Robb,

Thanks. You have also contributed quite a number of posts and insights here. As for the study, there are a few contacts I can pursue here (near Atlanta) and possibly some in NYC. Pressure to have some kind of official study done has been building for some time, and I probably mentioned before that I might look into it -- but this time, I'll try to look into it in the next week or so.

BTW, yes, people should go for it. But the waters of academe are extremely trecherous. With a total time commitment averaging about 9 years for a Ph.D. and the initial pay usually very low, it has a high cost of entry.