4 ms·
Maybe they will do the same for the majority of PhD programs?
by j7ake 2y ago
Maybe they will do the same for the majority of PhD programs?
- darth_avocado 2y agoAnd a ton of undergrad and grad programs
- QuiDortDine 2y agoWhy stop the money printer
- jan3024 2y ago[dead]
- HPsquared 2y agoPhDs went through a few years of exponential growth in the 1960s, hit the "resource depletion" limit around 1971 and has been starved for resources ever since.
- jltsiren 2y agoPhD programs are not the issue. On the average, people with a PhD have higher incomes and a lower unemployment rate than people with a lower degree. It's just that there is a subset of PhDs who can't find a proper job in the academia but choose to stay there anyway. Doing a PhD may not make sense purely from a financial perspective, but few things in life do. You don't buy a bigger home or have hobbies to make more money either. A PhD is one of those things you don't do for money, but because you find some inherent value in it.
- dgfitz 2y ago> A PhD is one of those things you don't do for money, but because you find some inherent value in it. We must not run the same circles. The number of people I know who abandoned a post doc (they were fucking miserable) is probably triple the number of people I know who got a PhD. If your statement were true I can’t fathom why people would drop out.
- mr_toad 2y agoPeople try lots of things like learning to play the guitar, or marathon running, only to discover it’s harder than they thought and drop out. You can tell when people are in it for the money because they keep doing it even when it makes them miserable.
- jltsiren 2y agoPeople typically don't start a PhD with the expectation of making more money. They start it because they think research will be interesting. Many people drop out once they realize that doing a PhD is not for them. I've seen estimates that the average dropout rates are something like 40-50%. Many of them are high achievers, who are very good at completing well-defined tasks given to them, but who don't enjoy working on more open-ended problems. Others are driven out by the intense pressure and the expectations of long working hours that are present in some labs, particularly in elite universities. And some, in countries where people doing PhD are considered students rather than junior professionals, cannot tolerate the poverty imposed on them.
- zero-sharp 2y agoThe post you're responding to said abandoning a postdoc. The PhD was completed. So I'm not sure it has anything to do with not enjoying open ended work.
- jltsiren 2y agoI assumed that was a mistake. Because the post said they knew about three times more people who abandoned a postdoc than people with a PhD.