What's the typical motivation of getting a PhD? The desire to discover something novel? The need to look and feel better than others?
PhD Simulator
171–180 of 285 posts
Re: PhD Simulator
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Classwork is basically dead-end work and the more you focus on it the less you have to show for yourself when trying to convince an advisor to work with you. nearly half of my year didn't get this and had to master out when we got to quals.
You mean they passed quals but couldn't get an advisor? Or failed quals?
er, right, what other people call quals we called prelims. our quals were a presentation of early stage work, so when the deadlines rolled around, they didn't have an advisor, or hadn't been working with them long enough to have any results.
Re: PhD Simulator
#173This is great and exactly captures the PhD experience. Both in the simulator and in real life, I mostly survived until the end by slacking off frequently, and needed around 5 years. Some highlights: > INBOX: Based on the reviewers' comments, we regret to inform you that your manuscript has been REJECTED for publication. One of the reviewers pointed out that there is no comparison with a state-of-art method. > You cam…
> Growing family obligations (marriage, kids, trying to write a thesis at 3am with a crying baby next room) Oh ... I felt that one :-/
at least you have a family.
Re: PhD Simulator
#174one issue is overemphasis on qualifying exam. Most advisors, at least for experimental disciplines, value publishing papers much higher than jumping through these academic hoops, and make sure that either qualifying exams are easy to pass or can be retaken.
Re: PhD Simulator
#175This is great and exactly captures the PhD experience. Both in the simulator and in real life, I mostly survived until the end by slacking off frequently, and needed around 5 years. Some highlights: > INBOX: Based on the reviewers' comments, we regret to inform you that your manuscript has been REJECTED for publication. One of the reviewers pointed out that there is no comparison with a state-of-art method. > You cam…
> Teaching obligations any advice for people aiming for teaching instead of all the publishing stuff?
Source: Teaching Professor at NC State
During the PhD, I was a TA and instructor on record for several classes. Schools may have some form of mentor teaching assistantship that lets you get experience teaching while in the program. I think I taught ~6 courses by the time I graduated.
It can also help to position yourself in the "education" research space for your field. There is a strong CS education research space, so you can incorporate your classroom as your "lab", though you'll want to study up on Cognitive Sciences to ensure your findings support current literature. My publication count is much lower than my peers, but I was still able to receive several offers for teaching faculty positions.
Teaching faculty positions are available, though not in as much demand as traditional research oriented profs. However, I know at least in CS there are several universities looking for them. Likewise, by situating yourself in the education space, you can land a research prof position while still focusing on education. If you get funding, then you can buy out course obligations so you can specialize in teaching a single class.
Re: PhD Simulator
#176I think the most realistic thing here is the luck element. You have people around you passing and making it look easy and saying to do exactly what they did and those people make it all out to be a skill game. But you follow their exact method and still fail. And keep failing. Making you think there's some secret sauce that they aren't telling you about. But in reality the difference was just luck. That in one game y…
Reminds me of the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. Initially it seems like it's a poem about working hard and taking risks, but it's actually about old people lying to themselves, trying to forget that their success was actually just luck.
About half the professors I worked with were responsible adults, and half were narcissistic children who would do exactly what you described, "just do what I did", and when it doesn't work they quickly changed to personal attacks and insults.
And of course, the professors who had PhDs from MIT or Stanford just breezing through, getting approved for everything they applied to on the first round, even when their past deliverables and future proposals were garbage, and people who went to second-tier schools having to fight tooth and nail every incremental gain. Just a pile of crap. Couldn't stand it.
Re: PhD Simulator
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah don’t do a PhD
Tried that, the university considered lecturers to be disposable if there was a chance to replace them with a tenure-track who could get grants, and told me I could come back if I got a PhD.
Agreed. I found I loved teaching, but with only a Masters I was limited to adjunct hell. I took the pay cut and made the push for my doctorate.
Re: PhD Simulator
#178This is great and exactly captures the PhD experience. Both in the simulator and in real life, I mostly survived until the end by slacking off frequently, and needed around 5 years. Some highlights: > INBOX: Based on the reviewers' comments, we regret to inform you that your manuscript has been REJECTED for publication. One of the reviewers pointed out that there is no comparison with a state-of-art method. > You cam…
One dynamic I experienced that also isn't in the simulation: if you focus too much on classwork early on in order to pass your RPE, it can actually be hard to find an advisor. Classwork is basically dead-end work and the more you focus on it the less you have to show for yourself when trying to convince an advisor to work with you. Your goal should be to optimize for doing just well enough to pass your classwork. Als…
This emphasizes how much you need to know before you even get into a program. If you don't know that much, you NEED those classes to just catch up to your peers as to understanding what the world even says about various things at a foundational level. The weight is so much easier to carry if you go in with a certain level of knowledge so that you can slack in classes if you need to rest.
Re: PhD Simulator
#179It is as boring as getting a real PhD, good job to the dev lol
Re: PhD Simulator
#180This is great and exactly captures the PhD experience. Both in the simulator and in real life, I mostly survived until the end by slacking off frequently, and needed around 5 years. Some highlights: > INBOX: Based on the reviewers' comments, we regret to inform you that your manuscript has been REJECTED for publication. One of the reviewers pointed out that there is no comparison with a state-of-art method. > You cam…
I would also add that the hope trajectory is quite right in the simulation. You really should start quite high and it starts dropping until your first conference, but then towards the middle of the PhD it gets very low. It only really goes up again when the end is in sight.
In the game it pretty much continously went up.