Is a PhD on Language Models Worth it in 2025?
ruiqizhong.substack.com · 1,153 words · saved by 1 readers
2025 is a wild time.
2025 is a wild time. More people from academia are heading into industry: professors do sabbaticals, senior PhD students graduate early, and junior PhD students drop out. On a recent visit to my office at Berkeley, I spoke with several second- and third-year PhD students. Shockingly, more than half1 of them were considering either dropping out or finishing early2, to join startups like OpenAI, Anthropic, or Cursor. This situation confuses incoming and early PhD students: why continue a five-year PhD program when so many senior students are heading into industry ASAP? This blog will present…
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