I always wanted to get a PhD, but I don't have a BS. Is there any way I can skip the BS?
Bill Gates did it, so I guess it's possible?
Consider applying for grad school
61–70 of 165 posts
Re: Consider applying for grad school
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not an unreasonable opinion, but I doubt a PhD can make up for lack of real-world experience. Likely, the best way to get better at solving global problems is by doing just that for years, preferably alongside others with more experience. IMO learn to swim in the pool.
I've wondered if working for 10 or so years and then getting a PhD could be a good strategy.
I've been in the industry for 12 years and I've been deeply considering going back to school for a PhD. I love working on fundamental CS and I'd greatly enjoy the sort of work that I'd have access to during and after a PhD. The challenge is that, for folks who haven't won the equity lottery or racked up FAANG RSUs, it's a huge financial challenge to consider going from an engineering salary to PhD stipend. Considering I still have student loans from my BS, and a spouse who doesn't work that is also being supported on my salary, it's almost impossible to figure out the logistics of working on a PhD full time.
I've found a few programs that are open to considering part-time candidates, but they are few and far between, and most of the ones who consider it still strongly recommend against it.
Re: Consider applying for grad school
#63One point jumped out at me, which I haven't seen anyone respond to: > We are concerned about untrained amateurs going directly into trying to solve very difficult global problems. They can then cause harm overall, by lowering the average quality of analysis or launching ill-considered projects due to a lack of experience or understanding. A PhD reduces the risk you’ll accidentally do this. This point is operating off…
It's not an unreasonable opinion, but I doubt a PhD can make up for lack of real-world experience. Likely, the best way to get better at solving global problems is by doing just that for years, preferably alongside others with more experience. IMO learn to swim in the pool.
It depends on what you want to do. A phd gives you a certain set of skills, and the same time spent working gives you another.
Re: Consider applying for grad school
#64I'd like to. Do graduate programs accept devs who have been working the last decade? There are areas I feel I could be helpful with, e.g. creating reproducible experiments or ensuring a codebase could be open sourced in relation to a paper. It's a lot of grunt work that nobody really has time to do. If that were possible, I'm not quite sure where to start with executing that plan. (Chicago area, FWIW.)
I'm in the same boat - The PhD admissions proces over-indexes on Letters of Recommendation from other academics. I don't think I can get those because I have not actively stayed in touch with my professors. I went through the existing process once and promised myself I would never waste that much time again. But if there's a program that genuinely values industry experience, and is willing to look past recommendation…
Get a Master's first; that way you can get a taste of whether you even like the field enough
Re: Consider applying for grad school
#65Interesting contrast to the recent wave of posts about how you should absolutely not go for academia in the current market of having 1 job spot for every 3 PhDs. What's one to make of this?
80,000 Hours is a website made by members of a very particular subculture. The “prototypical” PhD they’re imagining is in computer science, probably with a focus on machine learning, probably at a highly-ranked school, by someone who went to a highly-ranked undergrad. Job prospects are relatively good. Pay is bad but industry internships during summer can compensate. Academic jobs are not quite as scarce, and R&D job…
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Re: Consider applying for grad school
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not an unreasonable opinion, but I doubt a PhD can make up for lack of real-world experience. Likely, the best way to get better at solving global problems is by doing just that for years, preferably alongside others with more experience. IMO learn to swim in the pool.
It depends on what you want to do. A phd gives you a certain set of skills, and the same time spent working gives you another.
Agreed - I was specifically responding to the concern of gaining experience to solve global problems.
Re: Consider applying for grad school
#67One point jumped out at me, which I haven't seen anyone respond to: > We are concerned about untrained amateurs going directly into trying to solve very difficult global problems. They can then cause harm overall, by lowering the average quality of analysis or launching ill-considered projects due to a lack of experience or understanding. A PhD reduces the risk you’ll accidentally do this. This point is operating off…
It's not an unreasonable opinion, but I doubt a PhD can make up for lack of real-world experience. Likely, the best way to get better at solving global problems is by doing just that for years, preferably alongside others with more experience. IMO learn to swim in the pool.
The question raised by the article is, can real-world experience make up for a lack of PhD?
A balance of both is perhaps best, which is what industry PhD holders have.
Re: Consider applying for grad school
#68I'd like to. Do graduate programs accept devs who have been working the last decade? There are areas I feel I could be helpful with, e.g. creating reproducible experiments or ensuring a codebase could be open sourced in relation to a paper. It's a lot of grunt work that nobody really has time to do. If that were possible, I'm not quite sure where to start with executing that plan. (Chicago area, FWIW.)
> There are areas I feel I could be helpful with, e.g. creating reproducible experiments or ensuring a codebase could be open sourced in relation to a paper. It's a lot of grunt work that nobody really has time to do.
Nobody has time to do those things because they are valued less than publishing new research, and thus are of lower priority. You'll have a frustrating time in academia if you define yourself around your ability to do things that the people evaluating you believe to be unimportant.
If you can meet or exceed expectations on delivering research and get all those lower-priority things done, you'll be very well-liked. Just remember that the former is a requirement and the latter is icing on the cake.
Re: Consider applying for grad school
#69> PhDs are intellectually demanding, and not everyone will be able to finish. In the US between 41 and 78% of people who start PhDs have finished them after ten years, depending on their sub field. Computer and Information Science has the lowest graduation rates (41%)
Right...
I've met a good number of PhD dropouts - I am one myself. None of them dropped out because it was too "intellectually demanding." They all dropped out because the work was unrewarding, the odds of employment in academia were poor, and the work in academia was unappealing.
Looking at Computer and Information Science in particular, I might suggest that high availability of high paying jobs in the private sector is worth looking at rather than the "intellectually demanding" academic program.
Re: Consider applying for grad school
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
My experience is the opposite of yours. Oh look, we cancel out. Hurray for anecdotes and biases!
I mean, if they're coming from a different major, it's the equivalent of hiring people after sophomore year. If they haven't been programming outside that, that frankly isn't enough time to be a good programmer.
What a weirdly specific statement that has little connection to the parent or reality.
Remember that we're responding to:
> I can count on one hand resumes of people that gets a CS BS degree THEN a MS degree in CS [15 years of looking at resumes].
In fact most people who get an MS in CS got a BS in CS first. And all MS programs have prerequisites.