Thanks for your reply!

I think most of my cohort in college (physics, math) either applied to grad school or ended up doing something completely unrelated to science (business school, law school).

I'm curious - how many of your cohort were first-generation college students? My intuition is that it's harder for first-generation folks to know the opportunities in grad school and to decide to go there instead of industry. But also this is all anecdata anyway!

because the only thing most people have been doing up to this point has been school, we expect grad school to be like that, with (a) well-defined problems that have well-defined answers, and (b) continuous oversight and metrics that define progress (e.g., problem sets and exams). *pause for anyone who has actually been to grad school to laugh hysterically* And because we've been trained to do well in a system which has (a) and (b), and not trained at all in a system which lacks either, it's hard to transition.

I tried to make a related point at a conference in February where I was surrounded by grad students, postdocs, and professors, and I GOT SUCH PUSHBACK. Thank youuuuuu.