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We Need a Yelp for Doctoral Programs
11–20 of 118 posts
Re: We Need a Yelp for Doctoral Programs
#12This article really rubs me the wrong way. I don't think I would find a Yelp very valuable, and the most important metric for a PhD program isn't job placement numbers. The idea that job placement correlates to PhD quality is just plain wrong. Incredibly intelligent students leave PhD programs through no fault of their own, and people who get nothing out of a PhD program can get a cushy job easily. It's a horrible me…
> I found that the difference between faculty members at the same institution can be immense.
Absolutely!
> This is why I think it's smarter to give doctoral students more freedom and flexibility in switching faculty. The school should be supportive of a student in this process.
This is important, but it's not enough. The nature of a PhD means that switching faculty is often not an option. Students 3 years into their thesis work with a budding publication record on a topic often can't realistically just switch to another professor, even if everybody is on board with it. In most cases that means starting over from scratch with a new topic.
So instead students will grind out a final couple (or more) miserable years in order to finally get their degree.
Re: We Need a Yelp for Doctoral Programs
#13This article really rubs me the wrong way. I don't think I would find a Yelp very valuable, and the most important metric for a PhD program isn't job placement numbers. The idea that job placement correlates to PhD quality is just plain wrong. Incredibly intelligent students leave PhD programs through no fault of their own, and people who get nothing out of a PhD program can get a cushy job easily. It's a horrible me…
I agree with you, and further think it would be awesome if each doctoral program offered "user manuals" for each potential advisor in the department. Things like, "Professor X is very hands off, so you'll be able to do a lot on your own, but make sure you get on his calendar to get advice." Or, "Professor Y is a slave-driving task master but very capable; so make sure to stand up for yourself or you'll get crushed." Of course this is tongue in cheek and would probably never get formalized.
I got this kind of advice from people who already finished their PhDs while I spent a year in industry before grad school. Not everyone can do this but maybe there is some other way to cold-contact finished PhDs and see what they know about the faculty you're considering.
Re: We Need a Yelp for Doctoral Programs
#14No. We don't need a consumer review website, because PhD students (I am one) are not the consumers of doctoral programs. We're the workers. We need a union. If we're in a good program, we're receiving valuable training both in our coursework (or before PhD in an MS/MA if your country does it that way) and in our research work. Ideally, we're building up a network of collaborations and acquaintances in the scientific…
Yeah what we really need is a glassdoor equivalent.
Re: We Need a Yelp for Doctoral Programs
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reviews seem like the biggest need. “The culture in the X department is terrible, everyone works 80 hours a week and is miserable” “Night life is great at least, the grad students usually go out for student nights at blah blah after seminar” “Underrated X program because at university Y, don’t be fooled we literally have 4 of the 5 top researchers in field Z” Etc.
But it is so hard for people to give reviews. People seem to give good review when are they are very pissed off or very happy. Later seems to be a very rare case.
I couldn’t make sense of your comment.
Re: We Need a Yelp for Doctoral Programs
#16Even if you have a terrible experience in your doctoral program, much of its outward value is in the program's reputation. Giving a program a negative review hurts the perceived value of your own education.
Re: We Need a Yelp for Doctoral Programs
#17I think Glassdoor[1] would be a better analogue.
Re: We Need a Yelp for Doctoral Programs
#18A decent review site would be awesome.
I have been looking at WGU for an online MBA degree. Reviews are just scattered everywhere from Reddit to affiliates websites.
Re: We Need a Yelp for Doctoral Programs
#19Good luck getting honest reviews. Graduates and recent post-docs are dependent upon good letters of recommendation from their advisors for perhaps a decade after leaving their research groups.
The truly disillusioned won't mind complaining, but those with even constructive criticism will feel constrained in their ability to speak out and be specific.
The graduate-student experience is deeply advisor-specific. Professor A may be exploitative, while Professor B may fight tooth-and-nail for student success. The statistics are low, too. Most professors will only graduate a few students per decade.
Re: We Need a Yelp for Doctoral Programs
#20So someone to extort colleges to remove bad reviews?
Ha ha I know where you are going :) My take from the post was that there needs to be some information provided to end users based on which they should be able to decide what colleges to choose. Ranking thatis dictated by third parties cannot be a criteria. And student should not spend too much time emalining each and every college they are interested in.
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