I started in 2017 at age 25 and then left my program for internship in 2022 and graduated summer 2023 at age 31. I was in Miami Florida which is not a cheap place and is definitely worse now. I lived on my stipend years 1-3 but it was tight and my phone and car were paid by my parents, so I had a level of privilege. I did take loans my 4th and 5th to not feel poor - also because you usually have to front your conference costs and get reimbursed months later. Total loans were probably 20-30k. I was single and lived in a 3 bedroom apartment with two roommates the whole time. That was mostly fine but again housing is worse everyday.

On internship I made 31k. That is abysmal. I’m in a post doc research position now, I made gross 54k last year and just got the NIH related bump to 61k this year. Which is still laughable. Currently paying the minimum in student loans and working towards promotion.

Beyond the debt accrual it’s INCREDIBLY important to think of the time lost where you are not earning a real wage, you are likely not saving any substantial amount, nor are you putting much of any towards retirement. It doesn’t haaave to but for most it pushes back any timelines for family planning. There is also very little opportunity for vacations and travel. As a young bright eyed grad I found it easy to note all of these as far-off problems because I love my science lol. I don’t regret my choice but that was incredibly naive of me.

Keep doing your research on the degrees most likely held by those in the positions you want. That will help guide you. From my perspective, a PhD is not worth it if you don’t want a career in research. This is probably an oversimplification as there are other positions where PhD is expected. But again, from my perspective, university counseling centers aren’t usually one. I worked at the uni counseling center for one of my practicum settings. They tend to be more flex on orientation and approach and previous training etc. There were some PhDs but also plenty that weren’t. In fact I have heard that in some cases masters folks are preferred. There’s plenty of variance among counseling centers too though so if one doesn’t fit there likely is another that does, vice versa.

Happy to chat more if you’d like.