“I have never met anyone who stayed as frum as they were in the beginning after a real graduate degree.”
There are actually a lot of gedolim who have earned graduate degrees from universities. Here is just a few examples from the past:
Rabbi Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler z’tz’l
Rabbi Dr. Ezriel Hildesheimer z’tz’l
Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Herzog z’tz’l
Rabbi Dr. Joseph Soloveitchik z’tz’l
But not all of us are like these gedolim. Educational directions should be discussed with ones rav.
“remain in my place of frumkeit in a non-quantitative or empirical field”
I find Rambam’s encouragement that as one learns more about the natural world, the more one should appreciate our Creator, to be inspiring and as a result my own frumkeit is deepened with every new scientific discovery. But as I mentioned in an earlier comment, Rambam’s approach is not for everyone.