/sci/ - Science & Math

1st for undergrad sophmore
devour scat gradfags

I just got accepted to a Ph.D. this past spring semester, how bad is it? I talked to some 3rd and 4th years during my interviews but I guess I just don't know what to expect. I'm sure a lot of gripes are program-specific, but I genuinely feel like I have no clue what I'm walking into.

>>10662282
really hard to generalize

personally I think adviser choice is extremely important, if not most important. make sure he/she isnt a cunt. try to find out as soon as possible if its right group fit for you.

research can always feel tedious when things arent working well, but if you have a good adviser + group relationship its much easier to pull through.

>>10662277
back to psets zoomer

I'M GRADUATING IN LIKE 3 MONTHS AND I CAN'T FIND A JOB, WHAT DO I DO? I'M GOING INSANE

FUCK CHEMISTRY AND FUCK MY LIFE

>>10662236
postdoc here

being a phd candidate was awesome
expect the last year which was all academic hurtles and my defense, which went well but the entire experience was shitty and stressful


enjoy it while it lasts, life after STEM gradschool sucks

>>10662328
an hero like the physics guy who got a job at a call centre

>>10662344
>postdoc here
what's it like trying not to kys every day?

>>10662362
difficult

>cucking your own life so hard you spend decades you'll never get back studying redundant, boring shit just to get a piece of paper and good boi points from the other idiots that were dumb enough to go through the same process

Even getting a masters sounds like masochistic madness

>>10662379
its too difficult for you to comprehend

move along

>>10662328
You can certainly find a job. Make your resume look fresh as fuck with Overleaf, abuse the fuck out of your networking, and actually take time to research companies you're applying to and adjust your resume for each different company or position you apply for so that it stands out directly.

>tfw might follow former dean’s advice and pursue phd because I’m fucking tired of working in the industry

>>10662236
My total stipend was $35k my first year in San Diego, but it’s dropping to $23k next year since my fellowship is one year only. Feels fucking bad man, PhD students exist just to suffer.

>>10662422
I'm fucking starting at 23.5k (western NY so not as expensive to live, but regardless). I plan on joining a committee to try and get higher stipends for grad students. Hopefully I won't be too busy during the semester.

>>10662328
What type of chemistry, anon

>>10662435
>>10662422
Leaf here,

I read the orange man was going to tax the shit out of your stipends and scholarships.... did that happen?

>>10662442
It did not. Orange man is fucking stupid

>>10662442
From what I understand you still pay income tax but idk what it was like before orange man came into office

>>10662236

The more I look into it, the more I'm convinced that PhDs and academia are simply not worth it anymore. The sheer number of PhDs and insane competition for research positions seems like something only a naive retard or a 150+ IQ brainchad would take on. I'd love to do research, but I don't think there's any field with a greater disincentive. The odds are overwhelmingly in favor of you losing in terms of money, wellbeing, and career, to the point where the brainnut from cracking interesting problems simply doesn't seem like it could make up for it. I blame the boomers.

>>10662379
>"talking" about things you know literally nothing about
What's the point of such a post? Are you just trying to cope that you couldn't get accepted to a program? I don't want to assume that that's the case but there seems to be no other reason someone would take the time and effort out of their day to specifically make this highly specific type of shitpost.

>>10662328
lern 2 code (ironically and unironically)

>>10662236
Finished year 1. 4.0, pretty proud of that even though it means fuck all. More than anything, it's just a sign that my work ethic has significantly improved compared to my undergrad days. Still in the paper reading and learning stage of research (theor. physics).

I still plan on finding an industry position after I graduate, or at least at a national lab, though that's a long way into the future.

If you work in industry for a few years do high level schools look more favorable on you for a PhD position? I wanted to go to graduate school, but senioritis kicked in and the idea of spending another nanosecond in a class would have made me kill myself. Lab slavery is tolerable though. I'm trying to enter the workforce as a lab slave right now.

>>10662514
The best path is to get a job in industry and then do a PhD that they fund

they pay for it, and you exit with a phd level job
they get a fully trained scientist that is a specialist in something very specific to them

>>10662518
Why is that the best path? Do companies pay more?

>>10662539
Industry pays much more than academia
and getting a job is difficult

>phd in stacks and higher category theory

>>10662379
I don't think you understand what a PhD is or what it's for, shitposting zoomy.

>>10662442
They tried but when orangutans drones actually tried to pass it they recieved hell for it and had to drop it.

>>10662465
If you want a faculty tenure position, sure. If you want to be trained as a research scientist, it's worth it.

>>10662518
>>10662539
>>10662542
Careful not to come off as a simple corporate neck piece, lest you know for a fact you'll be working for that single company for the rest of your life (don't count on it).

>>10662236
Some fucker in my year just got a job at a particle accelerator. Fuck this world.

>>10663341
Working at a particle accelerator sounds dull af

>>10662236
Guys I'm finishing up undergrad and want to spend this summer specializing in some subfield of logic/foundations. Any essential reads, any reviews of the contemporary state of things? I expect people to mention HoTT, if that's your opinion then tell me why I shouldn't just become a set theorist, because stuff like this seems pretty interesting https://mathoverflow.net/questions/331956/why-not-adopt-the-constructibility-axiom-v-l/332004#332004

>>10663360
...
just get a job you clown

>>10663362
Too dumb to get a good one

How many hours a day does the typical phd student work? How many days a week?

>>10663360
>too dumb and useless to get a contract from his first mandatory summer internship after 4th semester
I mean at my uni if you can't round up a contract by the time you graduate you are considered a loser. I got a contract AT my first internship, got my tuition and debt taken care of and full payment for finishing uni. You should be hard working on getting a job instead of slacking off if you already slacked off during uni.
HR knows if someone applying for a job AFTER graduation. You will be lucky if you get a lowball job after 2 years of trying.

>>10662441
PHYSICAL

>>10662465
everything suggests that too many PhDs are produced relative to the available jobs.. some people make it but there are so many stories of miserable SOBs out there

>>10662542
>Industry pays much more than academia
>and getting a job is difficult
It's hard getting a job at a big company. Most people I know going into industry go to some small company or a start-up. Those places usually founder soon after they appear. It's ok though. One of the laid off idiots will start their own company and you can work for them, continuing the cycle. Or you could start up a company of your own!

Job security at the big companies are much better. Those people are concerned with their bottom lines like everyone else and are very adept at cutting costs at the first sign the company is losing money. What are the first costs they cut in this situation? That's right! The PhDs!

To all the socially anxious PhDs out here - is it worth it guys?
I've always visioned myself pursuing a PhD but I'm having a very depressive time working as a MSc in an academia lab. Makes me wanna quit this shit honestly.

>>10663814
>hours per day
7 to 15, heavily dictated by experiments. Usually I aim for 8h and end up with 9h.

>days per week
5 but sometimes weekend work is necessary. If this happens I might take a day off or half day to compensate.

It's very flexible but that works both ways, sometimes I just need to do a really long week but if I want to do whatever during most days I can.

I don't really know what's typical, people here usually come in late and stay in late.

First year researchtard reporting in.

>research
7th author (kek) on an okay paper, my first published contribution to science. There was very little of my work in so I don't really count it as anything more than a meaningless milestone. There's something that will hopefully be a first author paper in the works, as well as a few other nth author ones.

>finals
No more exams for me.

>plans after graduation
Suicide. But that's been my five year plan for about fifteen years now. Good thing I'm bad at meeting my goals.

>>10663338

>Intensely trained as a professional researcher

>Spend the rest of your life managing teams of pajeets and filling out spreadsheets as your expertise decays and you forget how to take a derivative without python

Is there a worse fate than not making it in research and giving in to the industrial Jew

>>10664128
Call center

>>10663814
I work usually 10 or 11 to 7 or 8 most days. Some days leave early, some stay late. I generally work 6-7 days a week though, but i love coming in on weekends, i get the most work done then. I still have time for leisure activities/socializing

>>10662328
>He wants a job right after graduation
are you retarded? you never asked about the job market when you were studying?

>>10662422
You doing math at ucsd? If so what wee your grades and gre like.

>>10662328

Welcome to wendies, may i take your order?

Have fun in the post phd "life" lamo!

>>10662236
8 years ago I started my undergrad degree in physics. Today I submit my PhD on exoplanetary atmospheres. I have been browsing this board for a decade now and it means the world to me. I don't know you guys but I would like to thank each and every one of you for 'supporting' me on this journey.

>>10664841
You know people can dox you right?

Is it wise to apply simultaneously to several phds if the deadlines are close and you are not sure you'll go and pass? I'm not sure I can ask my former advisor to write (say) 8 recommendation letters, although those are probably copypasta'd from the same model.

>>10662236
My PhD was a breeze. I have no idea what people are talking about when they say it's difficult and/or painfull.

Ask me anything

>>10662422
>choosing a school with a 23k stipend in the most expensive real state to live in

>>10666483
field?

>>10666580
physics.

>>10666585
Can you briefly describe the lifestyle you enjoyed as a physics phd?

>>10662328
Make lsd

>>10666841
wake up around 11 am,
ask the swedish models from last night to make breakfast
go back to sleep
get up at 2
go to the lab for 3 hours
come home and browse sci
go to bed

>>10663360
Type theory PhD student here. Read Mike Shulman's "Homotopy type theory, the logic of space" for motivation, and maybe chapter 1-3 of HoTT book.

Classical set theory is IMO an unwieldy historical contraption, if you want to work with set-like things then topos theory is a more general and nicer setting.

>>10666841
Surprisingly I did almost no physics in theory or practice, and instead I did lots of category theory, cohomology, projective schemes, etc.

Postdoc here.

I just noticed one of the PhD students at our lab really fucked up a crucial bit of data analysis that he did ~10 months ago and most of his work since then has most likely been pointless / based on false assumptions. I'm currently considering how to break this to him, trying to compose an e-mail and wondering whether I should cc his advisor or leave for him to share the news.

If something like this happened to you how would you take the news?

>>10670419
I would be afraid to tell him.

>>10670419
Tell him you found a possible mistake and have him take a second look. Cc'ing the advisor isn't a bad idea

>>10662542
>>10663897
I don't know what you guys are talking about, every sign I've seen seems to imply that qualified PhD's are really high demand, at least in the biotech/pharmaceuticals sector.

>>10662328
Why not get a job at a chemicals manufacturing company or a pharma company? There's plenty of job offerings out there.

8 years ago I started my undergrad in Physics. Today I submit my PhD thesis. I've been browsing /sci/ since I was a teen and this place is honestly one of the greatest places on the internet (minus the IQ posts). Thank you all for helping me stay motivated. Love you all.

>>10670660
thats awesome <3

hopefully i can get a phd in physics someday too

>>10670660
i know who you are

>>10662236
Our lab randomly got sent two aboriginal highschool students with very little notice because my PI decided our lab was suddenly going to participate in this program, so I spent my week babysitting them. One of them was dumb as fuck and stopped showing up after 2 days, but the other one was actually pretty smart. We did a bunch of reactions together and ran VT-NMRs. We think we saw some interesting reactivity happen at high temperature. It was pretty fun actually. The kid understood more than I would expect for someone who's never even taken organic chem. We also made a bunch of ice cream with oreos and liquid nitrogen, which was pretty dope.

I want to get a PhD in either cognitive or computational neuroscience, but I'm wondering if I should do pharmacology instead. Are there any industry jobs in neuroscience or will I be unemployable outside of academia?

>>10662236
I've been trying to calibrate an oven for 3 hours on Friday night. I can spy at least 3 things I can kms with in my lab without getting off my stool, but I feel like I'm not being creative enough.

>>10670660
Congrats Dr. So what's next for you?

>>10670419
what sort of problem is it? is it possible you are wrong?

>>10671223
>what sort of problem is it?
In generic terms everyone should understand: he used a pipeline which identifies and filters away sources of noise in his data, and then compared some samples, found no significant differences in his area of interest, and proceeded based on that discovery.

The fuck up was that he actually filtered away his signal and compared his noise profiles for different samples. I found out by testing a different tool I made for comparing such data. I tried it on our various collected data (where I knew the results we got earlier) and noticed I was getting different results for his samples. Then I investigated and found the mistake he made.

>>10670660
>celebrating your phd by doxing yourself as a browser of racial iq difference boards
seriously, congratulations though

>>10670660
I think I know who you are but I won't be a dick and doxx you.

>>10668401
lmao you sound like the homo type for sure

>>10662236
>how's research going?

i'd hoped to hear this question from a family member or friend. instead I hear it on 4chan.

>>10671321
FUCK

>>10671321
"is it done yet" has long since replaced "how's it going" when people ask about my PhD work

>>10671239
>the superior IQ of physicists

>>10670660
Congrats anon.

>>10670660
Cheers... Congrats

>>10670660
congrats anon, fuck IQ posts

>>10670660
Wtf is a Cambridge PhD doing on /sci/ lmao

>>10670660
Congratulations! And I agree about the rest, this is a comfy place.

>>10671239
>filtered away his signal and compared his noise
how do you fuck up this badly?

>Finished PhD three years ago
>Just proved a problem class is P, not NP
Yeah, life's pretty good

>>10670660
Well done bro.I know some faculty at your uni

>>10673922
Cambridge PhD students have plenty of idiots among them. The number of camanons on /sci/ is proof enough.

t. brainlet doing a physics PhD in Cambridge

>>10675487
>Cambridge PhD students
Oxbridge in general attracts a disproportionate amount of wankers who are just in it for the cachet

>>10675483
Bruh how do you know if your proof is (1) true and (2) interesting. I'm a junior and I think I've proved a few theorems about the growth rates of groups and the expressivity of certain grammars. I feel pretty comfortable with the proof sketches I've jotted down, and I feel like it might be useful to get into and undergrad journal or even just turn into a good essay for a grad school writing sample, but I'm concerned that I might just embarass myself.

>>10675526
That's what advisers are for.

>>10675535
What do you mean advisor? I don't have a personal advisor because I'm not in grad school (unless you mean the lady with a degree in social work/counseling who tells me what classes to take).

how is it l:ike being a PhD in a real country? Here in my thirdworld shithole being a fast food manager is more stable and pays more

>>10675526
>Bruh how do you know if your proof is (1) true and (2) interesting.
WIthot going into what it means to "know" something, here is my QC procedure:
1. Consider if the proof makes sense intuitively.
2. Look at the properties of the proof and try to make it break. Either by breaking the whole proposition, or any single line in the proof. Usually, I do this by testing strange edge cases that marginally fit my assumptions, but that may introduce problems.
3. Send it to your co-authors, close collaborators, [or PhD supervisor] for checking
4. Try to publish

Q2 is the million-dollar question. Either you go for a hot topic, or an understudied topic where you can make a greater contribution. Look at what problems transfer to other fields or subdisciplines.

>>10675556
Seems like you're a kid who shouldn't try to publish anything yet. Don't think about it until the end of your bachelor's at the earliest.

>>10666841

1) Fuck around reading articles and getting ideas

2) Do math and write code

3) Write paper and publish

4) Rinse and repeat

>>10670660
>he didn't get is professionally printed in a nice booklet format

>>10675783
Paris area here. It's okay, pay rate is about 20% over minimum wage (40% with teaching) and overall pretty stable. Unless you fuck up really badly (like hit someone or sth), you are not getting removed.
If you find a nice affordable place to live, it's fairly comfy.

Kind of an odd question but I was recently hired to work at an industrial research lab. It's kinda secretive and my contract says to not list it on any social media. But I still want to keep my Linkedin profile updated for future opportunities, what should I do?

>>10679373
>Unless you fuck up really badly (like hit someone or sth), you are not getting removed.
And this is why academia is an MMO with circlejerky guilds. Better to dump the dead weight and to keep the performers desu

>>10679428
Just write researcher, give no affiliation. I have done it for 10 years now

>>10662328
If you can't find a job or feel suicidal you can open up an online shop selling unregistered/legal Lysergic Acid derivates, Research chemicals or some shit.