>aimed at commodity phd students in regular universities
Woof.
Woof.
I did my PhD in an in-demand field at a top uni.
My partner did their PhD in a less in-demand field at a not so top uni.
The difference in our experiences -- and how those experiences were directly impacted by the financial motivations of the department/university -- was beyond staggering. My partner was cheap teaching labor. I was a source of fellowship+grant money and potentially valuable patents/prestige. I could leave and 10x my salary with a single email (ultimately did). My partner would've been lucky to teach high school. In literally every interaction with the university, you could tell.
Universities are just another org with budget and headcount and metrics to optimize. Academia is no longer sheltered from the shitty labor politics of finance capitalism. NEVER let anyone tell you otherwise.
I had a half dozen tenure-track offers and decided on industry. Honestly, academia is not what it used to be. Lots of professors come close to killing their under-paid grad students so that they can spend 20% of their time on blue sky research ideas. I get that time and then some without throwing poor kids under the bus. Without even asking, really. And make 3x what I would've made as a slave driver to boot.
Academia sucks, especially if you want to do good research. Seriously, outside of tippy-top elite institutions that can get the very best and brightest phd students, colleges and universities are some of the absolute worst places to do research these days.
And if you want to teach CS, don't bother with a PhD. Just ad junct a bit on the side of an industry gig, do not-insanely-bad, and you'll be full time within a year or two. If you want. Which you very likely wont, because teaching one class on the side while engineering is a lot more fun than teaching full time. Teaching is exhausting, even for people who love teaching.
Second, set expectations with your advisor -- you are not there to further your advisor's career, you are pursuing your own career goals and are not just cheap labor. If you start doing random tasks that your advisor needs done, tasks that are not related to your own research, you will find yourself doing those tasks all the time. It is like any other job, you need to make it clear that you are not going to work outside of your role.
Finally, and most important of all, keep your dignity and remember that you can always take a more satisfying job (for better pay). Make sure you pick up a master's degree ~2 years into the PhD program, it helps if you want to leave. You should never feel like you are trapped; years spent in a PhD program will count as years of relevant employment at most tech companies (at least those I am familiar with). The only reason you need a PhD is if you want a tenure track position, and you should know that junior faculty face a new lineup of BS as they work towards tenure.
I'm not actually sure what semantics you're referring to, btw. AFAIK you went to CMU ECE (not SCS) and not Harvard so I'm not so sure you can make that comparison anyway. How exactly do you think I should prove it?
Didn't you say "its over for you" previously
> You're at Amazon and probably earning more than most people here
I find that unlikely
> Both scenarios seem favorable for your future
Is it?
Don't feed the trolls and instead read both of the replies to your original comment that focused on constructive advice.
It never was. And politics in general, not just labor.
That has more to do with the field than the school. A CS grad student at a third-tier school can leave and take a well-compensated corporate job whenever they want. A history grad student at a top-tier school will find that more difficult.