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“How is your thesis going?” Students’ perspectives on mental health and stress

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81–90 of 144 posts

Re: “How is your thesis going?” Students’ perspectives on mental health and stress

#81

Post by senel »

GianFabien wrote: post #59
beoberha wrote: post #34

I only have a Bachelor’s but work at a large tech company where a good portion of the technical leadership have PhDs. I can’t imagine deciding to just go for a PhD right out of undergrad. In the grand scheme of things, you know nothing after a 4 year degree. I could not fathom finding a topic on which you are truly passionate and decide to dedicate the next 5-7 years of your life studying it. After 6 years in industr…

People doing a PhD immediately after their bachelors or masters are used as cheap workers by the PIs to do some subset of their main research, to write papers and TA. I went back to do my PhD after more than 20 years in industry. Being an independent researcher gave me the freedom to pursue a topic that I saw a need for in industry. Of course, I'm biased by my experiences, but I do think we would make more practical…

I started my PhD last year and was interested in working with this PI in his lab. My bad maybe but I never contacted anyone in his lab about their experience.

When I got here I realized the members of the lab are almost all petite white women. A common reason why they’re doing their PhD in this lab? The PI saw something in them and thought they were special when they were undergraduates.

To top it off, most of them are doing projects predetermined by the PI for their dissertation.

Goes without saying, I intend to work with another professor but still very disheartening to see.

Re: “How is your thesis going?” Students’ perspectives on mental health and stress

#82

Post by Fomite »

yodsanklai wrote: post #51
tomohelix wrote: post #2

I think the only reason I was able to get through my PhD was because I am used to the work culture and expectations. After going into the industry in a relatively healthy and good company, I realized just how much stress I had and how bad it was in academia. In a way, the grinder serves as a test of willpower and discipline and those who could persevere through it can say they have the mental fortitude to handle stre…

> Nothing changes except a permanent mental scar. That's a very broad generalization. Everybody has a different experience, depending on the field, their advisor, their lab, their skills, their personality and so on... To me, a PhD was pretty much like any other job. The last couple of months were bit harder because of the final deadline, but nothing drastic when you're young. My current job in industry is more stres…

Indeed. For me, my PhD was eye-opening in that it was the first opportunity to work the way I wanted to work, and realizing how much more productive I could be that way.

Re: “How is your thesis going?” Students’ perspectives on mental health and stress

#83

Post by senel »

theGnuMe wrote: post #48
shoo wrote: post #35

see also: Jeff Schmidt's book Disciplined Minds > In this riveting book about the world of professional work, Jeff Schmidt demonstrates that the workplace is a battleground for the very identity of the individual, as is graduate school, where professionals are trained. He shows that professional work is inherently political, and that professionals are hired to subordinate their own vision and maintain strict "ideolog…

Sure is a good reason to start a startup!

That’s what I’m doing in addition to a PhD. Even then, if my idea is really good, I know I’ll have to fight copyright trolls, or imitators, and the like. Life is a challenge man. All I want is to help people and make an impact but I find you need to be f-ing resilient.

Re: “How is your thesis going?” Students’ perspectives on mental health and stress

#84

Post by clipsy »

latency-guy2 wrote: post #71
calf wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only privileged (in terms of outcome and socioeconomic status of a post-PhD career and family), but also rather ideological. The person you asked the question to casually equates "life things" with family, house, career. It's surprisingly a conservative worldview, and IMO a PhD should expand a person's thinking more deeply than to accept ideology that way. To me this says a modern PhD education is too careerist a…

The only thing I've gathered here is that progressives are exhaustively drab and annoying to deal with. They will examine things from the point of view that is precisely aligned with only theirs, calling other people's careers useless in a rather amusing turn of events, and then say, without even slightly being self reflective, that these people they are examining are backwards and narrow minded. To me this says prof…

> The only thing I've gathered here is that progressives are exhaustively drab and annoying to deal with.

Would you find it reasonable if someone judged whatever political ideology you identify with by the behavior of a few assholes? Trust me, I can find far worse examples of any ideology you can name than even the worst on display in this thread.

Re: “How is your thesis going?” Students’ perspectives on mental health and stress

#85

Post by clipsy »

leaveitalone wrote: post #65
ray__ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not criticizing your take, just curious–grades and GPA have never been a primary factor for any of the PhD admissions committees that I've been on or exposed to. Usually other factors like research experience, letters of rec, and other personal experiences easily outweigh grades, especially if they're just Bs (very low grades would be an issue). Where are your B grades affecting your grad school applications?

It was 20 years ago now, and you couldn't get into grad school with less than an A average. This was in Ontario, Canada.

> you couldn't get into grad school with less than an A average

Then no one "took your spot."

Re: “How is your thesis going?” Students’ perspectives on mental health and stress

#86

Post by sgillen »

totoglazer wrote: post #41
twelve40 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several startups back, I worked for a pompous boss, ex-Goldman-VP, who told me that people who get masters are worse programmers, especially if it's from a better school than their bachelor's. You'll be surprised how many nutty biases people have out there.

Isn’t this a pretty universally held opinion?

I haven’t seen this bias personally, what is the thought process behind it? If they were any good they would just have gotten a job or something?

Re: “How is your thesis going?” Students’ perspectives on mental health and stress

#87

Post by tharkun__ »

twelve40 wrote: post #36
tomohelix wrote: post #2

I think the only reason I was able to get through my PhD was because I am used to the work culture and expectations. After going into the industry in a relatively healthy and good company, I realized just how much stress I had and how bad it was in academia. In a way, the grinder serves as a test of willpower and discipline and those who could persevere through it can say they have the mental fortitude to handle stre…

Several startups back, I worked for a pompous boss, ex-Goldman-VP, who told me that people who get masters are worse programmers, especially if it's from a better school than their bachelor's. You'll be surprised how many nutty biases people have out there.

And I've heard such people say the opposite. "Oh, Bachelor? You mean those guys that are certified failed university 'grads'?" As in, master's is what it's at. Anything below it and you might as well not have gone to university.

Re: “How is your thesis going?” Students’ perspectives on mental health and stress

#88

Post by ergocoder »

whatever1 wrote: post #38

An even worse question to a PhD student is: "When are you finishing your PhD?"

I still remember the story from my friend where his professor died and caused a delay to his final thesis for more than 2 years.

He hated that question, but he had a perfect reason for a delay. At the end, his PhD took 7 years, and he said that wasn't bad. lol

Phd students need a union. The characteristics of the job very much need it.

Low pay. High switching cost. Success depends on a single person mostly (your prof).

Re: “How is your thesis going?” Students’ perspectives on mental health and stress

#89

Post by totoglazer »

sgillen wrote: post #86
totoglazer wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t this a pretty universally held opinion?

I haven’t seen this bias personally, what is the thought process behind it? If they were any good they would just have gotten a job or something?

Exactly. The cynical view: If you were any good you wouldn’t need the master’s degree. If you were good and wanted to learn more you’d do a PhD. But you didn’t learn what you were supposed to in undergrad, or could not get/do a job, or need a visa. So you paid a bunch of money to some school that wouldn’t let you into undergrad or a PhD, but will take your cash for a full fare professional masters degree mill. I’ve seen this in industry and in academia.

Re: “How is your thesis going?” Students’ perspectives on mental health and stress

#90

Post by Fomite »

Kirr wrote: post #49

The study is based on a web questionnaire, answered by 589 out of 2552 Ph.D. students. The mental health of the remaining 1963 students who did not take the survey is very likely to be in worse shape than of those who did. In discussion the authors say "Moreover, we want to emphasize the likely sample bias in our data. We recruited participants mainly via mailing lists and our project therefore probably has especiall…

I would suggest it's possible that it overestimates things - online discussions of graduate school - on here, on Twitter, on Academia StackExchange, etc. have, in my experience, been oriented toward discussing negative experiences.
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