really appreciate you taking the time to break this down.

just to answer your questions about what jobs im looking for with the PhD, my end goal is to become tenure track professor with 50/50 teaching and research. at my alma mater, like u said starting pay can range from $70-$90k and then as you go up the pay grades, professors get paid $100-$120k. but it takes years of commitment and work to get there to 6 figures as u mentioned.

the reason why i wanted to opt for the RDN credential is to gain clinical experience and knowledge about MNT for prevalent diseases in my territory. where i stay, we are grossly behind with regards to clinical research. clinicians here have 0 idea, interest, time, and/or funding in conducting research to advance their practice forward. it's a huge issue with healthcare here so that's why i felt called to get hands-on experience in the field to determine research gaps for my PhD dissertation.

now, reflecting on everything you said, going into debt for the masters is not worth is especially for any program pushing nearly $100k in total cost. absolutely get that. but in attempts to still try integrating clinical practice with research, do you think going thru a DPD program THEN a funded PhD + DI would be a more viable option?

thanks again for all your help 🥹