Pursuing a PhD vs. entering the workforce after a bachelor's degree
If you act
Pursuing a PhD
25%
If you don't
Entering industry after a bachelor's
32%
Percentage who later regret each choice. Bars and full ledger render below.
Career
Last reviewed 2026-05-13
Evidence quality 4.0/5
Eight-dimension review score against the
quality rubric
. Each dimension scored 1–5.
D1 Source verification
4/5
D2 Source authority & independence
4/5
D3 Regret-rate accuracy
2/5
D4 Source comparability
3/5
D5 Gilovich pattern
5/5
D6 Prose quality
5/5
D7 Caveat completeness
5/5
D8 Sample quality
4/5
Average4.0/5
Proxy data — no direct regret survey exists for this decision. Rates are derived from satisfaction scores and access-barrier data rather than questions that directly asked about regret. See caveats below.
Action regret
Pursuing a PhD
25%
25% of PhD students are not satisfied with their decision to do a PhD (75% are satisfied; Nature 2019 survey)
PhD students worldwide (Nature 2019 survey)
retrospective, surveyed during the doctorate
Inaction regret
Entering industry after a bachelor's
32%
32% of US adults with at least a bachelor's say they would have completed more education in hindsight (Federal Reserve SHED)
US adults who completed at least a bachelor's degree
retrospective, no fixed timeframe
% who regret this choice
Pursuing a PhDEntering industry after a bachelor's
25%32%
inaction dominates — Inaction dominates — most regret not acting.
Related decisions
Semantically similar decisions — same territory, different trade-offs.
No survey asks PhD holders a clean “do you regret your doctorate” question, so both sides here rest on adjacent proxies. On the action side, Nature’s 2019 survey of more than 6,300 PhD students worldwide found that 75% were satisfied with their decision to pursue a PhD (and 71% with the experience overall) — leaving roughly a quarter who were not satisfied with the decision. PayScale’s separate survey of 248,000 US degree-holders adds broad context on degree regret: about two-thirds reported some college regret, with 27% naming student loans as their biggest misgiving. That survey’s public reporting does not break results out by degree level, so it says nothing PhD-specific. The 25% figure is the complement of the satisfaction rate, not a direct regret count, and it draws on current students rather than graduates years later.
On the inaction side, the Federal Reserve’s 2022 SHED survey found that 32% of US adults with at least a bachelor’s degree would have completed more education if they could decide again, while only 9% would have done less or skipped college entirely. That “more education” signal is broad graduate-education aspiration, not a PhD-specific wish: no survey isolates how many bachelor’s-only workers specifically regret not earning a doctorate. Gallup’s large education-decisions poll measured only field of study (36% would change it), institution (28%), and degree type (12% would obtain a different one), and explicitly did not ask about the amount or level of education.
Read together, the two proxies are close, with a slight edge toward wishing one had pursued more education (a -0.07 action-minus-inaction gap) — broadly consistent with Gilovich’s finding that inaction regret tends to dominate over the long run. The contrast should be treated as roughly comparable rather than precise, since the two figures come from different surveys measuring different constructs. Regret also varies sharply by field: STEM PhDs who move to industry frequently report high satisfaction and compensation, while humanities PhDs who could not secure tenure-track positions report considerably more. The doctoral choice remains consequential and hard to reverse — five to seven years of foregone income and career development cannot be recovered if the intended academic path does not materialise.
Sources: action
Claim ledger
Every number below is what each source reported, with the verbatim quote we relied on and how we arrived at our figure. Click any link to verify directly.
2/2 sources independently verified verbatim against the cited source
[1]Springer Nature (Nature 2019 PhD survey) — Nature PhD survey puts spotlight on mental health, harassment and student debt
Verified
Primary study
75% of PhD students were satisfied with their decision to pursue a PhD; the complementary 25% were not satisfied with the decision
Excerpt
“"Overall, the results indicated that most PhD students were satisfied with their decision to pursue a PhD (75 percent) and were also generally satisfied with their PhD experience (71 percent)."
”
Source data from
2019-11-13
Accessed
2026-06-30
Verification
Excerpt independently re-fetched and confirmed word-for-word against the cited source during our grounding audit.
Calculation
Nature's 2019 PhD survey (conducted with Shift Learning), over 6,300 PhD students worldwide. The report states 75% were satisfied with their decision to pursue a PhD; the action-regret rate of 0.25 is the direct complement of that decision- satisfaction figure. This is the closest direct affirmation-of- decision measure available; it surveys current PhD students, not a nationally representative US-graduate sample, so it is treated as a proxy (proxy_only: true).
[2]CBS News (reporting PayScale 2019 survey) — Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees
Verified
Reference source
PayScale 2019 survey of 248,000 US degree-holders: about two-thirds reported a college regret, with 27% citing student loans as their top misgiving
Excerpt
“"In a PayScale survey of 248,000 respondents this past spring, two-thirds of employees report having regrets when it comes to their advanced degrees. About 27% of survey respondents listed student loans as their top misgiving."
”
Source data from
2019-06-25
Accessed
2026-06-30
Verification
Excerpt independently re-fetched and confirmed word-for-word against the cited source during our grounding audit.
Calculation
PayScale "Biggest College Regrets" survey, 248,000 US respondents with at least a bachelor's degree (April-May 2019), as reported by CBS News. About two-thirds reported some college regret, with 27% citing student loans as their top misgiving. The CBS article breaks "no regret" responses down by field of study and by generation, not by degree level, and does not report a PhD- or doctorate-specific figure. Included as broad context on degree regret, not as the headline action rate.
Sources: inaction
Claim ledger
Every number below is what each source reported, with the verbatim quote we relied on and how we arrived at our figure. Click any link to verify directly.
2/2 sources independently verified verbatim against the cited source
[1]Federal Reserve Board (SHED) — Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2022 — Higher Education and Student Loans
Verified
↗ 1 other entry
Government report
32% of those who completed at least a bachelor's degree would have completed more education in hindsight; only 9% of people who went to college would have completed less education or not gone at all
Excerpt
“"32 percent of those who completed at least a bachelor's degree ... would have completed more education ... A far smaller 9 percent of people who went to college said that they would have completed less education or not gone to college if they could make their education decisions again."
”
Source data from
2023-05-22
Accessed
2026-06-30
Verification
Excerpt independently re-fetched and confirmed word-for-word against the cited source during our grounding audit.
Calculation
Federal Reserve 2022 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED), published May 2023. The 0.32 inaction- regret rate is the SHED finding that 32% of bachelor's-or-higher holders would have completed MORE education if they could decide again — the closest direct measure of "wish I had pursued more education." This is broad graduate-education aspiration, NOT a PhD-specific figure, so the entry is marked proxy_only: true.
[2]Gallup — Half of U.S. Adults Would Change at Least One Education Decision
Verified
↗ 3 other entries
Primary study
Of the three education decisions Gallup asked about, 36% of postsecondary-educated adults would change their field of study, 28% their institution, and 12% would obtain a different degree type
Excerpt
“"Thirty-six percent of U.S. adults who pursued or completed a postsecondary degree would choose a different field of study. Significantly fewer (28%) would select a different institution, and just 12% would obtain a different degree type."
”
Source data from
2017-06-01
Accessed
2026-06-30
Verification
Excerpt independently re-fetched and confirmed word-for-word against the cited source during our grounding audit.
Calculation
Gallup survey of 89,492 U.S. adults (June 29, 2016 – March 26, 2017). Gallup asked only about three decisions — field of study, institution, and degree type — and did NOT measure desire for more or higher education. The 12% "would obtain a different degree type" is the only graduate-credential-relevant figure and is included as context bounding the SHED "more education" signal; it is not itself a "wish I had done a PhD" rate. No survey directly measures regret over not pursuing a doctorate.
Caveats
Neither rate is a direct "do you regret pursuing (or not pursuing) a PhD" survey, so this entry is published as proxy_only. The 25% action-regret figure is the complement of the 75% of PhD students who told Nature's 2019 survey they were satisfied with their decision to pursue a PhD; it surveys current doctoral students worldwide, not US graduates years later. PayScale's 248,000-respondent regret survey provides broad context: about two-thirds of US degree-holders reported some college regret, with 27% citing student loans; that survey's public reporting does not break results out by degree level, so it is not a doctorate-specific measure. The 32% inaction-regret figure is the Federal Reserve SHED finding that 32% of US adults with at least a bachelor's would have completed MORE education in hindsight -- a broad graduate-education aspiration measure, NOT specific to doctorates. No survey directly quantifies how many bachelor's- only workers wish they had earned a PhD; Gallup's education-decisions poll measured only field of study, institution, and degree type (12% would change degree type) and explicitly did not ask about the amount of education. Because both sides rest on adjacent proxies, the small action-minus-inaction gap (-0.07) should be read as "roughly comparable, with a slight edge to wishing one had done more education" rather than a precise contrast. Regret also varies sharply by field: STEM PhDs who move to industry frequently report high satisfaction, while humanities PhDs who could not secure tenure-track positions report more. The decision is consequential and hard to reverse: five to seven years of foregone income cannot be recovered if the intended academic path does not materialise.
