4 ms·

Things I learnt during, and about, my PhD

63 points by hopeless 18y ago

antiform 18y ago
The one thing that I failed to find in the article was a clear and concrete reason that he wanted to get a Ph.D. I don't think anybody should get a Ph.D. to "get some ideas off [their] chest." You don't need a degree to give you permission to build cool stuff. Also, I wonder where he went to school, because at every school I've been to, there have always been many resources to go to for support. You could always talk shop with more seasoned graduate students for honest advice on classes, advisors, or places to work outside the office. If you want books, there are many books available devoted to advice on how to finish your dissertation, find a research topic, or manage your time. Even for magazines, the Chronicle of Higher Education has articles and advice for the burgeoning and established academic. Yes, you have to do most of the research and your dissertation won't write itself, but it doesn't have to be one man fighting the academic windmill alone.
yummyfajitas 18y ago
Ok, I think I can condense this to one sentence: If your adviser is an asshole, you probably won't graduate and your grad school experience will suck. Don't. If you want to get a Ph.D. and do research, pick your adviser very carefully. It is the most important decision of your research career. Grad school isn't like school, it's an apprenticeship. Pick your adviser (the person you are apprenticed to) on two factors: the success of their past students and how compatible you are personally with them. Their field should be peripherally related to yours, it doesn't have to be very close (1). I had a great experience in grad school. I also had two great advisers. (1) My advisers study scattering theory and complex variables. My Ph.D. was in computational physics. It wasn't a serious problem.
- timr 18y ago
  That's a bit like saying that you should pick your parents wisely. (Or perhaps, that you should pick your wife carefully -- but you only get three dates to decide!) It's wonderful advice...in retrospect. The problem is, you can't judge anything useful about your adviser in the time that you have to do it. For those who don't know, at a good school, you'll get a "rotation" (a quarter/semester "working" in your prospective adviser's group), after which you'll have to decide their suitability as a mentor for years of challenging work. If you're lucky, you make a good decision, and grad school is happy. If you're lucky. That said...there are plenty of other ways to go wrong. Your adviser is a big part of the success formula, but not the only part. Not by a long shot. I'm happy that you had a good experience with your adviser, but I know enough miserable grad students to know that it isn't the norm. Personally, this guy's essay hit way too close to home....
  - RK 18y ago
    It's definitely worse in some departments/fields than others. While we didn't have anything like the rotation that you mention, we were not expected to do research the first year I was in physics grad school, since we were all TA's. That's in contrast to people I knew from the EE dept., who had to have an advisor picked out before they set foot on campus and were expected to start research the first day of school. It's my understanding that in the biosciences, it's the norm for students to do rotations of a couple weeks in every group in the department to help them pick an advisor during their first semester/year. And if picking and advisor is like picking your parents, your research topic is definitely like an arranged marriage. You have to learn to love it...
  - ojbyrne 18y ago
    My advisor was great for the first eight months. Then at the start of the first summer, when we were supposed to be doing research, he went to India for 4 months (and they didn't have the internet there much back then). I did some self-directed research, but mostly I golfed.
  - yummyfajitas 18y ago
    There is useful information about advisers. Perhaps not as much as is desirable, but certainly enough to avoid making bad choices. Very important: what happened to their old students? My adviser: all students got academic jobs (some multiple offers) and finished in 5 years (5 years from B.S. to Ph.D. is normal for math). The most recent student, with whom I had overlap, said he rocked. Another adviser I considered: fastest student took 6 years. One student took 9.5 years, and told everyone "pick a different adviser". Several never graduated. I scratched him off my list. As for the "three dates", it's not optimal, but you can eliminate some bad choices. If the guy forgets to show up for "date #2"? He'll probably do that a lot. He probably doesn't care. One guy (perfectly decent fellow) was very formal, which doesn't really work for me. Several women students mentioned to me they want someone encouraging. The point of the meetings is to judge whether your personalities are compatible. There is information out there, but lots of people don't actively seek it out. Then they become miserable grad students. One guy in my year ignored the advice of "9.5 years", and went on to become a miserable grad student (and now a happy actuary with an M.S.). I had a fantastic adviser, which might have been luck. I had an adviser who didn't suck, which was the result of good choices.
greendestiny 18y ago
The worst thing about a PhD for me was the artificial size of it. A really good PhD is probably a natural series of ideas that spin off from a single theme - but in my case it was a single idea excessively dragged out. Smaller, quicker iteration on ideas is so much more satisfying and better for creativity. I kind of hope that more people fill their 'do something creative' niche with startups in the future. Its more satisfying, not least because other people caring about what you do is essential for a startup.
RK 18y ago
The stipends available to a PhD student are actually very good, especially if you’ve come directly from the pasta & baked bean-eating life of an undergraduate. Things must be better in Ireland than in the US with regard to grad student funding. Some of my friends get paid $1000/month as physics and engineering PhD students.
- ibsulon 18y ago
  That's good compared to part time jobs and loans just to maintain subsistance level.
- jhayes 18y ago
  Sister's doing a PhD here (or there rather, from your POV). Back of the envelope calculation, she'd be earning roughly 10% more than the minimum wage if you view a PhD as a 36 hours/week job (I wouldn't). Pretty sure that that's close to the norm for PhD pay though. (Sorry, no hard figures to compare, due to a feeling that I shouldn't discuss someone else's financial situation candidly online, even if details probably just a google away).
signa11 18y ago
obligatory: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1040 http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1040
- Anon84 18y ago
  But, but... what happens when the Professor IS a Ninja?
kenver 18y ago
I enjoyed my PhD right up until near the end, supervisors from my experience aren't as bad as the guy in this made out, mine were very helpful. The only time I stopped enjoying my PhD was in my last year when I had to totally focus on one small niche and that got a bit boring. Looking back I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to stay in academia afterwards, or if you're really interested in the tiny area you will inevitably focus on. Anyway I submit in two weeks and the experience has shown my that I need to go commercial. Then I can enjoy playing about with whatever I like in my own time for fun!

63 points by hopeless 18y ago

The one thing that I failed to find in the article was a clear and concrete reason that he wanted to get a Ph.D. I don't think anybody should get a Ph.D. to "get some ideas off [their] chest." You don't need a degree to give you permission to build cool stuff. Also, I wonder where he went to school, because at every school I've been to, there have always been many resources to go to for support. You could always talk shop with more seasoned graduate students for honest advice on classes, advisors, or places to work outside the office. If you want books, there are many books available devoted to advice on how to finish your dissertation, find a research topic, or manage your time. Even for magazines, the Chronicle of Higher Education has articles and advice for the burgeoning and established academic. Yes, you have to do most of the research and your dissertation won't write itself, but it doesn't have to be one man fighting the academic windmill alone.

yummyfajitas 18y ago

Ok, I think I can condense this to one sentence: If your adviser is an asshole, you probably won't graduate and your grad school experience will suck. Don't. If you want to get a Ph.D. and do research, pick your adviser very carefully. It is the most important decision of your research career. Grad school isn't like school, it's an apprenticeship. Pick your adviser (the person you are apprenticed to) on two factors: the success of their past students and how compatible you are personally with them. Their field should be peripherally related to yours, it doesn't have to be very close (1). I had a great experience in grad school. I also had two great advisers. (1) My advisers study scattering theory and complex variables. My Ph.D. was in computational physics. It wasn't a serious problem.

timr 18y ago
That's a bit like saying that you should pick your parents wisely. (Or perhaps, that you should pick your wife carefully -- but you only get three dates to decide!) It's wonderful advice...in retrospect. The problem is, you can't judge anything useful about your adviser in the time that you have to do it. For those who don't know, at a good school, you'll get a "rotation" (a quarter/semester "working" in your prospective adviser's group), after which you'll have to decide their suitability as a mentor for years of challenging work. If you're lucky, you make a good decision, and grad school is happy. If you're lucky. That said...there are plenty of other ways to go wrong. Your adviser is a big part of the success formula, but not the only part. Not by a long shot. I'm happy that you had a good experience with your adviser, but I know enough miserable grad students to know that it isn't the norm. Personally, this guy's essay hit way too close to home....
- RK 18y ago
  It's definitely worse in some departments/fields than others. While we didn't have anything like the rotation that you mention, we were not expected to do research the first year I was in physics grad school, since we were all TA's. That's in contrast to people I knew from the EE dept., who had to have an advisor picked out before they set foot on campus and were expected to start research the first day of school. It's my understanding that in the biosciences, it's the norm for students to do rotations of a couple weeks in every group in the department to help them pick an advisor during their first semester/year. And if picking and advisor is like picking your parents, your research topic is definitely like an arranged marriage. You have to learn to love it...
- ojbyrne 18y ago
  My advisor was great for the first eight months. Then at the start of the first summer, when we were supposed to be doing research, he went to India for 4 months (and they didn't have the internet there much back then). I did some self-directed research, but mostly I golfed.
- yummyfajitas 18y ago
  There is useful information about advisers. Perhaps not as much as is desirable, but certainly enough to avoid making bad choices. Very important: what happened to their old students? My adviser: all students got academic jobs (some multiple offers) and finished in 5 years (5 years from B.S. to Ph.D. is normal for math). The most recent student, with whom I had overlap, said he rocked. Another adviser I considered: fastest student took 6 years. One student took 9.5 years, and told everyone "pick a different adviser". Several never graduated. I scratched him off my list. As for the "three dates", it's not optimal, but you can eliminate some bad choices. If the guy forgets to show up for "date #2"? He'll probably do that a lot. He probably doesn't care. One guy (perfectly decent fellow) was very formal, which doesn't really work for me. Several women students mentioned to me they want someone encouraging. The point of the meetings is to judge whether your personalities are compatible. There is information out there, but lots of people don't actively seek it out. Then they become miserable grad students. One guy in my year ignored the advice of "9.5 years", and went on to become a miserable grad student (and now a happy actuary with an M.S.). I had a fantastic adviser, which might have been luck. I had an adviser who didn't suck, which was the result of good choices.

greendestiny 18y ago

The worst thing about a PhD for me was the artificial size of it. A really good PhD is probably a natural series of ideas that spin off from a single theme - but in my case it was a single idea excessively dragged out. Smaller, quicker iteration on ideas is so much more satisfying and better for creativity. I kind of hope that more people fill their 'do something creative' niche with startups in the future. Its more satisfying, not least because other people caring about what you do is essential for a startup.

RK 18y ago

The stipends available to a PhD student are actually very good, especially if you’ve come directly from the pasta & baked bean-eating life of an undergraduate. Things must be better in Ireland than in the US with regard to grad student funding. Some of my friends get paid $1000/month as physics and engineering PhD students.

ibsulon 18y ago
That's good compared to part time jobs and loans just to maintain subsistance level.
jhayes 18y ago
Sister's doing a PhD here (or there rather, from your POV). Back of the envelope calculation, she'd be earning roughly 10% more than the minimum wage if you view a PhD as a 36 hours/week job (I wouldn't). Pretty sure that that's close to the norm for PhD pay though. (Sorry, no hard figures to compare, due to a feeling that I shouldn't discuss someone else's financial situation candidly online, even if details probably just a google away).

signa11 18y ago

obligatory: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1040 http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1040

Anon84 18y ago
But, but... what happens when the Professor IS a Ninja?

kenver 18y ago

I enjoyed my PhD right up until near the end, supervisors from my experience aren't as bad as the guy in this made out, mine were very helpful. The only time I stopped enjoying my PhD was in my last year when I had to totally focus on one small niche and that got a bit boring. Looking back I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to stay in academia afterwards, or if you're really interested in the tiny area you will inevitably focus on. Anyway I submit in two weeks and the experience has shown my that I need to go commercial. Then I can enjoy playing about with whatever I like in my own time for fun!