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Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
101–110 of 337 posts
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
The title is more accurately described as “Former Brown Professor of Medicine Returns to Brown to earn his Third Doctorate“ He had an MD, received a PhD from MIT, then went on to have a career as a researcher at Brown before taking up physics undergrad classes, and then continuing on to grad school. He is quoted in the article as saying he will continue to work on physics research.
I was commenting on the responses though, of "I'm so inspired". People are treating it as if the person has pulled off deathbed salvation, thankfully earning access to the eternal status of "PhD haver" in time.
Sorry, I missed that. Your response came across as one made in response to the title of the article as opposed to the other comments here.
It took me a really long time to finish my bachelor’s degree. I always had a sort of romantic notion that going through it and really studying hard would help me to become a better thinker. I’m not really satisfied with my progress, so I definitely understand where those who want to pursue more formal education are coming from.
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about working harder than your peers? If you're 2x harder working than the avg phd student shouldn't you be able to dedicate half or a third of that time to work and still finish the phd in 5 years?
IME (US) the typical successful phd student works 60-80 hours a week, so… good luck working twice that hard for 5 years.
“Hard work” in the context of phd studies is not measured in a number of hours one works per week. It’s measured in a number of first author publications in top journals/conferences.
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#104For all the fantasy here, let me remind you doing a PhD at an early age is one of the worst things you can do to your financial security (CS Ph.D being a major exception). It does not teach any employable skills, leads to a very high level of depression/anxiety compared to regular jobs and creates a huge opportunity cost where you miss out saving money early that has true compounding capability. The 2019 Nature surve…
> huge opportunity cost where you miss out saving money early
Either direction only works out if a bunch of things line up in your favour over a relatively long period of time. If you choose the academic path and succeed, you end up with little money and a higher credential. If you choose not the academic path, you end up with potentially more money. However, you might fail at one or both paths, so it doesn't really matter at all, and you're better off trying both if you're not so confident. I initially chose the employment path, but as that's failed miserably over that 10 years, I have no money at all to show for it, and I've dipped into school from time to time and generally like it for the most part. If I traded that block of time for just academics or just employment, I'd probably be equally depressed and anxious, just for different reasons.
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#105For all the fantasy here, let me remind you doing a PhD at an early age is one of the worst things you can do to your financial security (CS Ph.D being a major exception). It does not teach any employable skills, leads to a very high level of depression/anxiety compared to regular jobs and creates a huge opportunity cost where you miss out saving money early that has true compounding capability. The 2019 Nature surve…
PhD in information science or mathematics can be good investment. But it is bad idea to star career in academia.
Mathematics is closer to the least in-demand humanities than CS in terms of investment quality... actually, it's probably one of the worse fields in which to do a phd. History or Philosophy might be better... at least there you're free to live a life of the mind. If you sign up for a Math PhD in the USA, you're almost certainly just signing up to be a university College Algebra/Calc I teacher for like 1/2-1/3rd of what middle school teachers are making.
Seriously. Don't get a PhD in Math. It's a miserable field.
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try France, it’s very common to do a PhD inside of a company.
As stated above European PhD are not typically the same as North American PhDs. I've never seen a respected program here that allows for part-time let alone while holding down a full-time job.
PhD is still a PhD in any continent. How academics organize their work is another question.
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#107This is really cool. I'm 30 right now, and only just recently finished my bachelors and have been looking to get a PhD, but it's really hard to find a program that will let you work full time while doing it. It doesn't help that a part of me does sort of feel "too old" to do this sometimes. The PhD system in the US is really tailored around the assumption that you haven't entered the corporate world yet. Anyway, it's…
Professor here. You definitely aren’t too old, but I would never take on a PhD student that wants to continue working elsewhere. A PhD is a full-time job. It took me 6.5 years and was hard enough with very little outside distractions.
That sounds really weird to a european. A manager at my job in his 50's I know is doing is PhD studies along side his quite demanding workload. To my knowledge as he described the process it was no problem to the department to work on his courses and thesis "only part time". This is CS so domains may differ.
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#108I half expected it to say he started it at 23
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#109For all the fantasy here, let me remind you doing a PhD at an early age is one of the worst things you can do to your financial security (CS Ph.D being a major exception). It does not teach any employable skills, leads to a very high level of depression/anxiety compared to regular jobs and creates a huge opportunity cost where you miss out saving money early that has true compounding capability. The 2019 Nature surve…
I went into a PhD programme in Australia straight out of my undergrad degree, and while it certainly wasn't great for my financial security, I'm glad I did it. Anecdotes don't make data, of course, but this is background to what follows.
I had a really easy time getting admitted to the program, was fully funded and received a scholarship. I had a lot of freedom in terms of topic and got to travel every year of the PhD, so I think the actual experience was much better than it sounds like other people have it in the linked study.
What I did see, however, was a university system that was pushing through students at what I would consider an irresponsible pace. This was especially the case with foreign students, who were fodder for the supervisors' career aspirations (the supervisors having to see through a number of students to completion per five-year period to advance). The quality of the resultant PhDs was shockingly low in some cases, but there is no incentive for good theses, just complete theses. And for a university system like Australia's, which is to a large degree reliant on exporting education, these incentives are probably far worse now than they were when I was in the midst of it in 2015-16.
The other major problem is that a PhD is, essentially, an apprenticeship for academia. In Australia, we have a apprenticeships in trades (like electrical, plumbing, etc.) in which you learn 'on the job'; you're paid poorly, you do the menial jobs, but at the end you have a career. A PhD is like that: you do almost everything a lecturer or professor does, except -- and here's the catch -- there's no job prospects whatsoever at the end. And it seems like it'll get worse. Imagine working for four years on something that you love, that you're passionate about, and that you think will change the world intellectually, to only end up being some cheap labour to get publications for others more advanced in their careers -- and then you're done, and shown the door.
I was incredibly lucky in that I got a two-year postdoc, but I had to change fields (which I wanted to do), and I ended up paying for my own post-doc doing contracted research through the university. My heart wasn't in being an academic, and the applied side appealed to me a lot -- but I imagine this would be intolerable for many candidates.
These are factors I tell anyone who is thinking of a PhD. It is a highly-specific apprenticeship for a single industry that is, in Australia, collapsing substantially as the result of its own mismanagement, poor education funding policy at the Federal level, and (of course) the pandemic. It's no wonder that PhD candidates are so discontent, in my view -- despite my having had a wonderful and very fulfilling time.
Re: Physics Student Earns PhD at Age 89
#110This is really cool. I'm 30 right now, and only just recently finished my bachelors and have been looking to get a PhD, but it's really hard to find a program that will let you work full time while doing it. It doesn't help that a part of me does sort of feel "too old" to do this sometimes. The PhD system in the US is really tailored around the assumption that you haven't entered the corporate world yet. Anyway, it's…
Professor here. You definitely aren’t too old, but I would never take on a PhD student that wants to continue working elsewhere. A PhD is a full-time job. It took me 6.5 years and was hard enough with very little outside distractions.
Interesting. My dad is an MD PhD and he got the PhD while being a full time trauma surgeon in his forties. I think perhaps this is like all the other things people have told me are impossible: if I (or all the people like me) want to, we’d find it easy.