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Thank you for the insight on the PhD life. I just finished my master's thesis and working on a paper submission for an automatic RCU framework. I was recently

Thank you for the insight on the PhD life. I just finished my master's thesis and working on a paper submission for an automatic RCU framework. I was recently hired by a FAANG company and wil be starting soon but I have a nagging feeling that the life path I would prefer lies in academia. I have seen a lot of posts detailing the horrors of PhDs and was surprised at the balance of your post. You lose some battles and you win others. In all cases, I bet the feeling of overcoming the hurdles with a stroke of inspiration makes the experience worth it. So thank you for this post!

throwaway4585 7y ago
PhDs can be markedly different depending on your boss (advisor). They are also very different from America to, say, Europe.
- dunefox 7y ago
  In which regards do they differ in the US vs. Europe?
  - throwaway4585 7y ago
    Many PhDs in America expect you to be self-supporting, so you have to take up a loan. I believe the practice is explicitly forbidden in most European countries, so you have to earn funding before starting your research (I could be wrong on this, especially regarding the social sciences). PhDs in America also last way longer, 6+ years vs. 5 years max, generally 3 or 4 in most of Europe. Also, and this is veering into anecdotal stuff, PhD students in Europe tend to be fresh out of university, in their early to mid twenties, and their life is still a bit of a mess in many aspects, much of it due to their being in the middle of a PhD with a close and looming deadline. Their American counterparts tend to be more stable and 'adult', have a spouse and kids, maybe partly due to the fact that they start later and take longer. There are other aspects such as many American labs being much larger so the PI can become some sort of distant god-like figure that you hardly ever meet. Of course all of it is a huge generalization from my lived experience and that of people I know, so other people should feel free to chime in and correct what I've said. Some things don't change though - everyone is underpaid.
    - bboston7 7y ago
      > Many PhDs in America expect you to be self-supporting, so you have to take up a loan. This is not true in America, at least not in the sciences. I've never heard of a reputable computer science PhD program in the United States that didn't wave tuition and provide a stipend for its students. Additionally, all of the of the other PhD students I've met in the sciences have a stipend from their program. Sometimes those stipends have strings attached, like teaching requirements.
    - vhartman 7y ago
      I am currently doing a PhD in Europe. The duration of 3 or 4 years is only really true for hard sciences/engineering, and can be much longer in other fields. The self-support part is not true for the UK at least - I got admitted to the program but did not get funding, so I could have taken a loan. In Germany, I am employed as a 'research assistant' during my PhD, and while underpaid compared to FAANG (or other tech firms), my salary is around the median wage.
    - aroch 7y ago
      I don't think you have a great grasp on the PhD process in the US A vanishingly small number of people are paying for their own PhD in the US. You are expected to be _funded_ though. Most programs give you 1-2 years of guaranteed funding (either through research or teaching assistantships) to give you time to find a PI if you didn't start the program with one and apply to grants. Having to secure grants is much different than paying your own way. Most PhD students are either directly out of a bachelor's program or worked, maybe 2 years, in the field they want to do a PhD in. They're still most definitely in their early to mid-twenties. Are you thinking post-docs? Length of stay is really dependent on your field of study and your specific work. I have friends who took 3 years to do computationally focused doctorates and some who took 6 years to do biology focused ones. You simply cannot make living things grow faster through sheer force of will. I guess my last note would be that there's a reason US biology/biochem/bioME PhDs are paid a premium over their European colleagues internationally. And that's probably related to time spent getting their degrees and the depth and breadth of their experiences in the process
      - 7y ago
sjg007 7y ago
What's your goal? Do you want to be a professor or just want to do research? A PhD depends highly on your advisor.

throwaway4585 7y ago

PhDs can be markedly different depending on your boss (advisor). They are also very different from America to, say, Europe.

dunefox 7y ago
In which regards do they differ in the US vs. Europe?
- throwaway4585 7y ago
  Many PhDs in America expect you to be self-supporting, so you have to take up a loan. I believe the practice is explicitly forbidden in most European countries, so you have to earn funding before starting your research (I could be wrong on this, especially regarding the social sciences). PhDs in America also last way longer, 6+ years vs. 5 years max, generally 3 or 4 in most of Europe. Also, and this is veering into anecdotal stuff, PhD students in Europe tend to be fresh out of university, in their early to mid twenties, and their life is still a bit of a mess in many aspects, much of it due to their being in the middle of a PhD with a close and looming deadline. Their American counterparts tend to be more stable and 'adult', have a spouse and kids, maybe partly due to the fact that they start later and take longer. There are other aspects such as many American labs being much larger so the PI can become some sort of distant god-like figure that you hardly ever meet. Of course all of it is a huge generalization from my lived experience and that of people I know, so other people should feel free to chime in and correct what I've said. Some things don't change though - everyone is underpaid.
  - bboston7 7y ago
    > Many PhDs in America expect you to be self-supporting, so you have to take up a loan. This is not true in America, at least not in the sciences. I've never heard of a reputable computer science PhD program in the United States that didn't wave tuition and provide a stipend for its students. Additionally, all of the of the other PhD students I've met in the sciences have a stipend from their program. Sometimes those stipends have strings attached, like teaching requirements.
  - vhartman 7y ago
    I am currently doing a PhD in Europe. The duration of 3 or 4 years is only really true for hard sciences/engineering, and can be much longer in other fields. The self-support part is not true for the UK at least - I got admitted to the program but did not get funding, so I could have taken a loan. In Germany, I am employed as a 'research assistant' during my PhD, and while underpaid compared to FAANG (or other tech firms), my salary is around the median wage.
  - aroch 7y ago
    I don't think you have a great grasp on the PhD process in the US A vanishingly small number of people are paying for their own PhD in the US. You are expected to be _funded_ though. Most programs give you 1-2 years of guaranteed funding (either through research or teaching assistantships) to give you time to find a PI if you didn't start the program with one and apply to grants. Having to secure grants is much different than paying your own way. Most PhD students are either directly out of a bachelor's program or worked, maybe 2 years, in the field they want to do a PhD in. They're still most definitely in their early to mid-twenties. Are you thinking post-docs? Length of stay is really dependent on your field of study and your specific work. I have friends who took 3 years to do computationally focused doctorates and some who took 6 years to do biology focused ones. You simply cannot make living things grow faster through sheer force of will. I guess my last note would be that there's a reason US biology/biochem/bioME PhDs are paid a premium over their European colleagues internationally. And that's probably related to time spent getting their degrees and the depth and breadth of their experiences in the process
    - 7y ago

sjg007 7y ago

What's your goal? Do you want to be a professor or just want to do research? A PhD depends highly on your advisor.