 the doctoral degree tier list. In this video, I'm going to be talking about the best and the worst doctoral level degrees, and I'm going to be ranking the doctoral degrees from S tier, which is the best, to F tier, which is the worst. And I've been hard at work ranking these for the new year and I've added some new things in this year. This is going to be the best list I've ever released. And we're going to be going over really important things that you need to know like salary, demand, et cetera. But the biggest difference in this year's list is instead of just focusing on the demand of the careers in general, I'm going to be focusing on the demand at the entry level. Right? Because there's some careers that have a lot of demand overall, but at the entry level, it's really hard to break in. So that was an improvement that I made on this year's list and that's why I think it's going to be the best list ever. So if you appreciate these types of videos, go ahead and absolutely blast that like button like Dr. Strange and let's jump into it. All right, so there is a lot to go over in this video. I actually have 36 pages of notes on this. So we're going to try to go through this fast so it's not like a 30 or 40 minute video. All right, so the first one on the list that I'm going to talk about is architect. So here are the stats for architects on BLS. This is one where typically in order to get those really good jobs, you are going to have to get a master's or a doctoral level degree. According to BLS, architects make about $80,000 a year. There's 133,000 jobs and it's growing at 8%, which is faster than average. Now, 80,000 a year isn't that good if you got a doctorate. That's a lot of debt to go into and a lot of time that you're going to have to spend in order to get that degree, but it's also not terrible. So this one goes into C tier. Next one on the list is acupuncturist. I've explained this one before, acupuncture, natural medicine, that sort of thing. I have nothing against it. Don't get me wrong, like I've got comments about that. Like I'm a natural medicine hater. I'm not, it's just when it comes to the stats, it's not very good. I did that analysis of the debt to income ratio and this one had one of the worst debt to income ratios about 4.6 to one. So yeah, this one goes into F tier. Next one on the list is going to be an art related PhD. Now, according to Glassdoor, artists make $46,000 a year. According to LinkedIn, there's about 28,000 entry level results for artists. And just typically speaking, art related degrees in general for 99.9% of people are not going to be worth it. So yeah, this one goes into F tier. Next one on the list is college professor, but this one has an asterisk. Okay, if you want to become a college professor, I have nothing against that. I think it's actually a really cool job to have. But with that being said, it's very difficult to become a college professor with the majors that are saturated, right? Majors where it's difficult to make money in the first place or they're saturated, there's a lot of people trying to become college professors in those majors. And so it's going to be very difficult. And paradoxically, the ones where there's not a lot of people trying to become college professors like engineering, for instance, AKA degrees that lead to really good job outcomes, there's much more opportunity to become a professor. So yeah, college professor, very difficult to get into. But if you have the right plan, you're the right type of person, right situation, et cetera, you can make this work. So this one I'm going to give B tier, but again, with a huge asterisk, you have to make sure you plan this one out. Next one on the list is chiropractor. And I talked about this one in last year's list. And basically this one has the absolute worst debt to income ratio out of any type of doctoral level degree. It had a 4.9 to one debt to income ratio. If you look up chiropractor on BLS, it says they make about $70,000 a year, 50,000 jobs available, and it's growing at 7%, which is faster than average. If you look it up on Glassdoor, they make about $107,000 a year. And if you type in chiropractor on LinkedIn at the entry level, there's only about 6,000 results. So this is one that requires some subtlety because you can start your own practice as a chiropractor and have a lot of success, but it's pretty difficult to just go out there and get a job. So you need to really be careful if you try to become a chiropractor. So overall, really be careful with this one, but I'm going to go ahead and put it into D tier. Next one on the list is dentist. So dentists make about $159,000 a year, according to BLS, there's 155,000 jobs available, and it's growing at 7%, which is faster than average. According to Glassdoor, dentists make about $251,000 a year. And according to LinkedIn, at the entry level, there's 17,000 results. So this is one that I personally don't like, but that's just me personally. The reason I don't like it is because a lot of the time, not only do you have to take out a bunch of money to go to school, usually around like $250,000, but on top of that, if you want to make the really good money, you're going to have to start your own practice. And guess what? You're going to have to take out a business loan for that. So a lot of the time, dentists will literally end up like a million plus dollars in debt. It's seriously not that uncommon to see. And so by the time you get above ground, by the time you get back to a $0 net worth, you're probably going to be somewhere in between 35 to 45 years old. So for me personally, I really value the younger years of my life. Like I want to actually enjoy myself while I'm young. So I don't want to be like, you know, a million dollars in debt when I'm 30 years old, for instance, but I can see why this one can work out for the types of people who are very sort of like long term thinkers. So I'm going to go ahead and put this one into a tier. Next one on the list is going to be lawyer. Now, according to BLS lawyers make $122,000 a year. And according to Glassdoor, they make 112,000. There's also 823,000 jobs available and it's growing at 6%, which is faster than average. Now, if you look up lawyer on LinkedIn at the entry level, you're going to see 15,000 results. That is a massive problem because there is a ton of people graduating with this degree every year. So it is super, super difficult, especially when you first break in to become a lawyer. So this can be a great career for eight type personalities, people who are extremely proactive, really hard workers, probably also really competitive types as well. Because when you become a lawyer, especially when you're a new lawyer, you are going to be working like 80 hours a week minimum. One of the toughest jobs out there for sure. And the type of work you're going to be doing is the grunt work, right? You're going to be doing the type of work that nobody else wants to do. And in a lot of practices out there, they have a ton of leverage over you as well because you're going to be trying to become what's known as a partner. So I'm going to go ahead and put lawyer into B tier. Next one on the list is medical doctor. Now, although I think medical doctor as a career in general is a little bit overrated just because there's so many shows about it. So many people want their kids to become doctors. It's kind of like a status thing. But when you actually look into it, doctors have some of the highest rates of depression as well as suicide unfortunately, because it's a really tough job. So definitely do not become a doctor for the wrong reasons, all right? Make sure if you're trying to become a doctor you're doing it for the right reasons. But with that being said, doctors make great money. You're going to make probably over $250,000 a year. With some specialties you'll make well over 500,000. You are going to have to give up a significant amount of your life. And being a doctor in general, like it is your life pretty much. You know, there's always new medical studies you need to study, new medications, new advancements, et cetera. So even when you're off the clock you're still going to be studying this stuff. But with that being said for the right type of person medical doctor is S tier. Next one on the list is going to be optometrist. Optometrists make about $115,000 a year. There's 42,000 jobs available and it's growing at 10% which is faster than average. So this is one that I ranked a little bit lower last year and some people commented about it. They made some really good points and I actually agree with them. You're going to make over $100,000 a year. It's growing at over 10% which is faster than average. Make sure you go to a good school where you're not going to go deep into debt with this one. But overall, especially for a doctoral level degree pretty good, I'm going to put it into B tier. Next one on the list is going to be a dental specialist. So it could be an orthodontist, periodontist or an endodontist. So this is basically somebody who became a dentist and they went even further and specialized and maybe became an orthodontist for instance. So this is going to be even more time and again has a lot of the same problems with dentists. You're going to have to start your own practice most likely and yeah, you're going to have to go deep in debt. But with that being said, you are going to make phenomenal money. For instance, endodontists make about $232,000 a year. If you start your own practice you'll make a lot more than that. And if you look up periodontist on LinkedIn you're going to see about 7,500 results at the entry level. So this one is also going into A tier. Next one on the list is pharmacists. This is one I've talked about many times on this channel. I myself am a pharmacist. So pharmacists make about $128,000 a year. There's 314,000 jobs available. And unfortunately the job outlook is growing at 0%. According to Glassdoor, pharmacists make $128,000 a year. And according to LinkedIn at the entry level there's about 30,000 results for pharmacists. So there's about 14,000, 15,000 pharmacists graduating per year. 30,000 results at the entry level. Now these stats on BLS are actually incorrect right now because in the last few years the surge of demand for pharmacists has increased quite a bit. It actually increased so much that they were even offering pharmacists sign-on bonuses. They were trying to incentivize people to go to their company because they needed so many of them. But with that being said the reason why the demand is so bad for this one is because basically the schools are just completely out of control. They're opening schools left and right. There's way too many schools that are just churning out pharmacy students. And somebody kind of needs to put a clamp on that kind of like medical doctor schools did. And once they do that this profession will be totally fine. And also with that being said there's a lot of people who go into pharmacy and they think they're gonna be a retail pharmacist and they think that's the only type of pharmacist, right? But there's actually 50 other types of pharmacists. So definitely look into this and look at all the different specialties. Retail pharmacy is typically the least liked one. A lot of people do not want to go into retail. So just keep that in mind. And it did have a debt to income ratio of about 2.2 to one which isn't too bad. So yeah, this one is gonna go into A tier for doctoral level degrees. Next one on the list is physical therapist. The debt to income ratio here is about 2.5 to one. So a little bit less good but physical therapists actually have the highest job satisfaction out of any job on this list. So physical therapists make about $89,000 a year. There's 247,000 jobs and it's growing at 22% which is much faster than average. According to Glassdoor they make 82,000 and on LinkedIn if you type that in at the entry level you're gonna see 73,000 results. So the money isn't amazing to be honest with you especially with the amount of schooling you have to go through but this one does have the highest job satisfaction so you do have to count that in and I think I'm counting that a little bit more this year and it's also relatively good at the entry level. So for that reason I am gonna put physical therapist in A tier. Next one on the list is going to be a psychologist at the doctoral level. So there's two different degrees here. There's the PhD and then there's the PSID. The debt to income ratio is a bit high here at 3.2 to one and if you look up psychologists on BLS they make about $80,000 a year. There's 181,000 jobs available but it is growing at 14% which is much faster than average and if you look up psychologist on Glassdoor you're gonna see 85,000 a year. If you look up psychologist on LinkedIn at the entry level you're gonna see 136,000 results. All right so there's a few positives here when it comes to becoming a psychologist. One of the positives is you absolutely do have to have a degree so there is that barrier to entry. It is a very interesting subject as well. A lot of people are very fascinated by psychology but with that being said I see a huge mistake that so many people make and that is they'll major in psychology in undergrad not realizing that in order to get any good jobs any halfway decent jobs they're gonna need to get a master's at minimum and even then it's probably not good enough. Typically they're gonna have to get a doctorate and a lot of people do not realize this going in. So you really need to do your research honestly with any of these doctoral degrees. I would say that doctorates are not good for 95% of people's situations, right? Make sure you do your research if you consider any of these doctorates but I'll go ahead and put this one into C tier. Next one on the list is going to be a science related PhD. So science is the worst of all the different types of STEM degrees typically especially at the bachelor's level but at the doctoral level they can be okay. So scientists for instance on Glassdoor make about $107,000 a year and if you type in scientist on LinkedIn at the entry level you're gonna see 32,000 results. But yeah, be careful here because there's a lot of people who are really fascinated by science they'll get the bachelor degree they think they can get a job they can't so they end up having to go back and get a master's or a doctorate. So definitely plan this one out. So I think I'm gonna go ahead and put this one into B tier. Next one on the list is going to be social science and humanity related PhDs. Another one where the degrees are really bad at the bachelor's level typically you're not gonna be able to get a job in anything related to the major at the bachelor's level and in many cases not even at the master's level but if you are able to get to that doctoral level you might have a chance. But again, I mean I feel like a broken record I can't stress this enough make sure you do your research if you consider any PhD especially if you're going for like a social science related PhD. So if you type in the keyword social science on Glassdoor they show about $90,000 a year and if you look up social sciences on LinkedIn that keyword is in about 12,000 different job postings. So this one I'll go ahead and put into D tier overall. Next one on the list is going to be PIM related PhDs. So not the STEM, just the TE and the M. So that's technology, engineering and mathematics. So obviously a ton of super, super high paying jobs here it is questionable whether you need a doctorate in a lot of these. But with that being said if you're going into something like machine learning, AI, that sort of thing something that's incredibly complicated like that getting a doctorate can help. And there's going to be a ton of demand. For instance, you know, computer engineering 109,000 results at the entry level and there's lots and lots of jobs out there that are super high paying. I mean, you're definitely going to be making over six figures a year. This one I will put into A tier. Next one on the list is going to be doctorates of education aka doctorates to become a teacher. Now high school teachers make about $61,000 a year. If you get a doctorate, you'll very likely make more than that. The positives of being a teacher is you're almost guaranteed to have a job. They have an incredibly low unemployment rate. The negatives of being a teacher is you're going to get worked really hard. Doesn't pay all that well. You work super, super hard. And then you're just going to be making basically the same amount for a very long time. So this one overall, because of the fact that you're very likely to get a job I will put it into C tier. Next one on the list is going to be veterinarians. So veterinarians make about $95,000 a year. There's 84,000 jobs available. And it's growing at 18%, which is much faster than average. Now interestingly enough, if you look up veterinarian on Glassdoor, it shows they make about $211,000 a year. And if you look up veterinarian on LinkedIn at the entry level, it shows about 18,000 results. So overall this one did rise in the rankings this year. I looked into it a little more deeply. Also some people left comments and I do read those comments and they made some pretty good arguments. So I am going to go ahead and put this one into B tier. Now, one thing I did want to mention here is a lot of the medical related degrees are really good because you absolutely have to get the degree in order to get licensed and to get into that profession. That creates what's known as a barrier to entry. So other people who want to get into the profession also have to get the degree and jump through those hoops. And that's a good thing for you if you already have the degree. Another thing I want to mention is a lot of the time PhD programs, so not professional degrees, but PhD programs can be incredibly long and incredibly difficult. Right, so I've talked about this in other videos and I estimate that the average PhD, AKA the time it takes to get your bachelor's, master's and then your PhD, is going to be over 13 years. So if you start at 18, you're likely not going to get your PhD until you're 31 or 32. And the average PhD holder goes over $100,000 in debt. And again, I broke this down extensively in the video why you shouldn't go to graduate school. Now I've heard so many horror stories about PhD programs honestly. Like it's actually crazy how many horror stories I've heard. But somebody on this channel who I interviewed who had one of those stories was Javier. And Javier was going through a PhD program. He really wasn't enjoying it and he realized that even if he was able to get through it, even if he was able to do those 80 hour plus work weeks getting paid basically nothing and get to the other side, the jobs he was looking at, first of all, probably wasn't going to be able to get the job. And second, even if he did, it didn't excite him. So what did he do instead? He went for an in-demand career like digital marketing. So if you're in this situation where you're starting to research more and realize that the path you're heading down is not very good and that graduate school in many cases is very similar to a pyramid scheme, I highly recommend you check out that video. And also if you're interested in getting trained in digital marketing, I do have a free training. It's actually free masterclass which I'll put down in the description as well as the pinned comment below. The masterclass is done by my friend Seth who has probably created more digital marketers than any other human being on the planet. And again, check out that interview with Javier right here.