What would you study?
 

So, a genie gives you $600 million, with one stipulation: you must go back to school and get a PhD. In something. Somewhere. In whatever field you choose, however long it takes. Now, with $600M, you can buy your way into any program, and that's enough moolah to make sure you'd never have to work again.

What school would you go to, and what would you study? :eyebrow:

Egyptology.

I'd have to do some research on particular schools.

There is no PhD in Wine. There is however a very prestigious "M.W. Master of Wine" It requires two years of study in the M.W. program and five years of employment in the wine industry, followed by the taking of a massive examination covering all parts of wine. details are here

Only 251 people are certified M.W.

Does this count?

Finish my acting degrees, though to get a doctorate it would be in Shakespeare, with my masters in directing.

Off the top of my head it would be Anthropology.

oh and I'll have Painting and music for dessert.


now what do I do with the change? I've got 500M left.

Genetics and Psychology: To find the gene that causes people to behave stupid, and be able to explain it in laymens terms so they would stop breeding.

astrophysics

Hm, isn't there a PhD in music...?

I'd go the Iowa Writer's workshop (University of Iowa) for a Master's in Creative Writing. Then I'd get my doctorate from the school of journalism at the University of Chicago.

For total enjoyment, Music. I would like to actually have the time to master one of the nine or ten musical instruments that I can play. I think it's actually nine. Number ten is voice, which is an instrument on a technicality.

For practicality, I would like to have the PhD in Clinical Psychology that I've been avoiding for lack of time and money.

Evolutionary Psychology - it should be a religion, if people want "answers"

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm with LJ -- astrophysics, specifically cosmology. Either the U. Az. or U.Hawaii. Okay, definitely UH.
And UT, for $600M you could get a PhD in wine. Trust me. :)

Astrophysics would be a close second for me.

Ohh umm I've thought about ophthalmology too.

Maybe it'll turn out to be interdisciplinary studies.

[edit to correct hideous misspelling]

Computer Science - Stanford or MIT
Jazz - Berklee?

I know a lot of people who got degrees in beer, but their diplomas said something else.

This is a really hard question because of the $500M left. If you already have an undergrad degree, the doctorate will take you 3 years and then you've got the rest of your life to do what you like with that money.

You don't need that much just to live. A decent but frugal life can probably be guaranteed with $10M, managed averagely. So if you "set aside" $100M for "living", you are set to live pretty much any lifestyle you choose.

So then what, well, if you have a specific interest in life that you could do full-time and be fulfilled by, you pick that one topic to study, and then you do that as your life's journey.

But suppose you were really ultra motivated. You could pick finance as your study category, and then you would have the knowledge to use that much cash and do arbitrage deals and possibly double it. At that point you could spend all your time giving the money away and become a charity celebrity.

At the same time you still have the problem of having enough money to set any other people up with a life, as well as yourself. This fact will affect every friendship and relationship you have.

My new concept is to take economics. I've always loved it and at least I would understand how all that money operated.