6 ms·

http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science It's not what you asked for, but if you haven't read

http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science It's not what you asked for, but if you haven't read the likes of it before, you should. I wish I could have read it when I was your age. I wonder if I would have believed it. If you still need advice on graduate admissions, I can tell you that pg and cperciva are on the right track. Undergrad research is particularly great, as it gives you lots of contact with an adviser who will write great recommendation letters for you.

yters 19y ago
Have you posted this on the front page yet? I would do so, but I don't want to steal your karma. Here's a slashdot thread on the importance of grad school today: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/2250202 http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/2250202
- mechanical_fish 19y ago
  I thought that had been done already. But I'll happily put it up again. If most of news.yc has seen it before it will sink, no problem. UPDATE: Okay, I tried to submit it and got linked straight to this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=74590 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=74590 Damn, that Arc guy is really smart! :)
  - yters 19y ago
    Thanks for the introduction to Greenspun. He's written quite a few interesting articles.
rw 19y ago
This document is pretty shocking, I won't lie. Do you think it's totally true?
- deleted 19y ago
  [deleted]
- yters 19y ago
  2004-2005 Tualbee Survey on academic earnings in CS: http://www.cra.org/CRN/articles/may06/tables.27to34.html http://www.cra.org/CRN/articles/may06/tables.27to34.html 2006 Slashdot thread on the importance of a grad degree: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/2250202 http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/2250202 The thread isn't exactly relevant, mostly it's talk about how financially useful a grad degree is. Interesting in that regard, though.
- nostrademons 19y ago
  It's been the experience of nearly all of my friends who went to grad school...
- hugh 19y ago
  I think it's a bit exaggerated. Certainly the _average_ assistant professor isn't denied tenure: that only happens in about 10-20% of cases as I understand it. http://incoherently-scattered.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-common-are-tenure-rejections.html http://incoherently-scattered.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-commo...
  - mechanical_fish 19y ago
    I'd agree that it's a little bit exaggerated. And yet... I'd claim that the real reason why "only" 20% of assistant profs are denied tenure is that the system now weeds them out at the postdoc level. It's now considered normal to require candidates to perform multiple postdocs before awarding them a tenure-track position. The only sure way to escape that treadmill is to write your own grant and get it funded... which, by no coincidence at all, is also the secret to being a successful assistant prof. You can count the number of first-year grad students per year. You can count the number of graduating Ph.D.s per year. And you can count the number of tenure-track openings per year. And then you know the percentage of people who will eventually leave, or be kicked out, of academia. The rest is detail. Most of us leave. For a motivated student to be forced out is kind of rare. They're quite happy to have you. You're really, really cheap.

yters 19y ago

Have you posted this on the front page yet? I would do so, but I don't want to steal your karma. Here's a slashdot thread on the importance of grad school today: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/2250202 http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/2250202

mechanical_fish 19y ago
I thought that had been done already. But I'll happily put it up again. If most of news.yc has seen it before it will sink, no problem. UPDATE: Okay, I tried to submit it and got linked straight to this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=74590 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=74590 Damn, that Arc guy is really smart! :)
- yters 19y ago
  Thanks for the introduction to Greenspun. He's written quite a few interesting articles.

rw 19y ago

This document is pretty shocking, I won't lie. Do you think it's totally true?

deleted 19y ago
[deleted]
yters 19y ago
2004-2005 Tualbee Survey on academic earnings in CS: http://www.cra.org/CRN/articles/may06/tables.27to34.html http://www.cra.org/CRN/articles/may06/tables.27to34.html 2006 Slashdot thread on the importance of a grad degree: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/2250202 http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/2250202 The thread isn't exactly relevant, mostly it's talk about how financially useful a grad degree is. Interesting in that regard, though.
nostrademons 19y ago
It's been the experience of nearly all of my friends who went to grad school...
hugh 19y ago
I think it's a bit exaggerated. Certainly the _average_ assistant professor isn't denied tenure: that only happens in about 10-20% of cases as I understand it. http://incoherently-scattered.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-common-are-tenure-rejections.html http://incoherently-scattered.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-commo...
- mechanical_fish 19y ago
  I'd agree that it's a little bit exaggerated. And yet... I'd claim that the real reason why "only" 20% of assistant profs are denied tenure is that the system now weeds them out at the postdoc level. It's now considered normal to require candidates to perform multiple postdocs before awarding them a tenure-track position. The only sure way to escape that treadmill is to write your own grant and get it funded... which, by no coincidence at all, is also the secret to being a successful assistant prof. You can count the number of first-year grad students per year. You can count the number of graduating Ph.D.s per year. And you can count the number of tenure-track openings per year. And then you know the percentage of people who will eventually leave, or be kicked out, of academia. The rest is detail. Most of us leave. For a motivated student to be forced out is kind of rare. They're quite happy to have you. You're really, really cheap.