多少岁读博才算晚？大龄博士的优势与劣势。

小白老师说：“如果你有足够的求知欲，并计划通过读博来发展你的职业生涯或实现你的人生价值，任何时候都不算太晚。但是，你必须综合考虑时间、成本和就业前景。”

本文摘译自哥伦比亚大学政治系助理教授 Chris Blattman 在个人博客上发表的文章 When are you too old for a PhD?

When are you too old for a PhD?

多少岁读博才算晚？

I blogged some thoughts in this spot. Not very deep ones. 18 months later, to my surprise, it was my most-read post of 2014: almost 40,000 views. Clearly, it was time to write a more thoughtful post. I sought input from readers and here’s what I’ve got.

关于这个话题，我曾在博客里发表过一些粗浅的看法。没想到 18 个月以后，这篇文章居然成了我 2014 年最受关注的文章：已经有超过 40000 条评论。显然，现在是时候根据读者的意见和我的经验完善和深入这篇文章了。

In my case, I was 28 when I started my PhD and 33 when I finished. There were a handful of people older than me in the class, in their mid-thirties. Probably the median was about 25. Even though I wasn’t that much older, my (tenured) advisor was two weeks younger than me. That smarted a little.

我 28 岁开始读博，33 岁博士毕业。当时在班上，只有少数人比我年长，班级同学年龄的平均年龄约为 25 岁。尽管我没那么老气，但一想到已经拿到终身教职的博士导师居然比我小两周，多少还是令我有点难堪。

Anyways, there were some clear advantages and disadvantages. I’ll talk about what I experienced, and what people who started older than me have added.

无论如何，任何事情总有优势和劣势。下面，我将叙述我个人的经验，并补充一些读博时比我年长之人的经验。

The short answer I like best came from one reader: “if you’re curious enough, never.” True, it is never too late to advance your professional career or your personal fulfillment with a PhD. With two important caveats. First, you properly understand the time, cost, and job prospects. Second, that if your goal is to enter elite programs and advance the research frontier, I think this gets tougher as you get older.

我最喜欢用一句简单的话来回答我的读者：“如果你有足够的求知欲，任何时候都不算晚。”这是事实，通过读博来发展你的职业生涯或实现你的人生价值，任何时候都不会太晚。但是，有两个重要的告诫：你必须正确的理解时间、成本和就业前景；其次，如果你的目标是进入精英阶层和研究前沿，我认为随着年龄的增加，这会变得越来越困难。

Admissions 申请

If you’re under 35, I don’t think age will be a huge concern for an admissions committee. They are mostly concerned with your raw intellectual potential and ability to produce distinguished research.

如果你的年龄在 35岁以下，年龄并不会成为招生委员会关注的焦点。他们更加关心你的既有知识积累和你从事卓越研究的能力。

Naturally, an admission committee will look at your career and consider what it says about you, whether it’s going to contribute to or detract from your research potential, and what the career switch says about your focus. So a lot will depend on your specific story and experience.

当然，招生委员会会根据你所从事的工作是否与你的研究潜力相关而决定是否录取你。所以，是否被录取将很大程度上取决于你独特的故事和经历。

I’ve sat on committees where experience was an advantage: political science applicants who had spent many years as international correspondents or in the state department, economics applicants who had spent several years in Treasury or finance, or sustainable development PhDs with careers in environmental science.

据我所知，很多成功的申请者具有非常好的原始理论基础和明确的工作经验积累。比如，很多成功申请政治博士的人就具有多年国际记者或政府工作经验。

All are field where applied knowledge is useful, rather than raw intellectual fluidity and power (as in, say, in math or economic theory).

如果你的年龄在 35 岁以上，招生委员会就会开始关注你的年龄，并怀疑你还能为这个领域做出多大的贡献，这一点在顶尖的研究机构里更加明显。

All the successful applied applicants I know, however, had a good rationale for a PhD and a very clear intellectual and academic thread to their previous work.

但是，事实上，以上情况只适用于顶尖大学或研究机构。也有很多大学的博士生项目，不仅会接受大龄申请者，而且很欢迎他们。

On balance, I do think that thirty-something applicants are treated with some suspicion, and that the burden is on them to make a case that they are going to be intellectually vibrant and focused. But only a little. Don’t sweat it too much, and don’t feel you have to write your statement defensively. Use your statement to describe, like anyone else, what questions interest yo and how you want to push the field ahead.

总而言之，我确实认为 30 多岁的申请者会受到一些怀疑，他们有责任证明自己将在智力上充满活力、精力集中。但只有一点点。不要担心太多，也不要觉得你写申请时刻意地带有防御性。像其他人一样，陈述你感兴趣的问题，以及你想如何推动这个领域的发展。

If you’re over 35, I think admissions committees will start to wonder how much of a contribution to the field you can make, starting late and presumably having less time to contribute. This will matter most at elite research institutions.

如果你已经超过 35 岁，我认为招生委员会将考虑你能对这个领域做出多少贡献，因为你起步晚了，可能也就没有那么多时间来贡献了。这对精英研究机构来说至关重要。

Indeed, all of the above advice mainly applies to the top research universities and PhD programs. Their goal is to train the generation who will push the field ahead in terms of research. There are many more PhD programs that serve people who want to research, teach, practice (e.g. in the private sector, government of international organizations), or simply learn.

事实上，上述建议主要适用于顶尖的研究型大学和博士课程。他们的目标是培养一代能够在研究方面推动该领域向前发展的人。现在有更多的博士课程为那些想要从事研究、教学、实践(例如在私营部门、国际组织的政府部门)或单纯学习的人服务。

Career considerations

职业生涯

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

有一些事情一定要谨记：

It’s a long slog.

读博是一个漫长的过程。

If you have an MA already, you might get away with a 2-3 year PhD at some universities (e.g. the UK), though almost never in the US. Plan on a minimum of 5 years, and more likely 6-8 depending on your discipline.

如果你已经具有硕士学位，在英国，你可能要 2 到 3 年时间才能获得博士学位。但是，在美国，这至少需要 5 年，甚至 6 到 8 年。

At best your program will cover your tuition and living expenses, and you won’t graduate with debt. You can calculate the present value of your salary sacrifice, and it will probably be large. Many people make their peace with this choice (I did) but do make it a conscious choice.

你必须在申请时就充分考虑到学费和生活费，使财务平衡，毕业时不要有债务。

Know thyself and thy options.

了解你自己，以及你的选择

Remember that your counterfactual to a PhD is to spend 5-6 years investing in something else: your current job, a new career, a non-PhD skill set, etc. Some of these opportunities might actually be paid. They will get you experience, respect, and great opportunities. T

记住，如果不读博，你可以把 5 到 6 年时间投资在其他事情上：你现有工作、一份新的职业、非博士技能等等。其中一些机会实际上是有报酬的。它们会给你带来经验、尊重和机会。

he opportunity cost of a PhD in terms of salary and other work is high. This is true for every age, of course. Your opportunity cost as a more experienced person is probably higher, though.

读博的花费很大，你必须清楚自己的选择。你用来读博的时间，其实可以用来投入其他事业。在任何时代，读博的机会成本都很高。

Make sure you understand your post-PhD career options. In some disciplines, like economics, there’s a lot of demand for PhDs and almost everyone gets a well-paid professional or academic job. Political science too, I think. Academic and even professional jobs in your field get scarcer in some social sciences and the humanities. I once heard that under a third of graduates from the best history programs in the world get academic jobs.

你必须清楚了解所学专业的职业前景。比如，经济学的博士生有很多机会得到高薪的工作。但在政治学等人文、社会科学领域，这将变得非常困难。据我所知，即使在最好的历史学专业毕业的博士生，也只有三分之一找到了学术方面的工作。

Older people will bring a lot of good things to the table.

大龄博士的优势

PhD students are not known for being good at managing people, projects, or money. Presumably you learned a few things about being a professional whatever you’ve been doing. This will serve you well, and make up for some of the disadvantages of age. Maybe even more than compensate. Certainly my experience as a management consultant helped me run large research project better and sooner.

年轻的博士生往往不善于管人员、财务等方面的管理工作。于是，拥有丰富的社会工作经验将成为年长博士们的优势。这将有利于管理和运营一个大型的科研项目。

When you’re done, as long as you’re under 35 or 40, faculty hiring committees are probably going to focus more on what you can do relative to your cohort rather than your age. They might not even look at your age or previous experience. If you’re over 40, then yes I think you’ll see job market discrimination with any major career change, whatever the career.

当你在 35 或 40 岁以下毕业时，教师招聘委员会会更加关注你在学术领域能贡献什么。但是，如果你超过了 40 岁，恐怕无论在任何行业，都会受到歧视。

But there are a few drawbacks.

大龄博士的劣势

You may or may not enjoy being around a lot of 25-year old peers, and being treated similarly by your professors.

你可能不喜欢被教授当成 25 岁的年轻人一样对待。

Unless you have savings or take on debt, you may have a much poorer lifestyle than you’ve grown accustomed to.

除非你有优良的财务状况，否则你可能面临一个比你目前要拮据的生活。

You’re more likely to have family or financial obligations when you’re older, and so you’ll have less freedom when you graduate to make high-return investments that are far flung or unpaid. Some jobs, post-docs, or fellowships won’t work out for your more complicated personal situation. You might also not be able or willing to pull 12-hour days for the same reasons.

年长的博士要承担更多的家庭经济责任，所以他们在毕业时没有自由选择那些低起点，但是长远有高回报的工作。

This is true of any later-life career change, of course, especially ones in non-profit sectors or public service.

你的晚年职业生涯将被彻底改变，特别是在非盈利和公共服务领域。

Once you’re in it, remember that no one finds a PhD easy. It is a constant source of existential angst when you’re in the midst of it. Just know that everyone else feels the same way, and it’s not a special product of how old you are or what you brought.

没有人认为读博士容易的，“读博”本身会成为你长时期的焦虑来源。