you less employable . You are now more expensive higher salary , and employers will ask themselves why should they pay you more than someone with only a masters or only a bachelors . There will literally be less job opportunities available for you . The opportunities will often be better , but they are much harder to find and the competition is rough those smart people who work hard that we talked about before . It is also true that the PhD positions in industry will generally pay more than nonPhD positions , but you have to weigh that against the lost income and raises ! you didn ' t earn while you were in grad school instead of industry . It will generally take 10 years to make up the lost income , and in many cases you may never make up the lost income . This is especially true if you have a year or two of unemployment , which may happen because the PhD level jobs are more scarce . TLDR Everyone in academia will tell you how amazing having a PhD is . The real world doesn ' t care that much about your degree . I hate the term real world , but you know what I mean . edit The lost wages issue is true for the US , although I couldn ' t comment on how true it is in Australia . In the US , a grad student will generally earn 25 k , but a bachelors in STEM can often earn 60 k . Over 6 years that ' s a difference of 200 k , not counting raises .