> Hear a lot of bad things about the academic rat race, pressure to public even at masters/PhD level Strongly depends on the advisor and your goals. If you wan

> Hear a lot of bad things about the academic rat race, pressure to public even at masters/PhD level Strongly depends on the advisor and your goals. If you want to stay in academia, some amount of publications is required. Your advisor, especially if he pays your salary, may also push you to publish. If both are not an issue, I guess you can even finish without publications. > I could probably hack out some paper into journals but whether I could have any real impact "on demand" (versus say spontaneously coming up with something) is a big question mark, especially within the deadlines given in the program Nobody comes up with good ideas on demand. As you progress in your academic career the rate of ideas (theoretically) grows. That's why you need the advisor: he can come up with ideas at rate sufficient for his students