If you want higher earning potential, I would NOT recommend the PhD. A second master's in a related field (planning, construction management, landscape design, visual effects, graphic design, engineering, interiors, etcetera) makes much more sense in that regard.

thanks citizen.
I know business Phds make twice as much as architecture Phds. but I'm sure I won't be admitted into those programs... anyway, certain Phds do have higher earning potential.

phd seems to be great if you want a full time academic or applied research career. i'd second a, um, second masters (no pun intended). an mba is great in terms of flexibility, but you need to graduating near the top of your class no matter the school.

any ideas about what you'd like to do after you get out (no matter how vague)? i'm just wondering why you need another degree - it's cheaper to go work in a field for two years and servants pay just to learn and not carry the debt load. unless, again, you need the degree for some other reasons or you need to ride out the recession in a subsidized sort of way.

You're right, Phase, that some PhDs may be able to cash in, relative to architecture practice. But in many cases the several years in school not earning (and maybe even borrowing) can set one's financial condition back quite a bit... even to the point that higher earnings down the road may not balance it out.

Food for thought....

Oh jeezealoo not again with the more higher education and stay in architecture cuz you think that might make you more money thread.

Have you not been paying attention?

get a degree in a renewable energy engineer or somethings its called, they are in great demand right now and expected to grow, they make like 150k/year, but yeah, it does require a ton of experience, so yes and no....

I know all higher paid jobs related to architecture all need hands on experience but I can't go into those fields coz of my visa constraints.
Academic is the only way to go, but before I jump into a five year Phd program I'm wondering whether I could slightly switch my concentration that gives me a better financial potential. Yes architecture sucks, even archi professors make half as business professors.

thanks "on the fence", maybe you could direct me to those threads? there must be tons of suckers like me who worries about money.

"zen maker", I checked renewable energy, they more or less requires chemistry and CS background but thanks anyway.

If you were worried about money, I'd imagine you had already weighed in the difference between 2-3 years of more college (plus/minus $75,000 - $100,000), salary at a firm somewhere for those same three years, interest for the loans over then next ten years, and the payout difference between what you make in architecture in todays money (Employed or not right now maybe $50,000 - $75,000) and what you could make with a Phd in Arhcitecture (Maybe $65,000 - $85,000 and that is a stretch) Outside of architecture a Phd may have value, I don't really know. Inside architecture, not so much

Hope this helps you.

if you want to make money with phd in architecture i think the deal is you struggle for 10 years then get tenure and by then salary is not horrible and by the time you retire you are making a decent living.

i do know my own phd advisor makes a wide margin more than the numbers bandied around here so far. he may be special however. i make very little coin teaching as adjunct prof at an ivy-type school. i am with m.arch, license and have phd in urban planning, and am sadly a dime a dozen... it is fun so i am happy to be doing it and hopefully in 10 years i will earn more...but mostly i am doing it because i want to and not for cash.

to be honest a salary of $150,000 is not that much of a goal. in which case architecture is not the right profession. business school makes a lot more sense to me. our clients earn 7 figure salaries not 6, at minimum. that seems much more useful goal to me personally...that is, if money is the ultimate decider.

law of architecture

Nobody will care about phd.

As already noted, business or law is where you need to be.

Make your money, maybe do a little re development (assuming we ever get out of this mess), then retire in a dream home you design.