I did a masters in physics when I was 24 and thought not getting paid a meaningful sum of money was incredibly frustrating. If my two remaining brain cells still function at 84 I'll certainly take on a PhD program.
Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
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Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#12Imagine being referred to like that: "a blonde chemist", "a short philosopher", "a small-nosed mathematician" or "a brown physicist". Edit. Unless the title really meant "a student of the brown physics department has earned PhD at the age of 89".
Brown (university) physicist. No reference to his race.
I can't help but wonder if this headline was A/B tested and was found to be more 'engaging' specifically because of the same sort of reaction GP demonstrated.
Edit: Interesting that the headline was changed from the original to no longer refer to Brown university at all. I genuinely wonder what prompted that.
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#13As a university student in my last year of undergrad, I've been tempted to go work as a software engineer, even though I'm interested in doing research. The opportunity cost just seems too large to give up. Working as a SWE will allow me to earn a massive income in my 20s, during which I have few defendants and a lot of leisure time. While many of my peers are planning to do graduate school right away, I feel like my quality of life would simply be better by going to work in industry right now.
With that said, I still love learning and diving deeply into topics like math and the history of science. I hope that I can one day retire off my savings as a SWE and return to graduate school (maybe in my late 30s or 40s). Has anyone done this before? Is there a stigma against graduate students (both Masters and PhD) who are not in their 20s?
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#14I have phd in comp science and I plan on getting phd and doing research in astrophysics in my retirement
Computational physics might be a nice intersection.
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#15This is really cool. I'm 30 right now, and only just recently finished my bachelors and have been looking to get a PhD, but it's really hard to find a program that will let you work full time while doing it. It doesn't help that a part of me does sort of feel "too old" to do this sometimes. The PhD system in the US is really tailored around the assumption that you haven't entered the corporate world yet. Anyway, it's…
Professor here. You definitely aren’t too old, but I would never take on a PhD student that wants to continue working elsewhere. A PhD is a full-time job. It took me 6.5 years and was hard enough with very little outside distractions.
Even if the work is related to the research?
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#16Imagine being referred to like that: "a blonde chemist", "a short philosopher", "a small-nosed mathematician" or "a brown physicist". Edit. Unless the title really meant "a student of the brown physics department has earned PhD at the age of 89".
Brown is a respected US university. I don't believe anyone of count would mistake this title to think of his skin color. You'll probably have better luck with a tweet.
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#17This is really cool. I'm 30 right now, and only just recently finished my bachelors and have been looking to get a PhD, but it's really hard to find a program that will let you work full time while doing it. It doesn't help that a part of me does sort of feel "too old" to do this sometimes. The PhD system in the US is really tailored around the assumption that you haven't entered the corporate world yet. Anyway, it's…
He already had an MD and a Ph.D. in biochemestry....
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#18This made me wonder (not that it matters, just curious): what are the biggest scientific discoveries made by older folks?
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#19The title should really be "Earns Second PhD at 89"
This is not one of those stories about someone who "always dreamed of earning a PhD". This is an MD who already had a PhD in Biochemistry from MIT.
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Brown (university) physicist. No reference to his race.
I can't help but wonder if this headline was A/B tested and was found to be more 'engaging' specifically because of the same sort of reaction GP demonstrated. Edit: Interesting that the headline was changed from the original to no longer refer to Brown university at all. I genuinely wonder what prompted that.
Absolutely not. Americans don't call people 'brown.' We generally have white, black, and hispanic/latino. Anyone else we refer to by nationality, even incorrectly at times. If he were say, Indian, it would say Indian, not Brown.