/sci/ - Science & Math

i dont want any pickles in my burger

>>6141243

get into applied sciences! forget about this abstract shit. you can do fuck-all with that.. unless you're the top guy.

>>6141254
>i dont want any pickles in my burger

oh lord my sides! HAHAHAH

>physics
>astronomy

Combine those majors and start a band, anon. It's your destiny.

>>6141272
Wrong Brian, bro.

>>6141272
>>6141355
Oh wait, both are good examples of crazy-ass high-as-fuck psycho physicists

>>6141243
you are pretty much me

i've lost literally all my passion and I still have grad school after this year. so fucking burned out its not even funny

>>6141361
>>6141243

go psychiatrist, claim them you got adhd order -> get amphetamine -> go through the roof with scores and never feel burn out any more -> happy as fug.

hope all good to you guys, I've seen lots of guys like you! also vacation is always a good thing, you can take one curriculum free and go somewhere warm to just drink/smoke whatever u prefer and lie on the beach.

>>6141243
> Implying that being happy is a good thing
I just live my life being depressed as fuck. Managed to get PhD from a top school, and still hate my life. Go cry yourself to sleep or man up.

>>6141243
"It's about the journey or something, so don't look forward. The point is that you don't set goals or whatever, and just be happy about what you're doing now, I think. I don't quite remember what he said."

-Stephen Fry

>>6141376
Did those amphetamines work for you?

>>6141243
Know that feel, engineering burning me the fuck out, but it's nice, I feel strangely alive and I counter balance my hard work with partying and friends + the occasional (physically safe) drugs like hallucinogens and ofc weed, they always seem to make me see the bigger picture if only by sort of 'hard resetting' me. I know it sounds a bit sketchy, but it seems to work.

Take some time off if your grades allow it. I'm sure you know this, but do what you have to do and leave it at that, let things unfold rather than cramming and forcing.

Life starts in collage they said.

>>6142229
If you don't have a goal, or a dream, there's no journey.

>>6142308
Not true. Everyone has goals and every day is a journey. Dreams are an illusion and once you stop seeking them, you are free to experience life in an ever evolving, more timeless way.

>>6142295
>they always seem to make me see the bigger picture if only by sort of 'hard resetting' me. I know it sounds a bit sketchy, but it seems to work.
I know that feeling. Amazing how much a night of drinking or smoking helps. Complete refreshed. If I don't take anything I can't get my mind off studies, don' feel relaxed enough.

That said, sometimes it does feel pretty shit that I'll have nothing more than a couple of nights off in two semesters. Enjoy what I study but goddamn

>>6142325
Sounds to me like you have to just take time off and say "fuck it" to some things, but I don't know how your school handles things. I know the feeling of guilt, but once you get over the initial setting up phase for your time off, you'll thank yourself. Oh and unless you're really burning to be alone, bring friends and you'll be considerably less miserable, it's like magic

>>6142356
>Sounds to me like you have to just take time off and say "fuck it" to some things
I wish it were that easy, last summer it took me 2 weeks to get used to the fact that I did not have to study.
But yeah, if I could take a weekend off and actually get my head sorted without having to get wasted or high that'd certainly be helpful mid semester

>>6141243

>not doing engineering

Society is pushing more people into college than there really ought to be. People are going to college for a piece of paper that says they are qualified for a job or just to prove they are superior to people with trades and manual laborers.

You're the side-effect. Enjoy

First, the unemployment rate for physics PhDs is ridiculously low and always has been.

Second, if you feel that obsessing about undergrad shit is sucking out your soul, forget about the PhD. The research is significantly more time consuming pretty much by necessity.

>>6142424
>Second, if you feel that obsessing about undergrad shit is sucking out your soul, forget about the PhD. The research is significantly more time consuming pretty much by necessity.
Talked to a few PhD's who did the same undergrad I did. They say the opposite.

I feel really sorry for the engineers and physicists (couldnt even imagine empathizing with math majors... probably kill myself)


as with most physical sciences, a bachelors degree is, in the vast majority of cases, absolutely worthless for industry.

B.S. = technician unless you are either extremely lucky or extremely skilled... 90% of the time or more BS = technician.

after maybe 4-8 years in industry, your experience is enough to increase your salary by 50%.


So, like most people in this situation, getting a PhD is almost a necessity if you want to go anywhere or be anything.


Downside is this:

if you are a physicist, mathematician, or engineering, graduate school usually means:

Physicist: the are shitloads of other physicists in graduate school. its pretty insane. the last time I took the GRE subject test there were at least 5x as many physics majors taking the test as the next subject (which was math)

Engineer: unless its something like ECE (solid state/fab), materials science & engineering, or chemE.... funding is going to be a major problem. unlike the physical sciences where people really do need armies of graduate students to perform research, Mechanical engineering/aerospace/computer/software engineering/traditional electrical engineering does not. You can expect to have to beg for funding, only get a masters degree, and/or have to complete some of your degree working in industry for the same shit TA/RA pay as everyone else.

Math: mathematics research groups NEVER have any money. The extremely lucrative grants and funding given to math research groups never top $500,000.... which is basically enough to pay for a handful of grad students and a few postdocs for 2 years (as well as computer time and office space).

Expect to beg for funding all the time, teach a fuckload of classes for TA pay, and never get paid as an RA

>>6142424

PhD in science or engineering means:

classes for 1-2 years (typically 1-1.5 years)

then 3-4 years of research, TAing, etc.

during that period you might have cumulative tests, in addition to any prerequisite for your actual graduation, writing your thesis, defending your thesis, and orals.


Basically the first 2 years overlap with an MS degree, which does not even necessarily require that you DO any research (in fact, you can theoretically get an MS with literature research alone).


Once you escape that first year or two, then your life DOES revolve around labwork.


However, for most people, lab work is fun. they actually enjoy fucking around with lasers/optics tables, detectors, vacuum chambers, semiconductor fabrication, electron/STM/AFM, mossbauer, SQUIDs, solid state NMR, time resolve spectroscopy, etc.


I reverse everything I said if you choose to do computational/theoretical physics.

THAT shit is horrendous. Seriously, have fun spending fucking 12 hours a day debugging Fortran code.

>>6142460
>have fun spending fucking 12 hours a day debugging Fortran code
What if I enjoy writing fortran code?

>>6142460
Guy you responded to. I do computational/theoretical condensed matter stuff and love it.

>>6142429
Really? What kind of research were they doing? I spend most of my time obsessing over my research, but I rather enjoy my research.

>>6142580

>computational/theoretical condensed matter stuff

oh lawd.... good lucking getting a jerb in one of the 3 open positions for people of this educational background at one of the various design only and/or foundries each year

>>6142506

Didnt say writing. I said debugging.


that difficulty is why the last 15 years has seen 2 nobel prizes given for software and the computational/theoretical models that support them.

1999: Walter Kohn and Pople. Kohn = density functional theory, Pople = the Gaussian software package

2013: Karplus et all. semi-empirical molecular dynamics and the CHARMM molecular dynamics software package

I got an undergrad degree in physics, went out and worked for several years at a research startup, and am now working on PhD in computer science at an A-tier school. Each stage was with other physics expats. It gets better.

>tfw can't decide between physics or aerospace engineering
What do?

>>6142583
>oh lawd.... good lucking getting a jerb in one of the 3 open positions for people of this educational background at one of the various design only and/or foundries each year
shouldnt computational physics be like the best field for going into industry?

>>6142583
Laughlin kinda makes it in there given that his primary argument for the work were computational results.

As for only getting jobs at foundries and such, it depends greatly upon what you do.

Use your degree to make money. Bitches like money.

>>6142597

definitely not.

ECE/SS physics... basically the nigs who work IN the clean rooms.

that is where the VAST majority of the labor goes.

and its not just like these guys are technicians.

Shuji Nakamura, who invented the blue laser LED and the modern blue/green LEDs (used for white LEDs with phosphor) basically used experimental trial and error to perfect a pure manufacturing process.

he only had a masters degree, and every fucking bluray disk player carries on his legacy.


On the other hand, the computational/design/theory/modelling departments at companies like intel are comparatively small.

you really don't need armies of PhD research scientists to run SS simulations on new transistor architectures....

In fact, most of the time these departments are full up of bachelors engineers with like 4 guys with a PhD running them.


If you have a PhD in computational physics/theoretical physics with your graduate research focus in solid state physics, you are much more likely to end up working for a small company in California running a small specialized manufacturing program related to some esoteric or specialty components like high performance high power laser diodes, RF transistors, IR sensors, etc.

>>6142623
I was talking about computational in general, not just condensed matter stuff

>>6142595

probably the most significant difference is theory vs application

ask yourself what you'd rather do

>>6142601
>physics and astronomy
>money
Yeah right
I'm sure he can get a related job, but the pay will probably be average.
Average wage doesn't really pull bitches.

>soon done with physics bachelor
>like OP, all will and passion for studies is gone
>thinking of traveling or working abroad, stuff like bartendering or what not

i just want to be free

>>6142646
Average is 50k. He could make 100k easy.

/sci/, should I pursue a Math PhD? Is it worth it?

>>6142701

If you need 4chan to tell you whether or not you probably shouldn't.

>>6141376
What's the easiest way of getting adderal?

weed will help you, my friend

>>6142714
trade it for buttsex

>>6141243
Was physics ever a passion for you? It doesn't sound like it really was. It's important to differentiate between interests and passions. A passion is something that will drive you over the long haul. An interest is something that will burn you out when you do too much of it. Make your passion your career and your interests your hobbies.

A passion is something that makes you feel elated when you do it. Basically, you love it so much you get dopamine rushes all the time from doing it. You'll become addicted to the dopamine rushes and want to do more work. That's passion.

>>6142623
Are you a gaucho anon? I'm an undergrad chemE at UCSB who was considering applying to work in Nakamura's lab without much background in SS physics at all.

>>6142723
This might sound rediculous but you could always give it a go.

Smoking when you don't get to relax and enjoy yourself often is amazing. If you're really looking to just chill out and enjoy yourself starting smoking.

>>6141243
>working this hard for a bar tending gig

>>6141243
I consider doing the same (physics+astronomy major) and that's exactly what I'm afraid of.
What if I regret it some day and it's too late?

Maybe I should choose something more practical, so when I'm tired of it I can still say "Fuck it, I make money."

>>6143047
You won't know unless you try. If you regret it then you do something else.