 What's happening? It's Shane here. And in today's video, we are going to be going over the 2022 version of the doctoral degree tier list. All right. I saw the comments from last year. I didn't include certain degrees and a lot of people wanted me to include them in this year's list. So if you don't see a degree on here that you want to see, comment down below. Let me know which one it is and it'll probably make it into next year's. But with that being said, we are going to be going over the best and the worst doctoral degrees. And before we get into that, make sure to gently tap the like button, hit the subscribe button and ring the notification bell. And let's jump right into it. First one we're going to go over is business related doctoral degrees. So you got business administration, about 1,900 people graduated with a doctorate in that one last year, business management, marketing and related support services about 3,300 people graduated with that one last year. And of course, there's a lot of career paths you could go down. One of them would be a business analyst, business analysts that have PhDs make about $85,000 a year. And this is according to Glassdoor.com. Okay, so not amazing $85,000 a year for getting a PhD, which PhDs are incredibly difficult to get, not that great, but also not that bad either. So, you know, when it comes to business related skills, I've said this so many times on the channel, but I think that you have to actually work or start a business or something along those lines in order to learn these skills. It's not something you can learn in the classroom. But yeah, so I'm going to go ahead and put this one into b tier. Next on the list is going to be a general PhD, which is doctor of philosophy, but specifically in order to become a professor, right? So if you're somebody who gets a PhD and your plan is to become a professor and you have a really good chance of achieving that goal, then that is what I'm going to be talking about here. Now, professors make around $114,000 a year, which is pretty good. And on top of that, the career does have good job satisfaction. So if you are able to become a professor, I'm going to go ahead and put that into s tier status, but that is a big if next one is going to be a PhD in economics. And last year, about 900 people graduated with this one. And you could expect to make around $101,000 per year. So pretty good. Not a whole lot of people graduating with it though. But I'm going to go ahead and put this one into b tier. Next one on the list is going to be a PhD in physics. And last year, about 1600 people graduated with this one. Now the average salary for a physicist is around $113,000 per year. That does include physicists that only have masters as well. So the PhD would likely be a little bit higher. And physics, of course, is one of those subjects where it's probably best learned in a classroom. And so for this one, I'm going to go ahead and put it into a tier. Next one on the list is going to be a general PhD that is non stem and also non professor, right? So this would be something like getting a PhD in sociology, for instance, and then not becoming a professor. So the national average salary for a sociologist is about $53,000. That's of course very low for somebody who has a PhD, the difficulty of getting a PhD and the cost that you would likely accumulate not only, you know, student loans, but also your time. It's really hard to justify this one. But you know, if it's something you're really passionate about, and you're not doing it for the money, I can see why you're doing it. So I'm going to go ahead and put this one into D tier. Next one on the list is going to be an acupuncturist and some people actually do get a doctorate in order to do acupuncture. And the average acupuncturist makes about $55,000. Those are the lucky ones though, because most acupuncturists are not able to find employment. So getting a doctorate in order to maybe make $55,000 a year, probably not though, likely not going to be a good choice for most people. This one definitely goes into F tier. Next one on the list is going to be architect. So getting a PhD and architecture. The average architect makes about $90,000 per year, according to Glassdoor. And if you had a PhD, you would probably make even more than that. So yeah, pretty decent, doesn't really pop off the page though, you know, the amount of education you have to get in order to become an architect that has a PhD, that's a lot 90,000. And I'm going to go ahead and put this one into B tier. Next on the list would be an art related PhD. And so this one would be like becoming a musician. And again, this is becoming a musician and then not becoming a professor. Now in very, very rare circumstances, like, let's say you are a world class guitarist, you've been doing it since you were a kid. And you know, you get an offer to go to like a really good school and work with somebody who's like the, you know, top five guitarist in the world. So in very rare circumstances, 0.01% of the time this might be worth it. But for 99.9% of people out there, absolutely not going to be worth it from a financial perspective at least. So you know, this one musicians make about $46,000 a year, getting a doctorate to make $46,000 a year and your job prospects probably aren't very good. Just not worth it. This one goes into F tier. Next on the list is going to be chiropractor. And last year, about 2,500 people graduated with this degree. Average base pay for chiropractors is around $71,000 per year. That is not very good, especially for a professional doctorate degree. And the thing that's the worst about this one is it has some of the highest debt to income ratios out of any of the doctoral degrees. These schools are absolutely scamming people. It's a scam. So chiropractors might be making $70,000 a year and be $350,000 in debt. So if you can go to a school where you don't go deep into debt, a school that doesn't scam you, maybe this could be worth it for you, especially if you open up your own practice. So for that reason, I'm going to go ahead and put this one into D tier. Next one is going to be dentist, which had about 6,300 graduates last year. According to Glassdoor, they make about 166,000, which is pretty good. They're also in healthcare, which does tend to be pretty stable. So yeah, overall dentist is a pretty solid option. There is a lot of schooling. Dentists also oftentimes have to go very deep into debt. So many dentists will have, you know, $300,000 in student loan debt. And then if they want to open up their own practice, that might be another $1 million, you know, for a business loan. But if you're okay with delaying your gratification until you're like in your mid 30s, before you start making a lot of money and you get out of debt, then dentist can be a really good choice. So I'm going to go ahead and put this one into A tier. Next one on the list is going to be a lawyer and they get a Juris doctor degree. Yes, lawyer is a doctorate. Last year, about 34,000 people got their JD. The average attorney here in the United States makes about $112,000 a year. However, there is a lot of unemployment for lawyers. Many of them are not able to get a job. Also has some of the lowest job satisfaction out of all the jobs out there. And it seems to be rapidly getting saturated as well. Now this is one of those careers that's high risk, high reward. There are lawyers who make tens of millions of dollars a year. And then there's other lawyers who, you know, can't even find a job, they can't find a gig, right? So if you're somebody who's very competitive, this might be a good one for you. But overall, the highest I can put it is C tier. Next one on the list is going to be an optometrist. And this is one where last year, I believe I put it in either C tier or B tier. And you know, I did a lot of studying since then. I looked into it quite a bit. And I was wrong. Okay, so I think because of the fact that people are spending so much time looking at computers, looking at TV screens, like 11 hours a day, no, literally look it up. I believe it's like 10 or 11 hours a day on average, looking at your phone, your computer or your TV screen. Because of that fact, people's vision is rapidly deteriorating. It's getting way worse. And so there is going to be a lot more demand for the services of optometrists in the near future. So last year, about 1600 people graduated with this degree, not that many at all. So I don't think it's going to be getting saturated. And they make about $121,000 a year on average, which is really good. So yeah, this one, I am going to actually bump this one up all the way to A tier. Next one on the list is going to be an orthodontist, endodontist, periodontist, basically a dental specialist. They make about $220,000 a year, which is extremely good. And this is basically where you're a dentist. And then you decide, you know what, I want to specialize in something. So you become an orthodontist, really good money, very stable job. Again, it's even more schooling, more debt. So, you know, that is not great for everybody. But overall, if you can handle that, this one is definitely A tier. Next one on the list is going to be the degree that I got a PharmD in order to become a pharmacist. Last year, there were about 14,000 graduates who got a PharmD and they make on average about $122,000 a year. So this is really good. Usually getting a PharmD takes somewhere between six to eight years. Now, the debt to income ratio is actually really good for pharmacists when you compare them to a lot of the other healthcare professions out there. But there also is some saturation that is occurring in the pharmacy world. So overall, I'm going to put this one into B tier. Next one on the list is going to be a physical therapist, a doctorate of physical therapy or DPT. Last year, there were about 11,500 graduates. Now, physical therapists make about on average around $76,000 per year, which is pretty low compared to the amount of education that you have to get for this. However, I think the reason for that is because there are so many different people who want to become a physical therapist because it has some of the highest job satisfaction that you see out of any of the careers out there. So if you're someone who doesn't care too much about making a lot of money, you're okay with just like an okay amount of money. But you really care about job satisfaction. I could definitely see why you would go for this. So overall, I'm going to put this one into B tier. Next one on the list is going to be psychology. Now, there's a few different degrees that you can go for. You could get a PhD in psychology, which is a little bit more research based, or you could get a PsyD in psychology, which tends to be a little bit more clinical based. PhDs do tend to make quite a bit more. So, you know, they make around $88,000 a year, whereas clinical would be around $76,000. PhD also is a lot more schooling though. So, you know, depending on which one you go for, this one can be worth it for you. A lot of people really love psychology. They're very passionate about it. So I'm going to go ahead and put this one into C tier. Next one on the list is going to be a PhD in chemistry, which last year around 2,700 people graduated with this degree. National average for chemist salaries is around $97,000 per year. With a PhD, it would probably be even higher than that. So yeah, this is another one of those subjects where absolutely it can be worth it for you to pursue higher education, not only from a foundational aspect like how much you are learning, but also it can be sometimes worth it from a financial aspect as well. So I'm going to go ahead and put this one into B tier. Next one on the list is going to be a teacher, somebody who gets a doctorate in education. Last year, about 2,600 people graduated with a general education degree and 4,300 graduated with an educational leadership and administration degree. Now, the national average for instructors is about $60,000 a year. If you got a PhD, you'd likely be making more than that. With that being said, that's still pretty low for having to get a PhD. But one thing that's pretty nice about this is education degrees do have very low unemployment rates. So you will very likely be able to find a job if you get this degree. So overall, all things being equal, I'm going to go ahead and put this one into C tier. Next one on the list is going to be an engineering related PhD. And last year, about 2,200 people graduated with an electrical or electronics engineering PhD. So electrical engineers make about $95,000 a year on average. And if you had a PhD, you would probably be making much more than that, well over six figures a year. Now the great thing about engineering degrees is they're pretty much good at every single level, whether you have a PhD or whether you just get kind of an associates and become like an engineering technician. They're just good at every single level. So for that reason, this one is going to go into S tier. Next on the list is going to be a technology related PhD. So something like computer and information sciences. Last year, about 1,900 people did graduate with a PhD in that one. And an information scientist makes about $103,000 a year. So this is one where I'm very conflicted because, you know, a lot of the time the best programmers, the best people in technology are self taught, or maybe they got like an associates or a bachelor's and then they teach themselves the rest of the way. But at the same time, you know, the numbers here are very good. So it's one of those things where if you've got a PhD in it, you'd probably be able to find a job and you'd probably be very well off. But at the same time, is it really worth it for you to spend that many years of your life doing something where you could probably learn the same skills in real life while you're getting paid? So I'm sure there are certain exceptions where, you know, it's better to learn these types of skills in school. But for the most part, you know, when it comes to technology, do the least amount possible to get yourself into a position where you can get paid to teach yourself. So for that reason, I'm going to go ahead and put this one into a tier. Next one on the list is going to be a PhD in mathematics. Last year, about 1,900 people graduated with a PhD in mathematics and statistics. And mathematicians make about $90,000 a year. You can become a mathematician with just a master's degree, but it's kind of recommended that you get a PhD. This is another one of those subjects where it probably is best taught in the classroom. So yeah, this one is pretty decent and it's going to just sneak into a tier. Next one on the list is going to be a veterinarian, basically an animal doctor. Last year, about 2,900 people graduated with this degree. And it's called a doctor of veterinary medicine, which is DVM. Veterinarians make about $93,000 per year on average. That's pretty decent. They are known for having extremely high debt rates. Another one where the schools are just charging astronomical prices. So if you are able to get this degree without going super deep into debt, can be worth it for you. I'm going to go ahead and put this one into very low B tier status. It's just going to squeak into B tier. Next one on the list is going to be a doctor of nursing practice or DNP. This is going to be a doctorate level nurse practitioner. And last year, about 3,500 people graduated with a nursing practice doctorate. So nurse practitioners make about $121,000 a year. If you were to get a doctorate, you would probably be making more than that because generally nurse practitioners only have master level degrees. So this one is definitely going to be S tier. Maybe the best one on this entire list. Couldn't get too much into the details on this one. Of course, other videos on my channel, I get way more into the details. But this video would have just been way too long if I did that. So really hope you enjoyed it. Check out my other videos right here. I made them just for you. Go ahead, gently tap the like button, hit that subscribe button, ring the notification bell and comment down below any thoughts, comments, criticisms, etc. that you have on the video and I will see you next time.