3 ms·

Probably for the best. Usually “I quit my PhD” stories are people who spent 6 years and got fed up, but if if the author can’t last 6 months it sounds like they

Probably for the best. Usually “I quit my PhD” stories are people who spent 6 years and got fed up, but if if the author can’t last 6 months it sounds like they had the wrong expectations going in.

OJFord 4y ago
Having a supervisor roughly in the field seems like a reasonable expectation though? The complaint is not having anyone to discuss the topic with...
- richardwhiuk 4y ago
  They chose their supervisior.
  - OJFord 4y ago
    Sure, but I seems like there was some miscommunication about the current research; what's active and what's a mere 'interest' in the department etc. Anyway I've no horse in this race!
- ModernMech 4y ago
  That’s part of the problem here. 99% of a PhD is your choice of advisor. It fully determines your experience. Going to do quantum computing research in a lab that doesn’t understand quantum computing is really on the author; any questions about the core competency of the lab can be answered by their publication history. Step 1 of doing a PhD is reaching out to people actually doing the research to see if it’s a match. Also having no one with whom to talk about QC tells me it’s a very small school or a specialized school. Or just the wrong school! Not all schools are created equally; they each have their own core competencies defined by the skills of the department faculty. If no one in the faculty had a history of QC research, why is the author attending that school to do QC research? Did they not think to ask before they applied? And why don’t they just find a better school to fit their interests? Transferring is not unheard of at such an early stage of the degree. But the author is done completely, which tells me they weren’t that serious in the first place.
yboris 4y ago
I spent 2 years and quit - but had an amazing time before and after :) https://yboris.com/quitting/ https://yboris.com/quitting/
dahart 4y ago
> if the author can’t last 6 months This doesn’t seem like an entirely fair take. Nobody has perfect expectations fresh out of undergrad. PIs chasing funding is real, and using those funds on grad students who are excited but don’t know what they’re getting into is extremely common. The one thing that is less common is providing zero resources & guidance to get the job done. This definitely sounds like at least as much advisory failure as student expectation.
- ModernMech 4y ago
  Not going to disagree that it’s not an advising failure as well, but if you’re so interested in Quantum computing that you’d like to devote 6-8+ years studying the subject under a professor, you might want to check first that the professor knows something about quantum computing. Step 1 of doing a PhD is to find a person who you want to work under for probably 10% of your entire life. If you’re serious about it, it’s something you should not quit at literally the first roadblock. If I may read between the lines here, because I see this often enough: it seems like this student had a passing interest in QC; joined a department without talking to anyone there to find out if the research they do is compatible with their interests; proposed a deep theoretical research topic that neither anyone in the department nor the author knows much about; and then promptly quit when they told him it’s probably not the best idea.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

OJFord 4y ago

Having a supervisor roughly in the field seems like a reasonable expectation though? The complaint is not having anyone to discuss the topic with...

richardwhiuk 4y ago
They chose their supervisior.
- OJFord 4y ago
  Sure, but I seems like there was some miscommunication about the current research; what's active and what's a mere 'interest' in the department etc. Anyway I've no horse in this race!
ModernMech 4y ago
That’s part of the problem here. 99% of a PhD is your choice of advisor. It fully determines your experience. Going to do quantum computing research in a lab that doesn’t understand quantum computing is really on the author; any questions about the core competency of the lab can be answered by their publication history. Step 1 of doing a PhD is reaching out to people actually doing the research to see if it’s a match. Also having no one with whom to talk about QC tells me it’s a very small school or a specialized school. Or just the wrong school! Not all schools are created equally; they each have their own core competencies defined by the skills of the department faculty. If no one in the faculty had a history of QC research, why is the author attending that school to do QC research? Did they not think to ask before they applied? And why don’t they just find a better school to fit their interests? Transferring is not unheard of at such an early stage of the degree. But the author is done completely, which tells me they weren’t that serious in the first place.

yboris 4y ago

I spent 2 years and quit - but had an amazing time before and after :) https://yboris.com/quitting/ https://yboris.com/quitting/

dahart 4y ago

> if the author can’t last 6 months This doesn’t seem like an entirely fair take. Nobody has perfect expectations fresh out of undergrad. PIs chasing funding is real, and using those funds on grad students who are excited but don’t know what they’re getting into is extremely common. The one thing that is less common is providing zero resources & guidance to get the job done. This definitely sounds like at least as much advisory failure as student expectation.

ModernMech 4y ago
Not going to disagree that it’s not an advising failure as well, but if you’re so interested in Quantum computing that you’d like to devote 6-8+ years studying the subject under a professor, you might want to check first that the professor knows something about quantum computing. Step 1 of doing a PhD is to find a person who you want to work under for probably 10% of your entire life. If you’re serious about it, it’s something you should not quit at literally the first roadblock. If I may read between the lines here, because I see this often enough: it seems like this student had a passing interest in QC; joined a department without talking to anyone there to find out if the research they do is compatible with their interests; proposed a deep theoretical research topic that neither anyone in the department nor the author knows much about; and then promptly quit when they told him it’s probably not the best idea.

deleted 4y ago

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