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I'm planning to get a PhD in a science, so this is a question I've asked myself a lot. From a theoretical standpoint, a PhD is obviously not a magical "get goo
by kevinalexbrown 15y ago
I'm planning to get a PhD in a science, so this is a question I've asked myself a lot.
From a theoretical standpoint, a PhD is obviously not a magical "get good at science" button: there are plenty of other ways to gain competence. An example is Rick Stevens at Argonne National Labs, [1], who I'm pretty sure doesn't have a PhD (my friend worked for him once, and his bio doesn't mention it, but I don't know him personally). People like that show that a PhD is obviously not necessary to do first-class work.
On the other hand, if you want to be a principal investigator on a grant of any decent size, almost no one will believe you have that competence without a PhD. Part of this is the ridiculously rigid US scientific job market: all the arbitrary structure of a resume, even less of the rationale. You can't get a postdoc, almost trivially, without a doctorate. Even if someone wanted to give you a job as a postdoc, the university wouldn't like it, and why choose the guy without the PhD when you have other talented people who also have those three letters? And it's really hard to get a faculty position without a postdoc, so there you go.
So if I could go about becoming a principal investigator or having a nice faculty position without getting a PhD, I'd seriously consider it. But practically speaking, that's not a real possibility yet. Hopefully someday it will be.
[1] http://www.anl.gov/Administration/Bios/stevens.html http://www.anl.gov/Administration/Bios/stevens.html
- p4bl0 15y agoI'm also planning to get a PhD in CS starting next year. But I think this question is irrelevant, in the sense that it is not the right one. Because of course the answer is formally "no", one can be a very good scientists without having a PhD. But do society needs people getting PhDs and people training them and the whole university system. Yes, definitely yes. And a PhD, even if not formally needed to be a good scientists, is an effective way to become a scientists since it's basically learning to be one with others who already are.
- aroberge 15y agoSorry for stating the obvious but, Postdoc == Post-doctoral (fellowship). So, of course you can't get one without having doctoral degree. However, it is sometimes possible to work as a research assistant and end up doing very similar work, without requiring a Ph.D.
- gaurav_v 15y agoWell, I think to be a PI on a grant of any decent size what you need is a tenure or tenure track faculty position, which requires a "PhD or equivalent." As far as I can tell, "or equivalent" means that you've made so many contributions to your field that institutions are fighting with each other to give you a tenured position anyway. Freeman Dyson, for example, never got a PhD. Like everything in science, it's just about publications. If you somehow manage to publish a lot of significant papers, nobody is going to blink over the "PhD" qualification. That being said, the easiest way to build up a publication record is via the PhD-postdoc pathway (at least given the current system).