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My experience is that the understanding of the problem is apparent to post-graduates and older, as well as a number of people outside of academia. Among my unde
by ISL 6y ago
My experience is that the understanding of the problem is apparent to post-graduates and older, as well as a number of people outside of academia. Among my undergraduate class and my entering first-year graduate class, understanding of that reality -- that many of them (which, probabilistically meant you) would not become professors -- was limited at best.
- analog31 6y agoThat's fair. It may be something that students have been told but don't really internalize. Everybody at the tournament wants to believe that they stand a chance. I know this is true of students in the humanities too. Everybody is actively putting off facing the reality. One thing I do remember is that as undergrads, we were advised to maintain a pretense of wanting to pursue an academic career, even if we had other plans. If you told them that you intended to finish with a masters and go into industry, you would probably not get accepted, would not get funding, and would be treated as a second class citizen. So students were pretty much told to inflate their expectations. That was a long time ago, and I don't know how it is now. I didn't become a good enough research scientist to compete for a trophy gig in academia. What I saw is that my own university was hiring up, i.e., only considering applicants from higher ranked schools. That meant my chances were somewhere close to zero. I got to know the post-docs and understood their grind. But also, I became more interested in gadgets and making things work, than in directing fundamental research.