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Wow, so much elitest attitude in here. I've seen everything from "don't water us down" to "back in the old days, degrees used to mean something". My view is mor

Wow, so much elitest attitude in here. I've seen everything from "don't water us down" to "back in the old days, degrees used to mean something". My view is more in line with Nature. We need to fix the system, we need to realize that management is important if we want to be leaders, and finally that PhD will gain so much useful skill and insight in their own field and that we should encourage people to take those skills out into the market. Hyper-specializing in a specific biological testing technique is all fine and dandy but maybe a few more broad general skills so that we can do more interdisciplinary work and solve the hard problems in the world is important as well. Also, I see grad students and postdoc students as highly skilled labourers. A lot of what we do is grunt work that can't be automated or easily done because we're pushing the boundaries and haven't quite smoothed the process out yet.

shou4577 15y ago
I think that I'm one of those elitist attitude people. I apologize for this, I don't mean to sound elitist (I certainly don't think of myself as elite). I agree with you that we are just skilled laborers. What I mean to say is that graduate students are adults. Let us decide for ourselves what is important. I agree that hyper-specialization is probably not best for humanity, and that interdisciplinary work can really crack open some unsolved problems. And there are jobs that want people to have these skills. I think that a grad student is much more hire-able (for many positions) if he/she has some broad skills. But why should getting a PhD require this? Shouldn't it be up to the person doing the work to decide whether or not the work they are doing will help themselves/the world? I simply don't think that we should alter our degrees to match requirements for job openings. We certainly should alter our skill sets, but a PhD should be a certification that you are knowledgeable and capable of research. It's not (and I don't think that it should be) a certification that you are ready for a job (regardless of what that job is). In my opinion, "Getting a PhD" and "Getting a Job" should be as disjoint as possible. Otherwise people who want one will do the other simply because they have to, and this is good for nobody. I think that a Master's degree is more the type of degree that this is suited for. Most people that I know who are getting Master's degrees are getting them for the express purpose of getting a specific job. This is fine. Most people I know who are getting PhD's are getting them for the purpose of learning their subject, not to get a job. Sure, they need a job after they graduate, but this is tangential in their motivations, and should therefore be tangential in degree program as well. At least, that's my opinion.

shou4577 15y ago

I think that I'm one of those elitist attitude people. I apologize for this, I don't mean to sound elitist (I certainly don't think of myself as elite). I agree with you that we are just skilled laborers. What I mean to say is that graduate students are adults. Let us decide for ourselves what is important. I agree that hyper-specialization is probably not best for humanity, and that interdisciplinary work can really crack open some unsolved problems. And there are jobs that want people to have these skills. I think that a grad student is much more hire-able (for many positions) if he/she has some broad skills. But why should getting a PhD require this? Shouldn't it be up to the person doing the work to decide whether or not the work they are doing will help themselves/the world? I simply don't think that we should alter our degrees to match requirements for job openings. We certainly should alter our skill sets, but a PhD should be a certification that you are knowledgeable and capable of research. It's not (and I don't think that it should be) a certification that you are ready for a job (regardless of what that job is). In my opinion, "Getting a PhD" and "Getting a Job" should be as disjoint as possible. Otherwise people who want one will do the other simply because they have to, and this is good for nobody. I think that a Master's degree is more the type of degree that this is suited for. Most people that I know who are getting Master's degrees are getting them for the express purpose of getting a specific job. This is fine. Most people I know who are getting PhD's are getting them for the purpose of learning their subject, not to get a job. Sure, they need a job after they graduate, but this is tangential in their motivations, and should therefore be tangential in degree program as well. At least, that's my opinion.