Getting a PhD was one of the best decisions I ever made. You have your whole life to go optimize for making $ if you want afterwards. At a top research school in the right lab you get a 1:1 apprenticeship with a world-class expert in an area of science you are passionate about. They take 1 or 2 new apprentices a year. It's a unique experience and changed me dramatically for the better. Postdocs are a different story (only do that if you are sure you want to be a professor) but I recommend getting a PhD to anyone passionate about an area of bleeding edge hard science or engineering.
Graduate Students, the Laborers of Academia
61–70 of 97 posts
Re: Graduate Students, the Laborers of Academia
#62it should be written as "Cheap Labor". I can vouch this as I went to graduate school where I worked for 5 years at 8-10 hours/day including Saturday and Sunday for $12,000/year to get a PhD in Biological Science. And it was in one of the most expensive state in US. So could not afford to start a family because of perpetual state of sharing apartment and not enough money and time to go out and find a partner. And at t…
I can vouch this as I went to graduate school where I worked for 5 years at 8-10 hours/day including Saturday and Sunday for $12,000/year to get a PhD Well, then don't do your PhD in the US. I did my PhD in the Netherlands, had a reasonable salary and a good work-life balance. I now work as a habilitant in Germany (roughly the equivalent of an assistant professor), it's the same: good salary, good balance. The primar…
Same experience here: I did my PhD in France at a good research institute (CEA Saclay). The supervision was great as I was one of only three PhD students in a group of ten permanent researchers, so I could work with my supervisors every day. There was also a strong focus to keep within the three-year schedule, and a lot of opportunities to visit conferences and the like.
In addition, a PhD is highly valued by companies in Germany (where I live now), so your higher starting salary usually makes up for the low income during your PhD.
That said, doing a PhD for financial reasons is usually a bad idea. For me, a much better reason is that you can work on a deep (and interesting) problem for 3-5 years, becoming an expert in a given topic and training your gumption, which will help you to tackle difficult problems later in your life, even in unrelated fields. Compared to research work, most projects that you can do in industry are rather boring in comparison (there are exceptions of course). So, if you do a PhD, do it out of curiosity and not because of the title or the hope to make more money later.
Re: Graduate Students, the Laborers of Academia
#63Getting a PhD was one of the best decisions I ever made. You have your whole life to go optimize for making $ if you want afterwards. At a top research school in the right lab you get a 1:1 apprenticeship with a world-class expert in an area of science you are passionate about. They take 1 or 2 new apprentices a year. It's a unique experience and changed me dramatically for the better. Postdocs are a different story…
Your view is a bit rare these days. Nearly all my friends who started PhD's who've dropped out or quit early with a master's wasn't because they didn't get this experience. They all loved doing the science, that's the fun part. It's just that as a young scientist it's so clear looking down at the end of the tunnel that the light keeps stretching further away. Grants, tenure, and politics are the new extracurriculars needed to show you're capable of being a scientist.
Being at a top research school probably helped, but the majority of grad students in this country are not at those types of homes.
Re: Graduate Students, the Laborers of Academia
#64Getting a PhD was one of the best decisions I ever made. You have your whole life to go optimize for making $ if you want afterwards. At a top research school in the right lab you get a 1:1 apprenticeship with a world-class expert in an area of science you are passionate about. They take 1 or 2 new apprentices a year. It's a unique experience and changed me dramatically for the better. Postdocs are a different story…
Your view is a bit rare these days. Nearly all my friends who started PhD's who've dropped out or quit early with a master's wasn't because they didn't get this experience. They all loved doing the science, that's the fun part. It's just that as a young scientist it's so clear looking down at the end of the tunnel that the light keeps stretching further away. Grants, tenure, and politics are the new extracurriculars…
Agree the professor track is tough but a PhD is a great idea even if you don't want to be a professor. It's just a unique experience that both gets you deep in a specific area of science and teaches you how to conduct open-ended research in general.
Re: Graduate Students, the Laborers of Academia
#65Grad students are absolutely that. During my grad student days in a STEM program at a large state university, professors were occasionally able to "buy-out" of their regular course load and forfeit a percentage of their salary. The department head would then hunt for the next best thing - usually an unsuspecting grad research assistant to cover the offering.
That's not exactly how it works. Professors can use grant money to buy out of teaching; they are not forfeiting their base salary. That money will be (indirectly) used to fund other instructors, which may be grad students. It's not like the department head forces an unsuspecting grad student to teach; if they choose to teach, they will be paid for their teaching (tuition + stipend) so that they do not need to be fund…
You don't always get paid--a lot of programs require 2-3 semesters of TA duty, even if you don't need the funding.
That said, I found teaching to be pretty fun and helpful in solidifying my own understanding so it was helpful (but I'm sure the school also likes the free labor).
Re: Graduate Students, the Laborers of Academia
#66it should be written as "Cheap Labor". I can vouch this as I went to graduate school where I worked for 5 years at 8-10 hours/day including Saturday and Sunday for $12,000/year to get a PhD in Biological Science. And it was in one of the most expensive state in US. So could not afford to start a family because of perpetual state of sharing apartment and not enough money and time to go out and find a partner. And at t…
I can vouch this as I went to graduate school where I worked for 5 years at 8-10 hours/day including Saturday and Sunday for $12,000/year to get a PhD Well, then don't do your PhD in the US. I did my PhD in the Netherlands, had a reasonable salary and a good work-life balance. I now work as a habilitant in Germany (roughly the equivalent of an assistant professor), it's the same: good salary, good balance. The primar…
Are you an American citizen and did you know the language before you went.
I would be interested to know what the process was to move from the US to the Netherlands for a PhD.
Re: Graduate Students, the Laborers of Academia
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can vouch this as I went to graduate school where I worked for 5 years at 8-10 hours/day including Saturday and Sunday for $12,000/year to get a PhD Well, then don't do your PhD in the US. I did my PhD in the Netherlands, had a reasonable salary and a good work-life balance. I now work as a habilitant in Germany (roughly the equivalent of an assistant professor), it's the same: good salary, good balance. The primar…
Same experience here: I did my PhD in France at a good research institute (CEA Saclay). The supervision was great as I was one of only three PhD students in a group of ten permanent researchers, so I could work with my supervisors every day. There was also a strong focus to keep within the three-year schedule, and a lot of opportunities to visit conferences and the like. In addition, a PhD is highly valued by compani…
Are you an American citizen and did you know the language before you went.
I would be interested to know what the process was to move from the US to France for a PhD.
Re: Graduate Students, the Laborers of Academia
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
>It cannot be justified, I don’t care how many reasons you come up with. Of course it can be justified if the university is pulling in more money than it's spending. Athletics are a profit center for the stronger programs.
Athletics are a profit center for only a few universities. I doubt though that this includes spending on stadiums. There is also the cost in terms of corruption of the university and the damage done to athletes (especially American football) for little to no compensation. http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/athlet...
They're also only a profit center if there are other universities willing to make a loss. If those universities decided to stop spending on athletics then the profitable ones would soon find their profits disappear. Taken as a whole, the college athletics industry is an overall negative sum for education. Looking at it from the perspective of an individual college misses the big picture.
Re: Graduate Students, the Laborers of Academia
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can vouch this as I went to graduate school where I worked for 5 years at 8-10 hours/day including Saturday and Sunday for $12,000/year to get a PhD Well, then don't do your PhD in the US. I did my PhD in the Netherlands, had a reasonable salary and a good work-life balance. I now work as a habilitant in Germany (roughly the equivalent of an assistant professor), it's the same: good salary, good balance. The primar…
Are you an American citizen and did you know the language before you went. I would be interested to know what the process was to move from the US to the Netherlands for a PhD.
Most PhDs in Netherlands accept English speakers, and they all have many international students. When you find a position advertized, you can ask them about the procedure for non-EU citizens.
Re: Graduate Students, the Laborers of Academia
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same experience here: I did my PhD in France at a good research institute (CEA Saclay). The supervision was great as I was one of only three PhD students in a group of ten permanent researchers, so I could work with my supervisors every day. There was also a strong focus to keep within the three-year schedule, and a lot of opportunities to visit conferences and the like. In addition, a PhD is highly valued by compani…
Are you an American citizen and did you know the language before you went. I would be interested to know what the process was to move from the US to France for a PhD.
I'm a German citizen, and I learned French in school, my level of proficiency was very low when I arrived though. Getting around using English was quite easy, and the application process was straightforward even with a German Diplom (M.Sc.). For an US degree you'll just have to make a translation and possibly have it's equivalence assessed, that shouldn't be too hard though. The UPMC (Paris VI) has a quite good PhD program for example, and is open to international students.