Mr. Gusiatnikov, in a recent letter to the Exponent, wrote that the lifetime impact on the world of a Ph.D. student financially and otherwise is substantially greater than that of a mediocre basketball player. He went on to make another heroic statement that graduate students perform work that is the cornerstone of progress. First, I think due to the competitive nature of the college basketball recruiting in Big Ten schools, the average basketball player is quite good and not mediocre. In contrast, I am not sure whether the recruiting process for Ph.D. students at Purdue is as competitive. Second, as far as the financial impact of Ph.D. students versus basketball players while they are at Purdue is concerned, let me note the following. Basketball players draw capacity ticket holding crowds at Mackey Arena regularly. When was the last time a Ph.D. students' dissertation defense drew a similar even non-ticket holding crowd? After graduation, presumably both the Ph.D. student and the basketball player are paid what they are worth in a competitive free market economy.

I am a Ph.D. student and, last year, I taught an undergraduate class which had students who have now graduated or will be graduating soon. It is not clear to me why an average Ph.D. student (i.e. I) is or will be necessarily performing work "that is the cornerstone of progress" while my undergraduate students (including athletes) working in industry will not.