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Why I'm Getting a PhD

johnbender.us

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Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#101

Post by javert »

mathattack wrote: post #29
001sky wrote: post #19

Career Path ... Unfortunately, the problems I gravitate towards are not normally assigned to engineers and attempts to marry my interests with my domain of expertise [1,2] have met with understandably tepid responses. ,,, All of that makes perfect sense but it means I can't focus on the problems that I'm interested in. --- What Interests Me The things that keep me up past midnight working and learning are technical.…

I agree with your thoughts on this being Naive. As an undergrad I wrote off the idea of pursuing a Phd (my initial intent) because I saw how the senior professor I assisted spent his time. A lot more mental energy went to grant writing than teaching or research. The other thing is it will be very hard to do this at 30 with kids. Best of luck with this!

> A lot more mental energy went to grant writing than teaching or research.

As a PhD student, I can tell you firsthand that that is not true for all professors.

I was naturally very skeptical of the academic-governmental complex, but it turns out that academia can come fairly close to the idealized image people have of it. The professor I work for spend around 10% of his time on grant funding, and gets plenty.

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#102

Post by ryanSrich »

I've always been passionate about education and hope to one day be in a place where I can get my PHD. Unfortunately I've opted to relocate and travel for a couple years which has showed me that online PHDs virtually don't exist. Has anyone done an online PHD in CS or something similar?

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#103

Post by zenbowman »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #41
geebee wrote: post #34

I truly wish you the best of luck, and for an excellent outcome. One thing - you just can't say "why I'm getting a PhD", even from an elite school, the way you'd say "why I'm getting a law, medical, or business degree". Even if you've been admitted to an elite program, you can really only say "why I'm rolling the dice on the possibility of getting a PhD". At elite programs, there is essentially no involuntary attriti…

> Attrition rates for engineering PhD students appear to be about 33%. This (to me, atrocious number) is way better than science or humanities. Perhaps this is because an engineering Ph.D. student is far better positioned to get a high-paying job than their 1L or med school counterparts. The engineering candidate doesn't need to be there to get a job.

Exactly. 33% isn't bad to be honest.

When my advisor quit, I left my PhD without thinking twice, because I got a job at a much higher pay than my PhD stipend, and leaving my PhD didn't present the kind of financial burden that it would have were I in a humanities field.

Now I'd like to complete it again, but I'd want to do it part-time, and I have a much better idea of what I'd like to do. As engineers, we are pretty lucky to be in that position, even when things don't quite work out as planned, we still end up pretty well off. So there's not quite the same determination to make a particular course of action work.

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#104

Post by Schwolop »

betterunix wrote: post #67
blah32497 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US you get paid to do a PhD - either as a research assistant, grants/fellowships, or if you get the shit end of the stick - TA'ing

You do not get paid a lot in a PhD program. Where I am the pay is barely enough for one person to live on. There is also the time commitment -- a lot of programs demand 60 or more hours per week from their students. The combination basically means that starting a family is impossible while you are a PhD student, unless you have a spouse who has a comfortable income / family money.

In Australia, with a scholarship and a few hours a week TAing during term time, I made enough to buy a half a million dollar apartment with my wife who was on a new-graduate nursing salary. She then got pregnant just as I finished up (good motivation to write fast, that was!)

YMMV but if you're thinking you're being used for cheap slave labour, you're in the wrong university.

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#105

Post by pgbovine »

ssw1n wrote: post #68

Here is a different perspective, all be it in a cynical tone: http://crypto.junod.info/2013/09/09/an-aspiring-scientists-f... And here's another, with much more objective tone: http://www.pgbovine.net/PhD-memoir.htm My take on the subject matter is that: - When getting into the PhD. track, one should be aware of what he/she is getting into, and be prepared for the resulting lifestyle. - One should have an extraordina…

wow that's a great summary of key points :) and thanks for mentioning that my memoir has a more objective tone than the other student's rant. i tried hard to present both the good and bad sides of academia, as viewed through the lens of a naive Ph.D. student. ah good times.

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#106

Post by javert »

tensor wrote: post #47
javert wrote: post #23

I feel like he's leaving out something quite important, which is what he plans to do once he has his PhD. Professor (research or teaching?) or industry (big business or startups?)?

This isn't actually very important. At least if you are in STEM. The point of the PhD is to learn. That's valuable to all career paths.

As someone currently in a PhD program, I strongly disagree with you. It looks like other people are carrying the torch for me pretty well. But I will say a couple of things.

You seem to really value "learning for the sake of learning." If so, you already have it figured out that you want to spend 5+ years learning and that you don't care about planning ahead for your life after that. You already have a tentative life plan (though part of it is the default "null plan").

People who think they have a life plan figured out without going through a long, careful process of figuring it out, should still do so, just to make sure their assumptions are valid.

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#107

Post by dsugarman »

As someone who was recently persuing a PhD, I would say anyone getting one is making a huge bet on the future of traditonal higher education institutes. In general, I am scared for the future of pure science

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#108

Post by tellarin »

andrewcooke wrote: post #92
Lewisham wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that enough? Well, yes, it can be . During my PhD studies I met a couple people who could be considered "lifers" who were clearly very happy doing graduate-level research work. Maybe you are one of them. Their optimal career path would be a cushy postdoc job so they continue to keep doing what they are doing but without paying tuition fees. I'm sure you know, but for others reading, there are reasons why most p…

(1) is (only) your personal viewpoint - i certainly never felt that. (3) can apply to any interesting job, if you let it. only (2) is an impartial criticism of research.

Of course I can't claim that my personal experience is representative of all people. But you're the first person I hear say that did not feel any psychological effects of doing a PhD.

Every single person I know that did a PhD (including myself) has mentioned feeling frustrated/isolated/depressed/etc at different stages in their PhDs. It is interesting to see that some people are actually not affected that much.

Re: Why I'm Getting a PhD

#110

Post by blah32497 »

GuiA wrote: post #80
blah32497 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US you get paid to do a PhD - either as a research assistant, grants/fellowships, or if you get the shit end of the stick - TA'ing

I was a PhD student (I stopped to move to SF and work on startups- although now after 2 years I'm thinking of going back), and fwiw I enjoyed TA'ing. Grading papers was the worst part (but with a glass of beer and some motivating music it's not that bad), but I found everything else to be fairly rewarding.

You're right. I would just guess that most people are there there to learn and do research. And TA'ing takes away from that. But plenty of people do from PhD to teaching positions - in which case a TA'ship is perfect and gets your feet in the water.
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