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As the other half of a married couple that has "been there and done that", my advice would be NO!
We have 2 children that had obtained their PhD's. My husband, decided after we educated our kids would go back for his PhD. The time, money and effort put into it, in retrospect, offered NOT NEARLY ENOUGH TO COMPENSATE in his work life.
I would suggest that you take ALL the life factors into consideration before you decide to dedicate the money, time and effort into it as to what it will bring to YOUR life. If you find the return on investment worth it, then go for it. If we had be realistic, we would have realized that the "life goals" aspect of it was not worth the return on investment in our particular case.
You don't have a bachelor's degree. You don't have a master's degree. There's no way you're getting into a doctorate program without them especially since you have a GED. Finish your bachelor's degree before making any long term commitments. You don't seem to be able to make them. A doctorate degree is a way of life for years.....it's not just a degree.
Ph.D.s aren't useless. They may not be useful for what you want, but they definitely aren't useless. I wouldn't have my job without one. Sure, I would probably have a different job, but I like what i do.
Why do you want a Ph.D.? If the answer isn't "I want to do research" then you shouldn't get a Ph.D. If the answer is maybe then you shouldn't get a Ph.D. If the answer is "of courses!" then you should consider finishing your BS and then getting a Ph.D. No reputable Ph.D. Program will accept you without a bachelors degree (there are some exceptions but you don't meet those).
Also data science isn't a real field yet and not something you can really get a Ph.D. in. There may be some marginal programs, but most big places have departments of economics, operations research, computer science, or applied math.
There are two sides to data science, the hard science arm and the soft science arm. The hard science arm works in and for academia/government and research support, you will need a PhD. The soft science arm works in marketing. If working in consumer analytics and data mining does not interest you (as it probably doesn't), you might want to think about how one can develop and market machine learning algorithims for consumer facing businesses- like programming industrial robotics or consumer product warehousing pick and pack systems. There is a ton of innovation that can be done in the arena and it is quite interesting. Think about getting a foot in the door at Amazon who must be doing some innovation in this arena.
A PhD is a very taxing ambition. Will you be able to pull through and will yourself through all the nights that you are ready to just quit and walk away from the research and stress that comes with attempting to attain that degree? It seems that you've already made quite a career for yourself with not much "formal" education. Good job!
So to start off, I'm a college drop out as well as a high school drop out. I entered the field of technology just a few months before the bust in 2001, and I was able to build my experience from there. I do however low computer science, so I've continued to study it over the years. MIT Open Courseware has helped me out a ton. Career wise I'm doing ok, I'm a software engineer, and I make well above a 6 figure salary.
However I've been finding software engineering to be a bit stale. To me, it doesn't offer the same challenges it once did. A lot of the business use cases for me are not intriguing, and to do some of the more interesting stuff in software development, it feels that higher education is needed. So basically I've found that I really really love machine learning and data science. I would love to do this type of work on a daily basis. And for one, it seems like a job that would never get boring, as I'm data obsessed.
The catch. Most job requirements for data science seem to require some soft of PHD. While I would not mind going back to school for a PHD, the universities are incredibly expensive, and I'm debt free. Is it worth it to incur debt and commit myself to possibly 10 or more years of study just to get a job as a data scientist? Or should I just be happy that I'm making a decent salary with basically no education?
You have no idea the work, determination, and intelligence it takes to get a PhD (I'm assuming you're not talking about a college mill diploma). See if you can get an undergraduate degree first and see what that will get you in terms of a career.
I don't mean to be mean, but seriously, a PhD is not the kind of thing where you just check off a box and say "done".
I respect our Phd's as scientist who advance the world. But if it is only for money, or if people only think the way they can be rich is through an Phd, then I view that as:
Professional - Hard - Dork!
Quit being a nerd to think that all that school will make you rich... My buddies never went to college yet they have houses, cars, SUVs, and kids too. Life is awesome to them that they realized they didn't need college and found out a way to survive.
The OP is already doing fine without a college degree and making 6 figures in software engineering. Quit being greedy now and appreciate the blessings you have got. Because I don't think an "edjumicated" Phd will make you better.
It's great you found your passion. So go get them.
Along the way you'll find an academic mentor who will direct you through the more advanced potential that you may have towards a PhD.
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