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Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

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Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#431

Post by skulk »

UncleMeat wrote: post #405
__rito__ wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Every PhD applicant needs letters of recommendation. You get those from faculty members who think that you are skilled. If you go look at the incoming class of CS PhDs at the top 20 schools, you'll find that basically every single one has a good relationship with at least one faculty member. Callouts of social sciences and the use of "rabbi" are baffling here.

Anyone who has watched The Wire will recognize the use of the term here. (Minor spoilers ahead)

In season 3 (I think) Herc caught the mayor doing something inappropriate in his office and his silence was rewarded with promotions. Later on, someone told him "[The mayor] is your rabbi. If he loses the election, your career will go no further."

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#432

Post by xhkkffbf »

cageface wrote: post #228
jltsiren wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The actual chances of getting a tenured position (or another permanent academic position with research opportunities) are more like 1 in 3, or even better. Most people who get a PhD and are in priciple interested in staying in the academia leave, because they are not willing to make the necessary choices. And the biggest reason why people leave is not the pay, the stress, the politics, the struggle for grants, the pu…

When I was in graduate school the chances of getting a tenured position weren't anywhere close to 1 in 3. Where are you getting that number?

Yup. It's often much worse.

Although that person may be lumping in the research professorships and various ass. dean positions.

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#433

Post by selimthegrim »

scarface_74 wrote: post #424
WalterBright wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had the opportunity to know and work with many people who are way smarter than I am. I know one when I see one. Lots of people seem to think that Musk has blundered his way from success to success. Nobody blunders $20,000 into richest man in the world.

Being in the right place at the right time with the right connections and not having your equity diluted helps. There are plenty of “smart” people who aren’t rich.

I live in New Orleans. I went to the same school he did. Thank you for conveying my point.

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#434

Post by runeblaze »

jccalhoun wrote: post #45

As someone with a phd and is a professor at a community college, with the current governmental chaos there's no way I would recommend anyone starting a phd in the USA. In addition to the poor pay (and I was in the department of communication and I distinctly remember fellow grad students in stem complaining about their pay... which was literally double mine), there is also the fact that no one knows what is going to…

In the US, note that for many foreign students, PhD is a (in many cases, much faster) pathway to permanent residency compared to your standard PERM/H1B things

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#437

Post by jvanderbot »

brailsafe wrote: post #219
jvanderbot wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get it. I was neither a nepo baby or aspiring monk. What I was, was a kid from a non academic family who wanted more than my small town education could provide. I wanted to push myself to learn at a deeper level and prove it by becoming one of a different crowd of technologists. Maybe these are misguided motivations but they were undeniable and not at all about asceticism or idle riches. It was absolutely wor…

Ya but, based on the brief resume in your profile, you've also probably made out quite well, no? Is that a completely incidental thing, or do you think you'd feel even a little differently if what you earned throughout your intellectual journey ended up leaving you financially vulnerable, whatever that would mean in your geographic region? To me it's a question of how much cost a person should reasonably incur in ord…

It is expected, at least where I'm from, that a PhD in an engineering discipline is going to go get a decent tech job. It is not by any means required, so it remains a personal choice and changed the nature or the jobs you'll be offered to a certain extent.

For me, my employability vastly improved when I graduated, and subsequently worked where I did (which was only unlocked because of my grad work).

Also I just love computer science. It's magic.

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#438

Post by herval »

xanderlewis wrote: post #165

From the discussion here, it seems that HN turns out to be a very money-centric place. Somewhat surprising. It doesn’t even seem to occur to people that one might pursue a doctoral degree because one is interested in the subject and wants to do research . It’s always talked about as if getting a PhD is just another rung in a long ladder towards… earning a lot of money? Not only that — it’s apparently such an obvious…

It feels like YC population these days is mostly employees of mid-to-large tech companies trying to get rich out of RSUs. It used to be more about founders and wannabe founders, but the attitude shifted through the years to a mix of cynical money-grabbing attitude, so it's unsurprising that anything that doesn't mean "higher TC" is unpopular (except for side projects involving hardware, for some reason)

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#439

Post by Gollapalli »

xanderlewis wrote: post #165

From the discussion here, it seems that HN turns out to be a very money-centric place. Somewhat surprising. It doesn’t even seem to occur to people that one might pursue a doctoral degree because one is interested in the subject and wants to do research . It’s always talked about as if getting a PhD is just another rung in a long ladder towards… earning a lot of money? Not only that — it’s apparently such an obvious…

I wanted to do exactly this, and was told many many times to rethink it.

Re: Fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees

#440

Post by mkoubaa »

esafak wrote: post #295
mkoubaa wrote: post #106

Please if you do get a PhD, don't feel bitter if you don't get paid much more than people without one after you graduate. This is a toxic mentality that (anecdotally) I find quite common in the computational sciences specifically.

In the likely event you won't use your specialized knowledge much either, how could one not feel bitter?

By realizing that life is not fair and you aren't that special
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