/sci/ - Science & Math

>>10425157
>sitting in office
>should be writing
>here instead
fuck it im just going home, not like im going to do work today anyways.

>spend all day editing only the introduction of a paper with advisor on his computer
>tells me to go rewrite results from different perspective (basically lie about purpose of the experiments)
>finish writing, ask him to send me the intro we edited
>"i haven't done anything, you were supposed to rewrite it like we discussed"
>refuses to send me edits and expects me to rewrite from memory when it's just sitting on his god damn computer

i'm sick of this gaslighting bullshit

>>10425157
> field
uber meme artificial intelligence
>stipends
some money from da gubmint not to starve, parents support, scholarship so I don't have to pay tuition at school (don't know anybody who does, but thought I'd just make it clear)
>unattainable crushes
Sufficient savings for retirement, finish the program in a timely manner, getting published, getting motivated to do anything other than procrastinate, losing weight, going back to the gym.
I gave up on meaningful human relationships some years ago, not even trying to be cringy.

>>10425183
>one student used Pearson Correlation even though his data does not fulfill the requirements to warrant PC assumptions apply to it
>VERY politely (raise hand at the end of the talk after researchers, advisors, and assistant professors had finished asking their questions, still 5 min left) tell him "Hi, I think your data meet might not meet the requirement to use Pearson Correlation"
>explain
>my advisor remains silent sipping coffee on the back of the room
>everyone else gets very defensive about the claim I just made and rally in support of the student
The entire first year all those people did nothing but be critical of the methods I used, mentored me how to do it properly or otherwise pushed to learn it myself. Then they pushed me and others to be more participative in the talks of other students. I even learned how to politely point towards possible errors from them and invited researchers from other institutes.
I know I'm not perfect, don't claim to. But, I really thought my comment was on point, polite, and was what I thought they expected of me.
The same thing happened when another advisor was critical of a distance metric (more like, he considered it nonsense despite being from a paper with more than 100 citations) used by somebody doing clustering and at the end of the talk I mentioned (don't even remember now) the metric is actually fine and even pointed to an example scenario where it made sense.

kill me

>>10425471
>Be blue collar fag working and progressing towards Bach degree
>Sometimes day dream about keeping on going, getting a grad degree
>Read this thread
I would rather be a technician for the rest of my life than deal with this shit

>>10425485
browsing these threads killed any aspirations i had for getting a phd.

>>10425485
Sometimes I really don't know why they behave like that.
On the first week of any given month I might be presenting some progress to my advisor, within two weeks he has read and either approved it or asked me to make changes; either way, we have a chat or some e-mails about why. By the next month, I might be asked to give a presentation about it. Suddenly my advisor becomes very antagonistic and ask why I didn't do the opposite of what he asked me do. At the beginning I thought this was to test I was not just doing whatever he said, so I tried my best to think why is it that whatever choices made in my work were correct, and explain them. But, at least every semester my presentation for that term gets judged negatively on my reasoning behind my methodology.
When I ask my advisor and the rest of the judging panel, some days after the presentation having asked them for feedback, what was wrong about it they often reply that actually, everything was ok.
At the end of the term, I get my, meaningless in grad school, grades. They're all good.
At this point, I don't know whether I actually know anything about anything anymore.

>>10425513
Damn anon, I hope you get through it.

>>10425496
A PhD is generally not worth it. Too high risk of shit happening, and too small reward at the end.

>>10425862
>Too high risk of shit happening

inb4 your dumb ass went for a doctorate in radiology

>best I can hope for is to finish paying off my student debt before my job gets replaced by AI
>might as well of gotten a PhD in photography

Don't get a PhD unless you go to a top school (Berkeley/Caltech/Stanford/MIT or similar) and work for a famous advisor

>>10425157
Well thank god i skip all this bullshit, after all im making big buck being a CompSci major

>>10425157
Help guys there is a qt in my stat mech course and I think she likes me what do I do????????

Just an FYI I will never call any of you fags "doctor" or have any respect for you, at most I'll laugh at you're cuckoldry

>>10425157

>Get into PhD (Cancer Biology)
>Join Lab of new PI - this is where I dun goofed
>PI is convinced something is real, and that something must be wrong from a technical standpoint
>Spends thousands of dollars trying to replicate what is likely an artifact.
>Writes abstract saying this thing is real without the data to support it
>Freak out, but tell my self it would get better after qualifier
>Pass qualifer, still not getting better, literally a dead project and will have to spend another 5 years to finish (Already 2.5 years in).
>Decide to Master out, finishing my thesis now.

Fml.

>>10425157
I met a PhD student the other day. Pretty fucking horrifying. Brilliant knowledge of their subject area but he had zero adaptive intelligence and had to be spoonfed fucking everything like a baby

>>10425876
>not making your thesis about applying AI to radiology
lol brainlet detected

>>10425903
You'd never see us in your trailer park anyway

>>10425920
Fuggg that sucks anon, best of luck.

>>10425157
I seriously just got my fucking trucker's license next to doing a masters in mathematics. I also got offered a PhD position. What do? Part time trucking and part time PhD or full time trucking?

>>10426743
If you enjoy mathematics for its own sake, go part time on each.

>>10426758
dumb and bad advice

>>10425183
>i'm sick of this gaslighting bullshit

ever think he's trying to get rid of you? think how easy it would be. they can just assign a student a superficially promising task that they know will go nowhere or be hard to publish with. then when the student gets burnt out or runs out of funding, he'll seek employment and drop out. who'd ever know or call you out? complete plausible deniability, and to 99.999% of people, it just looks like the student didn't have the chops.

advisors can pick and choose who they'll graduate with complete impunity.

>>10427108
>ever think he's trying to get rid of you?
well it'd be dumb for him to do that since all the other grad students but me quit, and he keeps adding projects with other collaborators to my list. if i leave he looks bad in front of them.

>plant biology
>about 25K take-home
>none, ive honestly very rarely felt the drive for a relationship

>>10427118
> he has collaborators and multiple projects

well lucky you.

>>10427108
>>10427128

my advisor doesn't like when we try to reach out on our own. i've tried several times and he has never been that warm to the idea of cooperating or setting up a collaboration with other researchers on campus. he usually recommends that we only collaborate with his own associates, who typically ghost me about a month or two into our collaboration.

>>10427155
cont.

and then when we have nothing to publish after a few months of work because the project didn't go anywhere or his associates lose interest, he acts like i'm the one stalling and reminds me how i urgently need to publish. so i can relate to the "gaslighting" part.

>>10427171

wash, rinse, and repeat for a few years. then when you start losing your motivation, people assume you can't hack it and suggest that you consider other options. it's like a knife in your heart.

nobody thinks for half a second to give you the benefit of the doubt.

>>10427118
>all the other grad students but me quit
huge red flag. sorry anon, you're fucked. get out if you can. Theres a PI on my campus who has ran through 5 post-docs and 3 grad students since I got here 2.5 years ago. He thinks other people are the problem, not him, it's incredible.

>>10425183
another story about him
>editing paper
"we should reword that sentence from passive voice to active voice, it'll sound better"
>no, since it's we're talking about what we did previously, it should be past tense
"i'm not talking about past tense, i'm saying we should avoid passive voice here"
>... i think past tense is okay

>>10427184
i'm 4 years in. when i joined he was still graduating people. since then i think he's sniffed too many chemicals

>>10427176
>wash, rinse, and repeat for a few years. then when you start losing your motivation, people assume you can't hack it and suggest that you consider other options. it's like a knife in your heart.
>>10427176
>nobody thinks for half a second to give you the benefit of the doubt.

this, along with the social isolation that comes with being one of very few grad students who speak english natively would be enough to make anyone want to blow their brains out. i don't get it, what did i do to deserve this sort of abuse? all i wanted to do was work hard and continue to grow, but it feels like i've been thrown into a tarpit, surrounded by mocking, chiding bystanders.

>>10425496
Go to a professional school

>>10427223

it's one layer of bullshit after another. you're wounded, then salt is thrown in your wounds, and then you get blamed for using up all the salt. like the universe itself does not want you to get your goddamned degree, but it's going to punish you real good for not getting your degree.

>>10427155
your advisor's garbage, mate

>>10425157
>PhD
Its a meme

>>10427253

it's not like i'm the next turing, but neither are any of his other students, and they do just fine.

>>10427253

i'm at the end of my rope.

>>10427321
change your advisor

>>10427332

you might as well be telling me to change my major. i've been with the guy for a few years. what does it look like to another advisor (or an employer) when i have so few publications and have been a grad student for so long? you don't think i've considered it? of course i'd like to change, but i don't know many people in the department, most of them are newer people who i'm not familiar with and who have their own groups. i'm worried it's going to be the same with them. i don't see why it wouldn't be, and then i've burned my last bridge.

>>10427365
Ask around and see how the other grad students are doing in their groups, try to get a feel of whether their advisor is okay or not. We had a couple of students change in my group after not doing well in their first choice. One of the girls I understand; her previous boss had some notoriety. She was already with him a while but only had to stay in our group a year or so and do one project with us in order to graduate.

You're fine. Look around and ask around to see who's a better advisor, see if you can join and what you would have to do with them to graduate, and do it.

>>10427394
*change into my group

>>10427394
>Ask around and see how the other grad students are doing in their groups, try to get a feel of whether their advisor is okay or not

pretty tough to have that sort of nuanced conversation with someone who's not fluent in english, and most of the other PhD students are pretty fresh off the boat. i'd have to talk with the advisers themselves. even then, you don't always get an accurate first impression.

>>10427365
no publications in only a handful of years? that's normal, isn't it?

>>10427444

apparently not.

>>10427436
Do what you have to do. Good luck

>>10427436
Stop being a faggot.
Small wonder nobody wants to work with you or talk to you when you're this neurotic.

>>10425896
wake up

>>10426003
there are phd students and phd students, some just do what their advisors tell them and do just fine. i know some postdocs who are brilliant in their field, but can't for the fucking life of them do anything else than what they did during their phd

they just keep going because it's the only thing they're capable of doing

>>10427473

you try being the only native english speaker on the entire floor. then you can ride that high horse of yours all day, asshole.

>>10428093

I'm a non-native English speaker. I can't possibly fathom how shitty a school has to be where a native English speaker can't ask his PhD colleagues how are they doing in their groups or how do they feel about their advisor because he fears their English won't be fluent enough for that.

Are you even in a US/UK university?

>>10428177
>I can't possibly fathom how shitty a school has to be where a native English speaker can't ask his PhD colleagues how are they doing in their groups or how do they feel about their advisor because he fears their English won't be fluent enough for that.

i can ask them

> me: "hey, how's it going?"
> them: "uhhh" *deer in headlights expression*, *breaks eye contact*
> cue stilted, uncomfortable conversation

every damned time.

>>10428203

How many times have you tried? I for one had trouble starting a conversation when I first came to the US because most of my English conversational knowledge came from shitposting on the internet, so I didn't even know people answer a "Thanks" with a "You're welcome".

Also, are you attending a good school? Mine is nothing special and it has a ton of programs with schools in Europe, India, and China to bring students for their Master's programs. I've seen some really horrible presentations from Indian and Chinese students where the students were terrible at grammar or you couldn't even understand a word of what they were saying. Still, all the PhD students I personally know are Chinese and you can perfectly have any sort of conversation with them.

>>10425157
>I really thought my comment was on point, polite, and was what I thought they expected of me.
>what I thought they expected of me
>having expectations
See, there's your problem. From my experience, academics' egos are more fragile than porcelain. This means that dealing with academics involves the same level of tact and diplomacy that any other office setting requires, compounded by years of isolation within the academy. This applies to their attitudes towards research and their students.

I, very naively, had hoped to avoid such bullshit when starting my PhD, but quickly adopted another philosophy. The moment I dropped all expectations (of my advisor, other faculty, and other students), is when I became much more successful in my PhD progress. Maybe you need an additional change of perspective?

>>10425513
>At this point, I don't know whether I actually know anything about anything anymore.
You either know your topic (and the field's foundational knowledge), or you don't. I haven't observed an in-between as of yet. That said, if you're confident in your knowledge, then don't let the BS of academics undermine that confidence - just don't let it go to your head. Leverage their experience. OWN your (research) work and your PhD, don't let it own you.

One last point: don't be afraid to focus on research (not assigned to you) that will guarantee you your graduation. Just be sure to have the data to back up your claims. Don't let your advisor waste your time. >>10427108 This shit is real.

>>10425183
how is this real?

>>10428344

but you probably had other people who spoke your language natively. you had people who you could identify with. there's no way you came here completely on your own. you knew someone, and you know people here. i know nobody.

>>10428344
>>10428598
cont.

don't make light of the language barrier. liberal/hippie wackadoos make light of it because they're retarded jackasses but it's a serious issue.

>>10428602
you might've mentioned it but what languages do you mean? i have italian collaborators and i've made an effort to learn italian on the side and it's fun. if they're chinese forget about it though

>>10425887
What about the public ivies like Wisconsin and Michigan?

>>10425887
oh shut the fuck up

does one get phd for several publications on similar topic or for one big thesis?

>your field
Physics (applied/experimental/as far removed from theory as humanly possible)

>your stipends(not including fee waivers, but actual cash you get after all deductions)
About 20k euros and £3k per year, plus for the first year I get about 500 euros per month for 9 months. It's a bit convoluted because I got funding from two sources which clashed so I accepted the bigger one and the other one was reduced to a top-up funding type of deal.

>your unattainable qt crushes
A surprising amount of people in the office but that would be unnecessary drama in the making.

>post retarded 'just PhD life' shit
>other grad school horror stories are welcome too
Mostly that it's easy to fuck up experiments and come up with bogus data without knowing it immediately.

>>10431118
Writing a thesis is, I think, a general requirement for being awarded a PhD. However, to get content into your thesis you have to do original research, which should result in several publications.

>>10425887
Literally if only the top school as you suggested would result in a shortage of Ph.D students.

Get a Ph.D if you truly enjoy the field you are researching and wish to become knowledgeable about one area of the topic.

However, never pay for a Ph.D. Those ones are shames.

>>10428622
Those are good schools but not super elite. I'm from a similar level as Michigan and the name of the school did not help me at all to get a job. I've only heard of people benefiting from the name of their school if it was one of the very top (somewhere like Columbia, UIC or Northwestern might be the cutoff). If you go to a lower school then your career prospects increasingly become dependent on "networking" (nepotism), which can rely a big deal on the reputation of your PI. Some of the shittier schools have big name PIs so chances are better with them.

That's the way it is with a PhD in science. There's a glut of them, and I've only ever heard of reasonable career outcomes from super famous schools with super famous advisors. Past this, you are putting yourself at serious risk of extended under/unemployment or changing careers after the PhD.

>>10431276
>Northwestern
Michigan is ranked higher than this one though.

>>10431276
>UIC
I take it you meant UIUC.

Grad school is giving me a constant desire to scream. I just want to scream until my lungs heart and break things. I want to go right up to the entire department faculty and scream while I rip my clothes off and huddle into a ball and cry. Every time I print another paper to read I scream, every time I have to write I scream, and every time I think about leaving my room to go to work reading more papers and writing more papers I scream. I would say 40% of my day is spent screaming inside my head.

>>10431557
Writing this post made me go into a screaming fit again btw

>>10431118
For my field you just staple your publications together and that's your thesis.

>>10431557
What's your PhD in? Because that's what I picture maths and theoretical physics being like.

>>10425157
>Biophysics
>35k
>that qt chinese girl who may or may not have a boyfriend.

Help me choose what lab to join

Alright deciding what lab to join...mainly deciding between 2:

1st lab is HHMI funded doing structural biophysics. I'd be working on computational modeling of RNA structure, and adapting some older methods for CryoEM data. Also 3d structure predictions from sequence. PI is well known in her field, but rarely available. I'd be the only computational person in the group.

Other lab is only in its 2nd year. I'd be working on theoretical/computational modeling of phase separation in biological systems. The lab also does work in information theory and statistical thermodynamics. Liked the advisor a lot more, more excited about what I'd be doing. Funding would be tricky, and I'd be the only one in the group whose not a physicist.

I'm heavily leaning towards lab #2 because I feel that what I'd learn there would set me up for doing a lot of things down the road (bio is headed in a physics heavy direction). Only worry is that it is 'risky' in that the advisor is young and maybe he'd not get tenure, or something.
Also is structural bio "a meme"?

>>10432629
#2 is way better. A lot of people overestimate building the 'brand' through working with known names. If there's little chance for feedback and the work looks far duller, then it's way more likely you're going to get burned out and not learn as much; that would offset all the game for working with a big figure.

Risks are marginal. As long as you work on the network and exposure game you're fine even if your adviser hits a pit. Go for it anon.

also tits or gtfo

>>10425157
>bossed out my BSc in chemistry, top grades in my program + one pube
>uni makes me apply for the Rhodes scholarship
>do a shitload of research into oxford's chemistry program
>rewrite application 1000 times
>not even shortlisted
>figure I should apply to Oxford anyways since I did all the research
>actually get into their DPhil program
>was going to use commonwealth scholarship
>scholarship suddenly disappears
>Oxford assigns me some old bozo who only publishes in Dalton Transactions as a supervisor
>get offer to worse-tiear top 50 school I didn't apply to
>they buy me an airplane ticket and dinner and stuff
>meet cool PI who I relate to on scientific issues
>manic episode begins
"fuck it Oxford can suck my cock. I'm going with cool dude PI who cares if all his publications are collabs"
>come down from manic episode
>gf leaves me
>get to new lab (in 1500$/mo rent city!)
>there are 3 grad students
>they're all Chinese
>Garbage is strewn everywhere in the lab
ohfuck.jpg
>go into deep depression

I'm finally starting to recover from the depression. The lab still sucks, and the students are completely unhelpful and unfriendly, but my PI is still a cool dude/genius. Went to Stanford to use the synchrotron, feelings of jealousy over the actually nice, comfy campus immediately ensued. Idk if I should stay or go. Not even sure if I should study chemistry anymore.

>>10432663
oh I fucked up
>Chemistry
>$35k
>qt jewish-looking girl who sits next to me in class

>>10432629
second lab sounds better 'cause you'd end up getting more intelligence from the physicists by diffusion, plus the topics sound interesting, but it comes with the same hazards as every new lab, plus being good at cryo-EM related shit is probably going to make you employable for at least 10 years.

>>10432663
>one pube
heh heh :>

>>10432663
>Went to Stanford to use the synchrotron, feelings of jealousy over the actually nice, comfy campus immediately ensued
Know what you mean... recently visited and it's really nice
better than the crappy places I actually went to

>>10432950
what pisses me off is that I could have gotten in just fine. I just got really carried away with research at the end of my BSc and didn't feel like writing a GRE, so I could only apply to Canadian and UK schools.

If I could've gotten into top 10 schools and ended up in a top 50 school, how bad did I fuck up? The school actually seems to be pretty good, the only problem is that everyone is Chinese, so I can't make friends or get scientific advice from people.

>>10428610
They could be Taiwanese even, and that's quite a step up from Chinese

>>10432663
sounds like you got played by your PI and overbought into his character/promises
its kinda a red flag if he only got 3 chinkos who took the position (slavish workers who will do anything they are told)
how are the other researchers in his lab like?
did u ask around for some 3rd party opinions on your PI?

>two new fellow phd students
>they become a couple
>He drops out because he stopped talking to us and complains that he feels isolated
>mfw
I wonder what goes through the head of people who date on their working place

>Half the lab is chinese
>They only speak chinese amongst themselves
>Will only speak broken english with you if forced to do so
>After 3 years in an english-speaking country they still don't speak good english because they just speak chinese all day

Most of them are perfectly pleasant and professional as far as I can tell, but I feel like nobody in the department benefits from them forming their own sub-group.

>labs and offices in old, run-down building from the 70s
>some of the PIs and their students are in a much newer and nicer building
>i do some labwork there occasionally but mostly i'm in the shitty grey cubes

I feel like it's a superficial thing to be bothered by, but it does irk me.

>>10426743
my dad made 124k last year as a trucker for ford.

the fucked up thing is he's certainly below 100 IQ. he does work a lot though, 60-70 hour weeks sometimes, usually works like 12 hours a day 5 days a week and sometimes on weekends. base pay is $31, overtime is either double pay or time and a half, so he's making 46-47 or 62-63 bucks roughly every hour over his 40 hours worked per week

>>10434146
gonna add double pay is i think only on weekends (particularly maybe sundays only?)

but still, jesus christ. it makes me question if I should have just became a trucker instead of becoming a CPA. Trades pay a fuckton man.

It's almost fucked up that he makes more than a ton of PhD graduates do even though I can assure you they're much smarter than him. He's like 85-95 IQ probably, he can barely even speak a coherent sentence ie. "You was passed out" vs. "You were passed out". He doesn't know the difference between was and were. He's dyslexic I'm pretty sure and might have some learning disability. I kind of resent him because someone that stupid doesn't deserve to be making that kind of cash. And then when stupid people make a lot of money they think they're smarter than they are (and other people think they're smarter than they are, my grandfather and mom always defend his low intelligent with "he's not dumb, he makes a lot of money!" (basically))

>>10434146
You can definitely make a good living in blue-collar work.

But personally, most of those jobs I wouldn't want to do every day for >40 years.

Also, I'd be anxious about going into trucking as a young man now because of self-driving cars.

>>10434160
Yeah I definitely can agree with that and my dad was born in 1969 so he's almost 50, he only plans to work for 10 more years. He'll probably have his job for the duration of his career, but he's fucking lucky man, anyone starting out now will probably have their job taken by automation.

I can respect other trades more because they seem to actually require hard work and intelligence, such as plumbing, electrical, welding, linemen, etc.

>>10434159
>>10434146
>complains his dad is an iqlet
>post reeks of someone who is bitter
>has to make himself feel better by putting his father down
>probably in debt
>probably unhappy
>is 100% making less money than his father
>father gets paid a bunch of money to do something he's probably learned to enjoy
I wonder who the real iqlet is here, hmm...

>>10434379
he got into ford because his dad worked there, there's a lottery held. he's just a brainlet that got lucky, i hate him because he beat me actually.

my parents paid for school, i'm not in debt. but yeah i do make less money than he, the 85 IQ brainlet. tbf though he's worked at ford for 19 years and worked in a factory for 11-12 before that. but yeah, there's no ez brainlet jobs like trucking anymore for our generation, i am kind of bitter desu

Math PhD is a fairly comfy life to be honest.

If you are not accepted into a top 20 PhD program, do not go. The quality of advisors and colleagues drops dramatically. The "big fish, small pond" saying does not exist in graduate school.

I'm getting closer and closer to my undergrad thesis professor, he's a cool guy even tho I have to endure hours and hours of talks about life, goals, politics ecc.
And he always interrupt you, he talks endlessly being sure what he has to say is more relevant and shit.
Is it worth it? Will having a good relation with a professor benefits me more than just managing to publish a few papers and do a thesis with him?

>top 2 school (Stanford) for STEM
>50k/yr stipend
>two prospective PIs
>one was recognized by Barack Obama, publishes like mad, is a fucking hard ass but everyone in his lab finishes in 5
>the students in his lab I met were very smart but kinda obnoxious
>the other one is more chill, less connection to the people and companies I'd want to work postdoc in
>his grad students are more friendly and likable and mention he's very chill

PI #1 has definitely more relatable interests to me but I'm afraid of fucking killing myself for being a brainlet when he scolds me. I'm not very smart and some of the guys I met are like crazy smart. He also wants you to jump through 45 fucking hoops to get a chance to start an independent project in his lab and I'm a bit intimidated. The other prof on the other hand is the one who recommended my admission, is also working on cool stuff but not with the crazy throughput of #1. #1 is pretty famous too

What do I do? I don't want to choose wrong here. Fuck.

>>10433932
that's the whole lab man. Just me and 3 chinks. There are a couple undergrads who show up from time to time as well. Other people said the same thing about my PI as I thought: he's really smart, but he's interested in a narrow subject that doesn't sell that well. Anyways idk what to do now. I want to be in a lab with people to ask questions and learn from.

Apparently I can do a joint supervision if I want. The issue is this guy specializes in certain types of fancy spectroscopy, but you still need to do a bunch of synthesis if you want to make a complete project that lets you be first author. So I figure I could do a joint supervised project with a big synthesis lab and then do the fancy analysis part with my current PI. His wife has a big synthesis lab with white people and postdocs, so I can just work for both of them.

>>10434083
this shit is fucking terrible. I am the only non-chinese in my lab and I feel so isolated. The problem is that they don't have that same attitude about helping new students with stuff. 5th year PhDs from my country will usually be enthusiastic to explain complicated processes in good detail, but the chinese just try to get out of it if you ask them questions. So I have to learn everything on my own.

>>10434708
>>10434083
Just learn Chinese, it's a lot easier than a science PhD

>>10434761
a few other students have actually done this.

I'm not starting another language until I can speak halfway-fluent German though. I'm heading there next semester to do a computational chemistry course.

>>10425157
>world top 10 uni
>applying ML to a quite difficult engineering problem, very new field
>supervisors good, but one has experience only in ML and the other one in the specific engineering field
>incredible resources available
>lot of freedom as to choose what I am working on
>mostly work alone, but other people who help me out are quite smart and speak good English
>qt gf

Did I luck out?

>>10434945
Minus the gf, yes.

>>10434698
Choose number 2. Anything touched by Obama be it his generals, his policies or his legacy turns to shit. Need I remind you the global warming hoax constantly perpetuated by Obama-approved scientists? If you work for an Obama-approved scientist, you'll be working for the Democrats.

>>10434698
>PI #1 has definitely more relatable interests to me
This is easily more important than just about anything else. Working 80 hour weeks is a lot more bearable when it's at least fun.
The only thing I would check into about the first PI is the line
>is a fucking hard ass but everyone in his lab finishes in 5
Does _everyone_ finish in 5, or do the people who survive finish in 5? Hardass advisors are a good thing for your career, abusive advisors are not. Make sure that he doesn't have 50% of his students bail after 2 years because he's a psychopath.

>>10432629
Being the only computational person in group 1 is way more risky than anything in group 2.

>>10435067
yeah the computational-experimental divide is really huge.

>>10434982
God I fucking hate fags like you

>>10432657
>>10432673
>>10435067
>>10435080


Thanks for the thoughts everyone...just wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy as a few people (other first years...) think #1 is better but #2 is pretty obvious. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy.

Also, my roommate got in a debate as he said "You can't have science without applications" and I was pretty strongly opposed to that idea, he's mistaking science for technology...What do you all think?
(He's an organic chemist who also thinks theoretical/computational projects shouldn't get much funding)

>>10434989
cant tell if serious...

Is grad school really that bad?

>>10435253

I went for the equivalent of your #2 lab but to a really hardcore extent. We do really fundamental science in a field that's 95% applications-oriented (chemistry). This does have some serious problems, namely not a lot of students and not a lot of money. But really the main thing that interests me about chemistry is electronic structure theory, and being in a lab like this means I get to study unusual molecules and use unusual techniques and theories in order to understand the structure of molecules that don't have immediately obvious applications, and I find this to be way cooler than what most of the other people in my field are doing, which usually amounts to making a minor tweak on something already really well-understood. A lot of the time these things do turn out to be useful. For example, a theoretical chemist at my school studied the properties of S-nitrosothiols like 30 years ago, and then they turned out to be important signalling molecules like a decade later and he suddenly got 1000s of citations. Fundamental science is also a lot more fun, because there are more interesting debates in the literature, and there's a chance you could actually have a novel idea. But the problem is just that it's hard to fund. I feel like studying more fundamental science is sort of a "privillege". I am only able to work in this shitty lab and study problems I find to be cool because I have a lot of scholarships and funding. If I hadn't bossed out my BSc and gotten university scholarships + personal federal funding, I doubt I could work here 'cause my PI couldn't afford to pay me.

>>10435253
wait, he actually said "you can't have science without applications"??
That's retarded.

>>10425891
Woaohho calm down but man

>>10434908
Chinese is VERY easy, it's like a retarded version of English like there is literally no grammar e.g. they don't say 'he has a dog' they litterally say 'he have dog'

>>10435548
yeah but the writing system is fucked.

>>10435586
You don't need to know how to write Chinese. Your goal would be primarily to talk to people, and even for texting you only need to know how to read, not write. The only reason even Chinese people know how to write Chinese is because standardized tests require it. On computers/phones you just type in your ching chong ping pong in English letters and it makes the ideogram for you.

>>10435586
It's less fucked than you think. Harder than English yes, but also things like "Stem" and "Prefix" types exist for Chinese.

>>10435609
>>10435613
I'm still not starting another one until I master German and French.

>>10435609
>>10435613
Maaybe in a couple years I'll give it a go though. But tbqh I'd rather learn Russian.

>>10426003
>>10428025
When I was finishing my undergraduate thesis I was supervised by a PhD student. He was easily the smartest guy I've ever met regarding materials chemistry, leagues better than everyone else in the group.

However, like you guys said, was insanely incompetent with everything else in life. He paid no tuition, and had a prestigious scholarship, so he was making almost 60k a year. Still managed to max out two 20k lines of credit and a 20k credit card in 3 years of gad school. Had no idea how money, taxes, finance, etc worked. Couldn't drive, couldn't cook, was basically a kid in every other aspect. Outside of lab work all he did was go shopping and buy designer clothes and tonnes of $50+ pairs of underwear because he was a literal fag, and go to all night gay discos every week lmao

How did you guys know gradschool was right for you?
I majored in chem and planned on going for my phd when I was done, but I started having doubts toward the end of my degree. I worked a lot in a research lab and my supervisor really wanted me to stay but I had heard some horror stories from my TAs so I decided to try to find some industry experience before committing to going back.
I realized that a BSc in chem is pretty shit tier, especially in Canada. The only work I could find was shitty QC work doing the same sample prep/MS sample run over and over for a little over minimum wage. I said fuck it and went back to school for CS to try to get something more valuable but now I feel like I fucked up. I don't mind CS but I do find myself missing chem. I really excelled in my research positions, and feel like I made a mistake, but it could just be nostalgia, idk. Just seems like pursuing chemistry is a horrible career move but I dont wan't to regret it.

Thanks for reading my blog and any advice, fellow anons

>>10435982
lol French what are you a faggot?

>>10436242
>How did you guys know gradschool was right for you?
Because I'm allergic to bullshit jobs, and I figured science was most compatible. Not interested in any job where I have to talk to customers etc., so PhD it is. Turns out I'm doing quite alright.

>>10436242
you could probably land a comfy 6 figure bioinformatics job with a bs in cs and chem

>>10425157
Alright anons, I want you to be honest, if someone from a pretty good to great school, like say Rice, wanted to break into academia, what's the reasonable cutoff for how many publications and what tier of journals they should be in. I imagine journals like physical review and communications in mathematical physics would be top tier, with journals like j phys A and chaos being second tier. And what qualifies as famous? How significant does your advisor need to be? Like, the guy's pretty well known in his field, had a festschrift which is at least a good sign. I ask since I worked with a guy who had a decent publication record, about 3 in second tier journals and he definitely got glowing letters of rec from his advisor but after a couple years in the postdoc cycle it seems all prospects have dried up.

>>10425496
same

Hey /sci/, quick question. Can a 3.7 GPA in my MS at a mediocre university and a paper as first author in a mediocre conference get me a decent/top PhD program?

The paper topic is cool and I think the results look good. I'm capable of way more than a 3.7 but I never gave much of a fuck about grades and I had never thought about doing a PhD until recently. My advisor has offered me to do a PhD with him a couple of times, but he doesn't know much about my field. I don't want to spend 3+ years more in college if it's not clearly going to be worth it.

>>10436392
A phd is never "clearly" worth it, do it for personal growth if you are interested in research and can handle uncertainty, don't do it if you are an insecure bag of mental issues that wants to maximize money. If you know that your advisor isn't an abusive idiot you are already better off than most people who start.

>>10436254
I'm Canadian. You must be thinking of people from France.

>>10436242
the intersection of CS and chemistry is huge.

>>10425157
>unattainable qt crushes
>phd
Kek

>>10436419
What did he mean by this?

>>10436410

I'm not insecure and I value a lot of things over money, but I extremely repulse the idea of working for nothing. It's not about whether I can get it done or not (I know I can get it done). I just don't want to work in a lab where I am absolutely on my own instead of counting on the knowledge of my advisor or other students as a foundation. I've already experienced that while working on my project: I spent unnecessary time working on certain challenges that had long before been solved because there was nobody there with more experience to tell me "hey, there's already a way to solve that, go read this paper and focus on how to solve this other thing".

>>10436461
Did you ask your advisor or his phd students about that problem? I know a lot of people who felt lost mainly because they never asked.

>got drink with advisor again at friday drinks
>remember revealing at least some of my powerlevel
>complaining about chad and stacies mostly
>probably said something about school shooters as well
>have a meeting in three hours

>>10436525
Maybe not the best look, but I feel he could sympathise with you.

Finn here, in the process of writing my Master's Thesis in economics at the moment and planning on continuing for a PhD – nearly all of the better economist jobs require a PhD, and I am interested in the field. Nearly all of the PhD grants / positions in Finland are 25k€ a year.

Is there someone here who's studied a PhD in economics and could recommend it? Are there any pitfalls that I would need to be aware of? I'm mostly interested in more theoretical econometrics and am doing my Master's Thesis on time series econometrics. I'm also pursuing a master's in statistics simultaneously (and should be able to finish it in about a year and a half) so that I get enough theoretical knowledge of the field before I start doing my research. My goal would be to work for the Finnish Central Bank as a researcher.

>>10425896
Go talk to her, make up anything. If she likes you she'll go along with anything not offensive.

"Hey ! What did you think of today's lecture ? I think it was harder than the last but also more interesting, there is much study to do. Maybe we can help each other out ?"

If she says no to something harmless like that she isn't into you or is already tied.

>>10436418
the only positions I've seen are computational chem postdocs and maybe a couple bioinformatics positions. Am I missing something?

>>10434945
Which field?

>>10437050
Are you for fucking real this is a scientific board get the FUCK out normie

>>10434481
Are you on crack mate? You MAY be less smart than you think you are broth. Truck drivers are retardedly in demand like they seriously may have to get rid of the dollar menu at every fast food restaurant because nobody wants to truck anymore. Just read a occasional 'fake news' article.

Try doing trucking to pay the bills, get an audible.com account and be learning with audiobooks like all the goddamn time and make tons of money get smarter, tell everyone at your TED Talk how you trucked and saw the real America while inventing your robot and everyone loves you. Thats the plan.

>>10434989
Hes probably going to be the only well liked president in our lifetimes as every other president is going to need to make seriously tough choices that will piss half the country off, like taxing the rich or universal basic income to supplement robots.

>>10437050
Sounds like bullshitaroni to me senpai, if you were in the USA you'd be guaranteed 500K starting. Since you are in financial punytown you probably should just get hardcore into government work, could probably become a thinktank leader and get a 10/10 Finnish GF with big tits as you move towards the presidency.

>>10434708
Yeah no fucking shit dudearino, how does anyone have respect for chinks in 2019, heres a protip in English: they are all yellow supremacists and are going to steal your work anyway don't talk to them because you know when they start talking to you its because you might be on to something, they are all going back home after exploiting our college money whore system and making China better than the USA again and you'll be flipping burgers and they are all making 800K starting, you probably think you have white privilege too HAHAHAHA

wake up my good son

>>10432629
second lab sounds more interesting to me but you'll have to TA a lot, i bet. first lab, though, that sweet sweet HHMI money...

i dunno i'd probably do lab 2

>>10436392
i dont think conference papers count much desu. it won't hurt but it probably won't help either. what's more important is whether you can explain what you were doing and why it mattered to the lab and how it furthered the lab's research goals

>>10425157
>be me
>be the only male Art History PhD
>always letting the ladies know I am available to help them out but never mansplaining it or appearing too confident
>usually keep my look on the approachable nerd type got converse all stars on with my glasses and vest or whatnot
>keep hair long luckily got good genetics where it looks like anime hair
>basically fooling around with peers (not dumb enough for undergrads don't worry)
>TA undergrads and yeah they do flirtatious stuff and hey if they want to blow on my neck and touch my manly shoulder who am I to say this is "normal human contact"
>getting laid on the reg just tell normies I am into african media studies on scholarship definitely NOT the "joke degree"
>I am studying French art which also covers Haiti and Creole so its not a total lie
>Wrote papers on Haitian art, got mad props
>Got a exhibit brewing guaranteed post-doc
>Going to make 50K starting but bonuses are 40K
>with a raise can make 140K with 40K
>women are impressed by French for some reason and its hard to breath with all this stanky pussy on my face 24/8
>shit is actually pretty cash compared to hard sciences
>peace out niggas

>>10437170
>be me
Sorry but did you forget to lurk for 2 years before posting?

>>10425496
It only validates my decision. Academia is soul crushing. Bust your balls to write a paper half a dozen people will read and a couple will understand. No thanks.

>>10437170
>luckily got good genetics where it looks like anime hair
oh dear

>>10437050
Economics is a dead end, unless you are lucky enough to get to work for a central bank or national statistics agency. Find out what professors are connected to it. IMO only Aalto university has any value among the Finnish universities, the rest are shit.

>>10437136
The thing is, in Finland you have to be a PhD to get real economist jobs. There, the pay is of course much better - 6000-10000€ per month.

>>10437297
>Bust your balls to write a paper half a dozen people will read and a couple will understand.
lol, sigh...
when you make some nice papers and realize that few people truly understand and care about them, and that the contribution is truly minuscule, it makes the whole thing feel like a joke

>>10433057
Honestly I'm in the same boat, I got into 5/7 schools I applied to in the 20-50 rank range which makes me think I would've had a shot at top 10 schools. I sold myself short and to be honest it's a huge regret. Not sure how it would affect your case in the UK or Canada.

>>10437515
>>10433057
>being this anxious
Apply for next year if you really care. You have one shot at life, but you can take many shots in it.

>>10437444
wtf? from what I know a bunch of economy majors make decent money by being excel/vba monkeys at private banks.

>>10432663
>>manic episode begins
Jesus, I wonder for how long I'll be able to hold that back.

>>10436525
Darker thoughts have crossed his mind, anon, I'm sure of that.

>>10437078
computational chem is pretty sick.

>>10437078
I'm a chemist whose research is about 70% computational chem and I don't have a CS background, so from my perspective, you are in an awesome position.

>>10437515
I got into Oxford and accepted an offer to a school in the 40-50 rank instead :- /

>>10437532
I'm thinking of it but I missed the GRE deadline again. I'm writing a paper and waiting on a scholarship that will make my stipend 50k. If I get the scholarship, which is tied to my institution, then I definitely shouldn't think about going elsewhere, right?

>>10437703
if your BPD case is mild like mine, you should be able to control the mania and funnel it into studying/learning + exercise. If you can do this, you will actually outperform other people and it will never develop into a full-blown manic episode. The manic episode only starts once you lose the discipline, stop studying hard, and start to allow yourself to think really qualitatively and get lost in your own conjectures. If you force yourself to go through the quantitative thought processes involved in every step of the science, then you'll either obtain humility, which will temper the mania, or you'll break through the brainlet barrier and actually make scientific progress, in which case the mania is acceptable. The problem was that the excitement of doing a bunch of last minute calculations for my paper + getting into a bunch of schools got to my head, plus I was getting laid for the first time since I tarted my BSc, so I just got undisciplined, scanned through a bunch of textbooks, and allowed myself to think I was a genius and every decision I'd make would be a good one. Never do this. If you actually try to do every problem in the textbook carefully, you will never end up having a full-blown manic episode.

>>10437811
is mania when I only sleep 4-5h a day against my will. That is, going to sleep at 10h, waking up at 2-3 and going for a run at 5am? This is my life 5 months/year, the other months I sleep 9h/day and never go to gym.

>>10437791
Everything that matters are the networks you form. Top10 globally only matters if you are in it for the name-dropping, or that one specific professor who happens to work there.

>>10425920
RIP in peace

>>10437828
probably

>>10437891
hmmm my networks are pretty good. The lab I joined has me travelling around a lot to work with people in other countries, so the networks are really not that dependent on the school. And the school is decent anyways.

>>10427127
its me in 3 years

>>10437170
>>be the only male Art History PhD
>>with a raise can make 140K with 40K

Anybody know about the berkeley-ucsf bioengineering program? Im wondering if I should get my phd there over a school like Rice in houston

>>10438058
Why does your lab send you traveling? What do you do?

>>10431276
What about USC engineering

>>10437772
>>10437778
computational chem was actually what I was most interested in. I really enjoyed the problem solving and theory aspects, but pretty much all my experience in undergrad was in a organic materials synthesis and I really didn't like the monotony of the lab work. Just from looking though, outside academia, computational chem seems (almost) non-existent, particularly in Canada.

AI applications (see link for example) are really interesting to me, for things like materials screening and would have a lot more transferable skills I imagine. However, I felt very under-qualified/prepared to apply to a computational group because all my focus was on materials. I only took two theoretical courses in my undergrad. How much experience did you guys have before starting computational work in grad school?

link I mentioned: https://vectorinstitute.ai/team/alan-aspuru-guzik/

>>10438214
#10 according to US News. Should be good.

>>10431437
>>10431508
use the top ten in your field

>>10438197
well, I travel 'cause our uni doesn't have its own synchrotron, and then I also get sent to other universities to learn things like computational techniques.

>>10438058
Then use your networks to publish with some of the top names in your field. Problem solved.

>>10438277
I was actually thinking about exactly this issue all day yesterday.

I really enjoy computational/quantum chemistry because I find electronic structure theory interesting, but it is really devoid of applications outside of academia. But I was studying with the qt I mentioned in my original post yesterday and she was showing me the machine learning programs she writes to train the robotic arms to do kinetics experiments, and the whole time I was thinking "fuck, your PhD is actually going to be useful". Writing AI programs for materials/chemicals screening is definitely the most transferable thing you can be doing in chemistry right now.

During my undergrad, I was in your position (had only worked in organic methods labs) but I ended up setting up this cool internship in a very good computational chemistry lab in Hungary. Most other grad students from North American unis have zero experience, and if they do know some computational chemistry, they definitely don't know the quantum chemical background. I'm hoping to learn the details of quantum chem more properly during my PhD.

It seems like everyone in the country is extremely excited about Dr. Guzik's group. I should've applied there, but we only found out his move to UofT was happening for sure after my PhD was already set up :- /
If I was smarter and more disciplined I would have learned how to write quantum algorithms by now so I could go work for him on the quantum computing side of his research group.

>>10438392
...so you mean get a bunch of second-author collaborative pubes?

>>10438416
>second-author
Who first-authors what depends on a lot of things. But yes, retard. Write papers together!

>>10427188
Another one from today
>"Send me the draft as is, I'll look at it this weekend"
>doesn't look at it this weekend
>editing today
>"Why's this number different in the figure?"
>"I hadn't updated it before sending it but I've since fixed it"
>"DON'T SEND ME OUT OF DATE THINGS!!!!"

Guys if I publish 31 papers simultaneously each citing the other 30, my h-index will be 30 right?

>>10437484
>tfw wrote a review paper on a relatively hot topic and citations roll in
Best feeling in the world. If only I could do it with a regular article

Anyone here know how a US university would see a PhD applicant with a foreign masters, but US bachelors? I think I would be fine, my masters will be from politecnico di milano, which is at 35 on QS ranking for my subject so it isnt really bad,
just maybe lesser known to US universities

>>10438277
you still around, Canadian computational chem anon?

>>10431557
>>10431592
Calm down hungry joe

>>10438277
This
Thoughts on the burgeoning AI applied to matsci industry?

>>10437444
Tampere University is much better for economists.
TKK went to shit after the artists and econs were let in.

>>10440455
I am back, anon

>>10438410
how was the learning curve when you started in comp chem with no experience? I would feel comfortable transitioning to really any other sub-field of chemistry other than computation as it is just so different. How is the knowledge gap first bridged?

>>10431276
>a PhD in science
ah, i see. your problem is that you're retarded.
in case you didn't know, the jobs are reserved for Math, Stats, CS, and OR PhDs.

>>10431645
Funnily enough, that's what I picture laboratory science PhDs to be like.
t. Math PhD student

>>10440949
Kek

>>10438160
They’re both top schools. Would you rather live in San Fran or Texas

Second semester in. Get a good start, finally feeling good about the program and my future in it (was heavily indecisive before). Boom, girlfriend of 2 years dumps me and blocks me on everything. Hoping things get better, they don't. Productivity drops to a shit rate, I feel like shit, I don't want to do anything. So I told my adviser im 80/20 on dropping out... Now I'm getting job anxiety.

Anyway.

>Chemistry (Mass Spec, yeet)
>~$2000

>>10438160
Go to Berkeley

>>10443281
so your life got fucked like the rest of us. congrats! nowhere to go but up now.

>>10443565
>so your life got fucked like the rest of us.
Getting royally fucked over for no reason is no longer a matter of if, but when.
>nowhere to go but up now.
Top advice, anon. The fledgling should be glad this happened so early in his career.

>>10437160
>>10439036
>>10439068
>>10438461
>writing papers

>>10443553
>>10442780
Im going for synthetic biology at both schools so I gotta take more into account than the overall programs. Thanks for your advice!

>>10443281
also anal chem specializing in mass spec
lc or gc?

>>10443565
It appears that everyone has some sort of anxiety associated with graduate school anyway. I'd rather mitigate depression and hopefully find something I can tolerate doing rather than feeling like dying 10+ hours a day. Probably wouldn't wanna slide by doing the bare minimum for another 5 years, right?

>>10443713
Ion Mobility. More so focused on the bioanalytical side looking at proteins.

>>10442766
Really? Surely your day to day job being reading papers and writing shit is more relevant to the theoretical people than the lab people, who of course spend time in labs.

>>10443748
>>Probably wouldn't wanna slide
Here's the story of your average academic today:
>Slide through PhD
>Get job
>Never know how to research, so spend all energy leeching off others
>To get tenure, lie about your achievements while slandering your competitors
>Chase funding to hire temp researchers to do "your" research
>Nobody collaborates with you twice, because you don't deliver
>Chase collaborators who will ditch you after one paper
>Think you are the only one doing this, because too stupid to see most other academics are the same
>Always afraid of being discovered as a hack
>Get depressed and neurotic
>Try to get into management or disappear into obscurity
The sad story is that I've seen a dozen examples of this progression

>>10443775
i meant the screaming and misery

I will always feel inadequate for never having gone in to academia but I did an uninteresting mechanical engineering degree so I really have no entry option.

>>10443877
If you work in industry, try to get your company to sponsor a part-time industry PhD. Academia sucks, but you'll have the opportunity to experience academic research.

>be me (filthy spico)
>just got my JD equivalent, top of my class.
>wanna go to grad school for my PhD, but afraid I lack "real world" experience
>decided to have a gap year to acquire experience so in case I fail, at least I wont die of hunger.


Ahhhh fuck me.

>>10443789
lol

>>10443789
what kind of shit university is this

>>10435586
it's not that hard, the characters are made up of recognizable units
mastering speech tones is probably the hardest part, they have so few sounds they have to use different tones to differentiate them

>>10444289
My sample is a few of the top 100 and top 200 unis worldwide.

>>10425167
This is life with PhD? Sign me up

>>10435548
Chinese has grammar, it's just all in the position of words in a sentence.

>>10437145
>yellow supremacists

Kek'd fucking hard, very true though.

My (bau)plan is to get this bio degree with the highest grade possible as fast as possible, get a master degree with highest grade in a field i like (something like zoology) or in something more general like molecular bio, then try and get a PhD, even abroad would be perfect.
If I fail to get into research I'll try to get a provisional job here in my country and collect money until I can travel to Australia and get a working license so I can stay and work there, somewhere in Queensland preferably, then try again to get into research or just do a normal bio job until I die.

Is my plan solid?

>>10445454
Sounds like every aspiring scientist's plan

I hate doing presentations. Sometimes I wonder how I even made it this far.

>>10445198
I was being a bit hyperbolic but the point still stands its very rudimentary, there's a reason why their litteraly rate went from 10% to 95% so quickly

>>10443789
I notice a trend:
>no collaborators, or sparingly here and there

>one collaborator. For everything.

I don't wanna end up like that. I just wanna know a lot and not be pigeonholed into doing one thing. I feel like that's a one way ticket to depressing nihilism.

>>10445927
Be like the rest of us and get drunk during presentations

>>10443789
>Never know how to research
I have a hard time imagining someone with no capacity for research would be able to even become an Assistant Professor, let alone get tenure.

>>10444023
acquiring industry experience is not bad, a single off year is not going to kill any future academic career you have planned
some people get their PhDs at 40 or so, if you graduated at, let's say, 25 + 1 year working = 26, then 5 years of PhD, heck let's make them 6 because you took longer than expected. 32 years old you get your degree and can decide whether to work at academia or go back to industry, both are fine
money will be more plentiful outside academia, tho

>>10446213
I'm afraid that would show. Also alcohol combined with an anxiety provoking situation gives me mad nausea.
I finally managed to get some xanax though. Hope it helps. Tried beta blockers before and they did nothing.

>>10439223
to your advisors and their colleagues, it won't matter
admissions staff is another matter, but a willing advisor can get them off you

>>10438727
I usually deliver things for review and don't expect to get anything reviewed until after a week and a half.
So I usually work on a thing, then submit for review, then work on another thing, polish a paragraph, touch up my LaTeX, and regret being alive.

>>10446237
>xanax
you'll be fine, benzos were practically meant for presentations.

>>10444866
my condolences to people who are in those unis then, sucks to be them

>biological anthropology
>stipend: nothing anymore
I came in with a research idea I wanted to carry out (named in my letter of intent and in a number of grants I applied for which my advisor helped me with).

>Over the next few months advisor started pushing me into another project, which I started to pursue just because I liked the more technical aspect of it.
>This is to be a side project, my main thesis is still on the table.

>Second year rolls around
>I start getting to grant applications and stuff like that as she recommends (I had gone to the field in the summer to get preliminary data on this first main project).

>"Why are you applying for these grants?"
>"Oh, you told me to start getting seed money for the dissertation project."
>"You can't do this project."
>"Why?"
>"I'm doing it now."

>Descend into alcoholism that winter as I realize my advisor had already raised $60,000 in prestigious grant money (for my field) using drafts I had written.
>At the end of year two, during another project I was carrying out at Harvard unrelated to anything she does, I report her to the university.

>Get back to my uni, meet with big head at the college after I'd reported her
>Present 38 pages of documentation, including where I had run grants her and me had drafted together with her email signatures on them through a plagiarism checker against her actual grant applications, which were very hard to obtain
>Vice President for Research turns to me and says none of this is proof
>"People are going to find out about this and it's going to ruin your career. If I were you, I'd figure out a way to settle this in-house because this doesn't look good on you."

I've thought about suing, but I know that it'll permanently destroy my reputation in the field. When you're in grad school, you're somebody's bitch. Don't even try to get a PhD, it'll ruin your life.

PhD: Communications, 1st year
Stipend: ~20k
Crushes: TT position at R1

Honestly, although I'm mildly concerned about my prospects on the market when it comes to it, all throughout my MA and in my new department I've never had close to the experiences that are described here. Is it that bad in the hard sciences?

>>10446197
Most collaborators are shit. When you find a good one, you tend to publish a lot together.
>I just wanna know a lot and not be pigeonholed
This is very important. Post-PhD, and every five-to-ten years, one should shift to another area of research (not field).

>>10446666
Checking your Devil's Quads of Truth. Your uni is already blackballing you, and you have no future in-house. Not sure what suing could bring you, probably less than you expect even if you are successful. Stay strong and move to greener pastures!

>>10446715
My department has sided with me and are paying for me to masters out. I could hypothetically remain for the PhD, but I've just found out my former chair is becoming department chair so no chance I'm doing that.
Thanks.

>>10446721
>My department has sided with me
You think. In all likelihood, they tell you that to quiet this down and get rid of you asap. Try to find a good reference from the uni before you leave.

I quit my PhD after just over a year once I finally realised my supervisor is retarded.
>Now working in that field (semiconductors)
>Earning 3x as much take-home pay as the stipend I was getting
>Peers only just graduated recently
Remember that quitting is ALWAYS an option if you're intelligent enough.

>>10446237
how did you get xanax?

>>10446738
what do you do anon? How much do you make?

>Got a BS in biochemistry
>Decide to go into industry to see if I like it before going to grad school
>Work with a bunch of post docs and scientists
>post docs make $40-50K, scientists barely make $80K
>Friends that did compsci and Eng started around $60K and after three years most make at least $80K
Fucking hell

>>10446721
>My department has sided with me and are paying for me to masters out.
pick one

>>10446752
Bought online with crypto. This might not be possible everywhere but I think a nice doctor could prescribe it.

>>10427108
They definitely do this
I've got almost enough research for 2 papers and my advisor just keeps fucking around not actually giving me any input on them when I need only one final thing to be done before they're ready to go out.
He's spent months just saying, well maybe consider some other cases, but never had any comments on what exactly he thinks is missing.
Today he just said why don't you start something new lmao
Even the other professors who heard this said his advice is completely stupid.

>>10446771
Normally they don't pay for you to take the masters though do they? I thought they normally cut the funding if you want the masters

>>10428573
It's not real. Most of the stuff in this thread is either imagined or blown out of proportion.
The kind of person who gets "abused" by their advisor meets the same very common archetype
>Complete emotional doormat, would likely get taken advantage of by a poodle. Refuses to ever question advisor or do anything without waiting for orders.
>can't handle stress well, becomes neurotic, develops paranoid ideas like: my advisor is conspiring to ruin my career because I disagreed with him once/my advisor is trying to gaslight me/my advisor is stealing from me (this is why almost all of these nutballs are in either year 2 or 3. year 1 they haven't cracked yet, none of them make it to the end)
It's the same pattern every time. Grad school attracts a lot of people who go because they're trying to turtle up in school and pussy out of the real world. Some of them grow balls, some of them crack.

>>10447836
I mean this is true to some extent but you have to be aware that even by your own logic, academia is full of these emotionally immature and very petty people.
And that's basically the issue that most of these people find.
But as for people stealing ideas, I've actually seen this happen first hand, not just to students but between faculty as well. The way the politics of academia works is really dirty.

>>10447856
>academia is full of these emotionally immature and very petty people.
True, and the reason behind many of these horror stories. Whatever negative traits you find among PhD students, will with some probability exist in faculty too.
Research fraud and workplace abuse are extremely common, nevermind the exact details.

>>10425157
Biochem PhD dropout here
>get good results first time
>can't replicate them
>wtf
>advisor is "very disappointed"
>can only do experiments maybe once a week because I have to wait for my cells to grow
>I'm not a scientist, I'm a cell babysitter
>year later, literally the same
>peace out with a master's degree
>non-PhD industry jobs are incredibly tedious
>go back to school for a CS degree like I should've gotten in the first place

>>10447790
that's why if you only want the masters, for whatever reason, you tell the school you're doing the phd and after two years fill out the paperwork for the masters and drop out. unless they only do thesis masters, which isn't worth it.

>>10447836
hey faggot, have you ever worked anywhere where you're expected to work 14 hour days and get yelled at and berated over dumb shit you can't control? and if you question any of it you're kicked out?

>>10434908
dont learn chinese unless you want to deal with chinks (protip: you dont)

>>10448141
No I would've quit immediately you fucking labrat brainlet.

I'm planning to go to grad school here in a few months. What are some huge red flags to avoid?

>>10448277
>Current year
>Internet tough guy

>>10448278
>What are some huge red flags to avoid?
*Women, especially in management or as supervisor
*Profs who are not famous
*Places with a high PhD students:faculty ratio
*Places with high staff turnover
*Any place that emphasizes industry research over pure research
*Profs with former students who failed to graduate
*Profs with many one-off collaborations
*Research groups dominated by one [foreign] ethnicity
*Profs who are local (Except if you're in a major city)

>>10448399
>*Research groups dominated by one [foreign] ethnicity
makes me think of that one group in my department with a chink PI that almost all of the chinks went into and it was like 95% chinks. They published papers listing like 8 of their names on each of them, usually all chinks
at one point they started tacking on a particular white dude onto their papers mostly because of his ability to write well (in English)
lol

>>10446666
>she
I might have found your problem, anon.

>>10446666
I've heard of a girl who received a grant, didn't use it for some reason, and her PI tried to appropriate it. They went to court. Don't know the details, but she ended up switching to another group at the same university to finish her PhD and I don't think it affected her career.

>>10425157
I just started a phd. Not liking it. Shit pay, and I'm expected to be in office 9-5 mon-fri.

Thinking of pulling the plug and being a data scientist or similar. Convince me to do it/not do it.

Will the professors and stuff be pissed? Am I screwing people over by resigning?

>>10448469
Secure a job before you quit, then pull the plug.
It's not getting any better.
>Am I screwing people over by resigning?
No. You are insignificant to the system, and ultimately responsible only to yourself.

>>10448469
>I just started a phd. Not liking it. Shit pay, and I'm expected to be in office 9-5 mon-fri.
well, it's a job, but yes, pay is typically low
and yes, do data science

>>10448469
I absolutely screwed over my PI when I dropped out. Still don't regret it, they can find someone else next year. It's your life anyway.

>>10437297
I will read it anon, I come from [s4s] and im a little dumb but I know ur working hard!

EVEYRONE ITT KEEP WORKING, I KNOW UR DOING UR BEST AND IT WILL BE WORTH IN THE LONG RUN.
if a random internet person believes in you then Why dont u believe in yourself?

>>10448399
checked

>About to graduate with Bachelors in Physics
>Thinking about grad school
>Hear horror stories from literally every head student I've known
>Professor tells me that it's not worth it and to look at jobs instead
I'm kinda scared

>>10448515
>I absolutely screwed over my PI when I dropped out.
What's the story?

>>10448543
your teacher is jelly, believe in yourself

>>10443620
that's why you publish in open-access journals

>>10448550
Nah the professor who told me to stay away was one I was talking to about a navy nuclear program. The professor I worked with for 3 years never taught me how to do shit, kept me as grunt work, never listened to shit id tell him, then fired me after something didn't work after I told him it wouldn't work.

>>10448543
>Professor tells me that it's not worth it and to look at jobs instead
Oops. gpa? lmao

>>10427108
Curious case of SCHIZOPHRENIA

Are you BLAIMING OTHERS?
Are you not FINDING REASONS FOR YOUR FAILURES?
Is it NOT ABOUT YOU?
Is the world UNFAIR?
Is the world CHAOTIC?

>>10448611
>dude all these people have schizophrenia lmao

>>10448544
I quit right after all the other PhD students in my lab graduated.

>>10448647
what happened to the lab after that?
everyone else dropped out in my lab because it's shitty and it's just me and a couple post-docs

>>10448652
No idea. I ran away and didn't look back.
All that was left after I dropped out were a handful of undergrads.

>>10448611
>projecting this much
Your post had nothing to do with the previous poster.

Good or bad if a professor likes to have a small number of students?

>>10449392
Good: more support to each student

Guys, my advisor seems like a dick, and I feel like I just get more negative reinforcement no matter how hard I try to do things. I'm just being a little bitch right?

>>10449394
That's what I was thinking too. I'm starting to feel like I really lucked out with getting to work with him, gotta work hard to make sure I don't disappoint.

>>10449423
Not enough information. If the negative reinforcement comes from you being a lazy or incompetent bitch, then it's your fault.

Glad to have noticed all the bullshit in academia while being in undergrad school. I was about to enroll on a MSc in Economics, but then realized that if you don't know people in the field your labor market prospects are shitty.