It's grad school. Either you've never been or you already know what I'm going to say. - Graduate Research Assistant Colorado State University Employee Review

This applies to any graduate program: Unless you really really really want to be a lifelong academic in a particular field and are awesome enough to obtain such a position then there is no good reason to join a phd program. It lasts forever. It pays peanuts (if you're lucky). It's tedious and depressing. And it won't really leave you in a better position for a career out in the 'real world' than a shorter master's program, unless you take it upon yourself to learn skills that you think you'll want on your resume later, and if you can find the time to do that. Particular to CSU: Bureaucratic mess at times. Stuck in 20th century. All actions require forms to be printed, signed in triplicate, and faxed to relevant department. Websites are horrid and impossible. They messed up my tax forms several times. Parking is a nightmare. Campus is under constant construction for past few years. One more thing to consider about the income for a graduate student, if you are even so lucky to be in a field that has research stipends. First of all the amount you are 'awarded' is very misleading A third of it will go towards tuition, which seems like a good deal the first two years that you take classes but after classes are over you will begin to wonder what you are still paying tuition for. What services is the school rendering for you at that point? Especially when every bit of equipment and software you use is paid for by some sort of government research grant. And when a research group is awarded a big grant from the NSF or NIH or whatever the school automatically gets a huge cut of that. So after tuition you get your measly paycheck but you're not free yet. You must still pay the semester student fees which total over $1000 a year if you are a 'full-time student'. You could reduce these fees by only signing up for the bare minimum of credit hours but then you would not get the discount on health insurance, and plus you need a completely arbitrary amount of research credit hours to be able to graduate.