Synergy and all that. Also avoidance of adult responsibilities for as long as possible. Perhaps a little inertia (or a lot – 11 years in my case…).
You know, it’s funny you mention that…
When I was interviewing for an MD program last month, they were concurrently interviewing the MD/PhD candidates. On the bus ride I got to talking with one of them and I asked them why they were pursuing and MD/PhD. The first words out of his mouth? “To avoid the real world for as long as possible.”
I tried my best to nod politely and not smirk as I thought to myself: “I know that nobody wants to actually enter the ‘real world’ after four short years of undergrad, but maybe you should give yourself another four years of school to see if you might be interested in the real world yet before signing on the dotted line.” I mean, you could always finish your MD and then get a PhD, right?