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Advice for Prospective PhD Students

gonzales.science

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Re: Advice for Prospective PhD Students

#81

Post by mnky9800n »

abrichr wrote: post #64
mnky9800n wrote: post #41

My advice is find a PhD you want in Norway or the Netherlands. They have programs with competitive research groups, salaries that will get you a quality of life you will appreciate, they will end in 3-4 years, and they have money to pay for you to go to conferences, etc without you having to fight for it from your adviser. Everywhere else sucks. This comment is based on my experience working as a scientist in academi…

Any thoughts on Poland?

Currently the salary is not competitive however Poland is the shining star of Europe given their growth and everything else these days. I might go there if science funding becomes more inline with other European countries.

Re: Advice for Prospective PhD Students

#82

Post by mnky9800n »

Beldin wrote: post #55
mnky9800n wrote: post #41

My advice is find a PhD you want in Norway or the Netherlands. They have programs with competitive research groups, salaries that will get you a quality of life you will appreciate, they will end in 3-4 years, and they have money to pay for you to go to conferences, etc without you having to fight for it from your adviser. Everywhere else sucks. This comment is based on my experience working as a scientist in academi…

Add Luxembourg and Switzerland to that list - at least EPFL and ETH. It's so unbelievably better to be at an institute where travelling within Europe is simply not a budgetary problem at all.

Good point. University of Lausanne is nice too I hear.

Definitely stay away from places like France or UK. They both have terrible salaries and culture (at the university).

I would say Germany is a mixed bag. Your salary can be nice in Berlin. The same salary in Munich, and it will be the same, is unliveable.

Re: Advice for Prospective PhD Students

#83

Post by 3abiton »

nolamark wrote: post #14

Dear Prospective PhD Student, Pay careful attention to the optics of this advice. It is addressing how you can best serve your PI. Your goals and aspirations are not addressed. It is advice on how to land a job, but does not address why you should want the job, or if it is a good fit for you. Perhaps you are a good fit for the academic life. But seek out more advice on what the job of Prospective PhD Student is. Seek…

Finding a good PI is the real advice.

Re: Advice for Prospective PhD Students

#85

Post by patrick451 »

orochimaaru wrote: post #65
patrick451 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Robotics is one such field. I work with tons of PhDs, and self driving car companies hire them like crazy. In certain organizations, you need a PhD to advance as an Applied Scientist. A masters won't cut it.

But that’s my entire point. Taking your example, the bulk of robotics companies aren’t all applied scientists (for that matter in spacex, nasa, etc.). You will have a very small cohort that does the r&d and the rest of the folks executing on that. The r&d space is really interesting but very selective for obvious reasons. Just a PhD won’t get you in. You will need significant other contributions - eg the right public…

The team I'm on is half PhDs. We aren't doing fundamental research, we are building a real product. We prefer to hire PhDs as applied scientists (which we distinguish from research scientist) because they are better able to apply and build new-ish ideas from academia. But most of what we do is not novel in the publishable sense. The PhDs I work with are certainly all smart, but aren't the top echelon you are describing.

Re: Advice for Prospective PhD Students

#86

Post by throw18376 »

light_hue_1 wrote: post #16

This is mediocre advice that largely won't work for the members of this community. For neuroscience, where there is relatively little competition, it's ok. For AI/ML, where the competition is crazy, it's bad advice. > Lastly - the dreaded Undergraduate Publication. Are you a co-author on a publication? Fantastic. It means you made a considerable contribution to a project which can only be done through a significant a…

this is sound practical advice but reflects a bad system that can't be sustained.

you kind of have to be Junior Patrick Bateman now. students scheming and fighting for UG research opportunities. this level of overachiever striving used to be reserved for people aiming for investment banking or McKinsey.

it can be done and the students who do it can be very productive and actually do good research. but it's also now filtering for a very different personality type; less "curious" and more "do anything to win". not that the latter necessarily makes a bad scientist as long as they stay honest. but a field where almost everyone is like that will feel very different.

ultimately, I guess, it is just supply and demand. it's in departments interest to only admit students who they are 100% sure will produce a lot of papers for 5-6 years no matter what the department does. and they can do this because a lot of people want to come.

Re: Advice for Prospective PhD Students

#87

Post by hsavit1 »

chriskanan wrote: post #74
nolamark wrote: post #14

Dear Prospective PhD Student, Pay careful attention to the optics of this advice. It is addressing how you can best serve your PI. Your goals and aspirations are not addressed. It is advice on how to land a job, but does not address why you should want the job, or if it is a good fit for you. Perhaps you are a good fit for the academic life. But seek out more advice on what the job of Prospective PhD Student is. Seek…

It should be a mutually beneficial relationship. That said, I run into far too many PhD students who want to join my lab who cannot answer the question "Why do you want a PhD?" I work in AI, so there is enormous opportunity inside and outside of academia currently (was not true when I finished my PhD, when it was the least popular area of CS), but I'm very upfront with students about how challenging it is to get a te…

why shouldn't someone be allowed to get a phd for their own pleasure? You are gatekeeping

Re: Advice for Prospective PhD Students

#88

Post by [deleted] »

toomim wrote: post #58
Nevermark wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any job that is highly research oriented is going to appreciate a Ph.D. Whether it becomes a practical requirement, or formal requirement, would depend. If it's a high paid position, in a small research group, of an established field, then Ph.D.s are likely to be very important. If its a position in a large research group in a new and fast changing field, then its likely to be more open to anyone with unusual or inte…

That's true in biology, chemistry, and physical sciences, but less true in computer science.

[deleted]

Re: Advice for Prospective PhD Students

#89

Post by ls612 »

bachmeier wrote: post #34

As someone that runs a PhD program in economics, I'd like to see "in a grant field" added to the title. It's completely different in fields with limited grants (those that hire TAs rather than GAs). One of the things I wasn't expecting when I started this position is the number of students that use advice from the sciences/engineering as if it applies to all fields. (And a lot of my email time is spent fixing those i…

Yeah I’m currently in my 5th year in a top Econ program and a lot of this is just foreign to my experience. The torturous part was how my department handled Covid but after that it’s been pretty smooth sailing.

Re: Advice for Prospective PhD Students

#90

Post by esafak »

flashback2199 wrote: post #17

If you live in the US, have the ability to work in the US, and have a stem degree, the opportunity cost of a PhD is just way too high, many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Technically, one could do the PhD in the UK where PhD is 3 years, to minimize that opportunity cost, but not by much.

You could start a business based on your research. Make a mint and bring your research to life!
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