Live data from Hacker News

Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

nature.com

361–370 of 485 posts

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#361
post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on your career prospects. If you can expect to make $200k out of grad school then it’s definitely not better to spend your time in school, financially. But yeah it’s a math question at that point.

I don't think even smart folks here realize how much of a boost is some good income cash when you are starting your life from poor background. But one has to save it and not burn on 'better' lifestyle with trying to match peers or impress women (clue - if they don't like who you really are, no shiny expensive thing will ever make it work long term and you will just attract very wrong crowd). I can attest it allowed m…

[deleted]

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#362
Anyone considered doing a PhD after retiring early from their primary career? Seems like it would be a good option if you were financially set for retirement and had “a few years to kill” before accessing your savings/investments. It would reduce the stress of doing it (no great fear of failure, more perspective), cover living expenses, and give you a socially respectable occupation. On the other hand, maybe it would be kind of awkward being a grad student at like 45+ years old?

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#363

Incidentally if you are interested in doing a PhD the University of oslo has 64 open phd and postdoc positions currently. PhDs will get a competitive salary (typically something like 50-55k USD/year, this is much higher than anything in USA for example), free healthcare, pension, in the first year you qualify for cheap student housing if you have moved from abroad, and tbh, Norway is kind of nice to live in in my opi…

> (typically something like 50-55k USD/year, this is much higher than anything in USA for example), This is not my experience (close friend in a flyover state makes 55k), so I googled and found this website: https://postdocsalaries.com/results 55k looks to be well within the normal range of American postdoc salaries.

The 50-55k range is for PhD students, not postdocs. PhDs in Europe often get a much higher pay than in America.

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#364

Incidentally if you are interested in doing a PhD the University of oslo has 64 open phd and postdoc positions currently. PhDs will get a competitive salary (typically something like 50-55k USD/year, this is much higher than anything in USA for example), free healthcare, pension, in the first year you qualify for cheap student housing if you have moved from abroad, and tbh, Norway is kind of nice to live in in my opi…

> pension

Not sure that is a perk. In EU (not sure about this exact offer in Norway) to get ANY money out of pension, you have to work like 30 years at the very same country (not EU). But it is mandatory social insurance (tax) of 10% to 40% of your income.

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#365

Incidentally if you are interested in doing a PhD the University of oslo has 64 open phd and postdoc positions currently. PhDs will get a competitive salary (typically something like 50-55k USD/year, this is much higher than anything in USA for example), free healthcare, pension, in the first year you qualify for cheap student housing if you have moved from abroad, and tbh, Norway is kind of nice to live in in my opi…

As someone who moved to Norway (not Oslo) to pursue a PhD in computer science, I highly suggest everyone who might be interested to give it a chance. High quality of life and supportive system and society. Vacancies for University of Bergen: https://www.uib.no/en/about/84777/vacant-positions-uib .

> University of Bergen

Don't forget to bring your rain gear!

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#366

Incidentally if you are interested in doing a PhD the University of oslo has 64 open phd and postdoc positions currently. PhDs will get a competitive salary (typically something like 50-55k USD/year, this is much higher than anything in USA for example), free healthcare, pension, in the first year you qualify for cheap student housing if you have moved from abroad, and tbh, Norway is kind of nice to live in in my opi…

> (typically something like 50-55k USD/year, this is much higher than anything in USA for example), This is not my experience (close friend in a flyover state makes 55k), so I googled and found this website: https://postdocsalaries.com/results 55k looks to be well within the normal range of American postdoc salaries.

You've looked at postdoc salaries, not PhD salaries. very different. For example in the UK a PhD will get somewhere aroun £19-21k a year, whilst a postdoc will get anywhere from £37-45k a year......

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I thnk it does occur to people, but that's a choice for nepo babies and aspiring monks. Maybe you've only spent time around PhD candidates at Ivy League schools where people are more likely to have access to wealth, but if you've spent any time at all around PhD candidates you'll find this is generally not the case. As a PhD candidate from a lower SE class, I've found that the majority of my peers are from a similar…

> while the majority of Social Sciences doctoral students are from a lower SE class I am speaking solely from anecdotes, but Social Science grad students generally have a Rabbi from early on their career. That is, they are favorite students, close students to at least one powerful/influential figure in their field. A lot of favoritism and a different kind of nepotism play an important part Social Sciences academia. A…

Do you mean that to succeed in social sciences academia you have to think Nazis are bad?

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm slowly, very slowly, realizing this and that my objections to this are quite literally pissing into the wind to the wrong crowd. Begging and pleading for people to make tech that doesn't torture and depress the average user seems to just fall upon deaf ears, because all that ever mattered to them was the money.

> Begging and pleading for people to make tech that doesn't torture and depress the average user seems to just fall upon deaf ears, because all that ever mattered to them was the money. I think there are some people on HN who care about other things than money. I've seen a number of references here to encrapification and the rot economy, noting that chasing unlimited growth seems to lead to harmful, anti-social techn…

They often get flagged, though.

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#369

Incidentally if you are interested in doing a PhD the University of oslo has 64 open phd and postdoc positions currently. PhDs will get a competitive salary (typically something like 50-55k USD/year, this is much higher than anything in USA for example), free healthcare, pension, in the first year you qualify for cheap student housing if you have moved from abroad, and tbh, Norway is kind of nice to live in in my opi…

> pension Not sure that is a perk. In EU (not sure about this exact offer in Norway) to get ANY money out of pension, you have to work like 30 years at the very same country (not EU). But it is mandatory social insurance (tax) of 10% to 40% of your income.

> In EU to get ANY money out of pension, you have to work like 30 years at the very same country (not EU).

Quite far from the truth.

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/work/retire-abroad/sta...

Eligibility periods

In some EU countries, you must have worked for a minimum period of time to be entitled to a pension.

In such cases, the pension authority has to take into account all the periods you've worked in other EU countries, as if you'd been working in that country all along, to assess whether you're entitled to a pension (principle of aggregation of periods).

How your pension is calculated

Pension authorities in each EU country you've worked in will look at the contributions you've paid into their system, how much you've paid in other countries, and for how long you've worked in different countries.

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't imagine anyone would be drawn to the 50% female working environment, with hundreds of smart, beautiful single women aged 18-22. Who gives a shit about that? Barely even a benefit really. I recall that hitting on undergraduates as an early 20-something graduate student was considered a pretty serious no-no, and barring some tenured professors that feel they're above the rules, it certainly seemed like conseq…

> I recall that hitting on undergraduates as an early 20-something graduate student was considered a pretty serious no-no If you're a 24 year old grad student and they're a 22 year old undergraduate in a different department? No big age gap, no power over them like grading their work, no problem. And as you get towards 27 obviously you won't want to date 18 year olds - but even if the grad students in your department…

Hardly a quality of the working environment then. You get the same just by working in the vicinity of the institution.
Post reply on HN