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Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89

brown.edu

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Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89

#281

Post by javchz »

the_only_law wrote: post #242

I don’t even have a bachelors. I’ve been thinking about going back to school and pursing higher levels of education (research masters or PhD) twitch a mostly utilitarian fields and do industrial R&D work in a domain I’ve become interested in and my biggest worry is being “old” by the time I complete any graduate education (even though old in my case, would likely be mid-30s by the end if I start in the coming years).…

I had the same worries as someone who with some luck will graduate in his 30s.

I went back to college after dropping out when I was in my early 20s. Someone told me "You're going to be X+4 years in 4 years anyway, why not try achieving that thing you want. Time will pass either way"

Surprise: Right now I enjoy college VS before when it felt like a chore I had to go because was the "right thing to do".

It's great to share a space with people who share the same interest in a topic of science/humanities as you do.

Being an old dude in college, allows you to be less worried about late-teenage problems like drama in relationships, in my case being hot-headed, dealing with parents' expectations, or the chronic stress from failing tests thinking it's the end of the world, etc.

Plus, being the "old dude" from the class, hasn't been a problem at all, people are respectful most of the time, and if you're friendly, they will even seek you for mentorship.

As long as you're not behaving like Chevy Chase from "Community", nobody will give much importance to your age.

Yeah, there is a lot of things that are just bureaucracy to create false gatekeeping that I don't like even now.

But from time to time, I find lectures about topics I didn't know existed... and I have that feeling of being a kid again, and finding something new from 0. And that's 100% worth it. So I get why the dude, would keep searching for a PhD even in his eldery years.

I am fortunate enough to live in a country where college it's free. But if it's too expensive, you could get a lot of the value from distance Coursera, and online courses/communities.

Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89

#282

Post by vmception »

esond wrote: post #275
vmception wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because brain/synaptic plasticity in relation to learning was made up on the spot and simply repeated ever since. It's just been a convenient shared crutch to not learn new concepts after a certain age because the incentives are not strong enough for most people.

Is this true? I would love to read further on this. For one reason or another, I am experiencing some concern lately about my waning ability to learn new concepts as I age, or at least my perception of it. I would be chuffed to learn that it was all just in my head (so to speak).

Its not known yet, and is only an idea.

The only thing we do know is that there is a shared experience that seems to make learning new concepts difficult as we get older. We also have plenty of examples of people thriving when placed amongst people that prioritize learning those concepts and have the same lack of encumbrances as those other people. This points to willingness and lifestyle being the primary limiting factors over mental ability.

The plasticity concept has only been extrapolated to learning ability but is as well studied as phrenology. It still needs studies to both prove and disprove it in relation to learning ability. People have shared experiences about supernatural deities, the similarity being that the prevalence of an experience doesnt provide answers about the experience.

Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89

#283

Post by sungam »

billfruit wrote: post #271

I sometimes wonder, why there isn't a well defined pathway to get a PhD for work done through independent research.

This is possible at Cambridge and certain other universities for graduates of those universities:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy_by_public...

Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89

#285

Post by wumpus »

sungam wrote: post #278
nickd2001 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if anyone knows the answer to this Q. Back in the day, UK universities, and in particular Open University, often let you take as long as you liked to finish a Phd. I knew someone who in the 1980s got a lecturer job at Cambridge Uni with only a Masters, and over a period of 16 yrs got a Phd part-time. But it seems this got clamped down, and now unis don't like to see anyone take longer than 6 yrs to complete…

Brian May started a PhD in astrophysics at Imperial college in the 70s and dropped out when Queen took off. He then re-registered in 2006 and completed so it was clearly possible at that time.

I'm a long-haired musician PhD-dropout, and his story is a great inspiration.

Even though he has nicer hair and is a much better musician.

Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89

#286

Post by robertlagrant »

wheels wrote: post #145
thatguymike wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One major difference between UK and US undegraduate courses is that when you study undergraduate at a UK university, you _only_ do courses in your chosen course of study. No faffing about for a year or two picking a major, no time spent filling language requirements or taking interesting-sounding courses to scratch an itch. As a result, UK graduating undergraduates tend to have spent more time in their chosen field o…

Germany's basically the same. I've lived here 20 years. I went to a liberal arts college in the US. Shortening the time to getting a PhD is the only argument I could make for the European system vs. a liberal arts system. German even has a word for people who are knowledgeable in their field and nothing else: "fachidiot" (literally field-idiot). Even aside from being a well-rounded individual, the number of times it'…

> German even has a word for people who are knowledgeable in their field and nothing else: "fachidiot" (literally field-idiot).

While I don't disagree with the sentiment, English has the word "dragon" - doesn't mean dragons exist!

Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89

#287

Post by pge »

bumby wrote: post #230
tombert wrote: post #3

This 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…

I know there are people pooh-pooh'ing the idea of pursuing a PhD while still working, but I think that's because they're just working from inflexible mental models. It can definitely be done, but you may have to think a bit outside traditional routes (which is seems like you're already doing). I started my program at an older age than you, so it can be done. One option is to look for a full-time job that does researc…

When I worked at a DoD lab in the 90s, there were PhD students that were essentially employees. Their thesis work was directly tied to the lab’s work, and they were at the lab every day. I do not known the compensation arrangement, but it certainly appeared that they were paid as full-time employees (and may have been employed there before entering the PhD program). May be worth looking into something like that

Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89

#288

Post by billfruit »

sungam wrote: post #283
billfruit wrote: post #271

I sometimes wonder, why there isn't a well defined pathway to get a PhD for work done through independent research.

This is possible at Cambridge and certain other universities for graduates of those universities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy_by_public...

Interesting. I wish more Universities will start to offer this method.

Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89

#289

Post by jeffe »

boberoni wrote: post #13

As 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…

Why do you associate learning and diving deeply into topics exclusively with research? A phd program will only require you to dive deeply into your topic of research. You can get very far in many fields by reading through relevant texts and sci-hub papers.

In addition, even though their is a dearth of theoretical experience in industry, at FAANGs and similar you will find opportunities to learn a lot in areas such as systems design, networking, and machine learning from senior/principal engineers who are as savvy as professors, albeit with a practical lean.

Even the hands on aspect of a phd can be done on your own time with a little know how and income, see applied science[0] on youtube. Full time engineer who often tinkers and replicates scientific publications in his garage in his free time.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/c/AppliedScience/videos

Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89

#290

Post by Aromasin »

vmception wrote: post #282
esond wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this true? I would love to read further on this. For one reason or another, I am experiencing some concern lately about my waning ability to learn new concepts as I age, or at least my perception of it. I would be chuffed to learn that it was all just in my head (so to speak).

Its not known yet, and is only an idea. The only thing we do know is that there is a shared experience that seems to make learning new concepts difficult as we get older. We also have plenty of examples of people thriving when placed amongst people that prioritize learning those concepts and have the same lack of encumbrances as those other people. This points to willingness and lifestyle being the primary limiting f…

Additionally, and apologies for not linking the study as I simply can't find it anywhere but remember it in brief, if older people are exposed to younger people on a more regular basis it was found that their capacity for learning new things was substantially higher.

Of course the major questions from this were, 1. Are older people with the capacity to learn more interested in spending time with younger people, and 2. Are younger people more likely to distance themselves from older people without the capacity to learn. Both are probably true, but it would be interesting to see how much these factors skew the results.

This was of course also done in the West, where older parents live separately to their children on average. It would be interesting to see whether, if this study was done across multiple nations, the result continues to ring true.

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