/sci/ - Science & Math

>>9639695
How do I get into a good chemistry grad school with a shitty BA in chemistry. I didn't know I wanted to do a PhD so I ended up doing a meme BA instead of ACS BS. I have a lot of posters and a couple publications and reviews, but those are in Bioengineering, will that be looked down on? When I joined the group he told me it was chemical biology, but it turned out to be just tissue engineering.
I plan on doing a masters in chemistry, is that a good start? My GPA is 3.5, with straight A's my last two years.

>>9639823
you'll be fine. apply for a phd so you don't have to pay for it if you decide to just get a masters after a couple of years.

>>9639695
I'm a fellowship masters in mechanical engineering student, then doing a PhD with my prof starting next summer once I'm done. Burn out hasn't been an issue for me, my gf is a med student 3 hours away so we're both busy but we stay in touch and see each other when we can. Having a relationship with her saved me on that front. Other than that drinking and lifting. Behind on three projects is a personal problem, generally I try to get a list of milestones together for a given project and then give myself due dates.

>>9639695
Hopefully some grad students can have some insight on this for me,

I just got a job offer for 75k out of undergrad, I'm considering turning it down to get a masters, however I didn't receive any funding to do the masters degree so I would have to pay out of pocket or hope to get a TA position. My undergrad degree is comp-sci and the masters program would be computer vision/machine learning which I think would be insanely cool. Job is back end web development and it would be super cushy, I know I would be clearing 6 figures within like 3-5 years. what would /sci/ do, is grad school as cool as I think it will be? Anyone have any regrets about going to grad school? Are job prospects a lot better after going? Any kind of input is appreciated.

>>9640170
I'd take the job, you can always work for a couple years then do a masters or have your company pay for it. I'm not a CS person so I have no idea.

>>9640180
yeah I thought about that but the thing is they are completely different fields so my employer wouldn't pay for it, they would pay for doing something related to what they do. Also, I'm pretty awkward desu so the thought of trying to get letters of recommendation after a few years out of college scared me, has anyone done this, did you get them from former professors or work peers?

>>9640170
Go to work, a masters won't boost your starting salary that much if you'll be pushing 6 figures in a couple of years. Also a bird in the hand you know, there might not be a job waiting for you once you finish your masters. That is what I'd do.

Grad school is fun, no regrets. But it is a hell of a lot work. Being poor and living like a student is tiring after 7 years. I fell for the do what you love meme and now just pray when I have my PhD I can get tenure at nice teaching institution. I love doing research but I don't want to stake my career on it.

>>9640170
take the job, see if they'll pay for you to get your masters down the line. Unless you seriously know a lot about machine learning and shit and definitely want to do it. A master's really isn't a big deal to get, most people who complain about grad school are in phd programs.
>is grad school as cool as I think it will be?
the first year is undergrad part 2. rest of it is tedious bullshit
>Anyone have any regrets about going to grad school?
i probably should have majored in comp sci in undergrad and stuck with that. now i'm stuck in a field where if i want to do anything worthwhile i need he phd

>>9640216
>>9640221
>>9640180
damn everyone irl tells me the opposite, it's all the follow your dream you can always pay off loans meme, but none of them have advanced degrees and don't know anything about it I suppose. When I say the degree is artificial intelligence type stuff too normies immediately think that means 6 figure starting job but it doesn't.

>>9640244
That's because they're not graduate students. Unless you're really driven to get a master's or PhD because you have a question you want to answer you shouldn't be there. If you're paying to get any part of your degree, you shouldn't be there. At a university like mine there's funding at the college level, the school level, and the lab level based on the funding a given prof has. If between those three levels you don't get a full tuition and a ~25k+ stipend (I'm in a cornfield not a city) you shouldn't be getting the degree.

>>9639823
>>9640170
>>9640187
>>9640244
>grad student general
>undergrads hogging the thread

>>9640311
But I already graduated anon.

>>9640311
chill out susskind

how many times have you thought of killing yourself this week

>tfw advisor yells and gets visibly angry when you say you didn't understand something he shittily just tried to explain

I finish undergrad next year and will have a shit gpa for two semesters because of my own uncontrolled mental illness and general ineptitude. Will that be something I could explain on a grad school app for physics phd programs? Should I jump ship and go into industry or do something like a masters in an applied field?
>>9640311
Sorry m8, just worried

>>9639695
Tfw masters of science in accounting :^)

>>9639695
>Are there enough grad students here to support a regular thread?
Yes, problem is the threads get shitted up with /pol/tards

>Anyone else burnt out yet?
Yes

>How to handle being behind on three different projects despite working 10-12 hours a day?
I would say drink a lot but now I'm even further behind than before

>>9642782
>Accounting
>Science

No.

Second year math PhD reporting.
>mfw start to get interested in areas that are not in my advisor's area of expertise
>still a brainlet in both

How difficult is it to get funding as an MS student? I'm torn between doing a straight PhD or getting an MS and deciding if I want to continue with a PhD. But I've heard that getting funding as an MS student is difficult since you're not there long enough to give them much research.

>>9643431
I am in CS. I believe it is extremely difficult to get funded as a masters student.

>>9643431
go for PhD and then master out = free masters

>>9643464
I thought of that, but the problem is I only recently decided that I wanted to go to grad school so if I applied for a PhD program somewhere else I'd be waiting until next Spring. But I can just stay and get an MS at my current school in a year and apply for a PhD program in the meantime, so I get most of it out of the way. I could similarly just apply for the PhD program at my current school but I should be able to move up pretty significantly with my grades and I have connections in a top 5 university nearby so I feel like it'd be a waste not to move up if I can.

I am burnt the fuck out!

My Math Stat 2 professor likes to write nearly impossible exams. Last exam all scores were around 15/100, little partial credit given.
>Hey anon you wrote the final answer out but got the sign wrong but had the correct sign throughout the entire problem but fucked up on the last step? 2/25
>You didn't prove it the way I wanted. Yes your proof is correct, but I prefer this notation. 1/15
Don't even get me going on homework!
I love all my other courses, and even Math Stat 1, but this guy is making lose all motivation. Second exam is tomorrow, and everyone has a YOLO fuck him attitude to it.
>inb4 study harder anon

>>9643383
Is you advisor pretty chill and cares about your success?

>>9643483
>Is you advisor pretty chill and cares about your success?
yes

>>9643516
Just be honest with him before it's too late. He may have a tangential interest

Any chemfags here? I'm starting a grad program this fall (funded of course, otherwise there's no reason not to just get a job)

>>9643634
yes i am a chemistry man

Any chemfags here? I'm starting a grad program this fall (funded of course, otherwise there's no reason not to just get a job)

Fuck it, this picture isn't rotating the way I want it to, inb4 brainlet/IQlet
>>9643636
How's that working for you?

>>9639695
should I look into graduate programs? EE major here. should I go into CS masters from EE? beneficial? not? what would ya'll suggest?

I'm a postdoc right now, hoping for a professorship somewhere soon

>>9643642
>Fuck it, this picture isn't rotating the way I want it to, inb4 brainlet/IQlet
How many affirmative action points did you get?

I don't want to work long hours but I still want prestige and a decent salary. Is academia right for me?

>>9643655
>decent salary
nope

>>9643655
>academia
>prestige
>high salary
What year in your undergrad are you?

>>9643657
Ehh depends on what sort of position you can get. Most of the tenured professors in the EE department at my school make around $300,000 a year (I think a decent chunk of that is personal stipends they get from grants)

>>9643649
3 fitty

>>9643646
please respond

>>9643646
if no one has told you to yet, then don't. for chemistry they pretty much took one day out of orgo to sit us down and say "guess what, after all this undergrad shit is done, you gotta go to grad school to do anything worthwhile"

>>9643646
you won't get a very worthwhile job in EE with just an undergrad, probably not more than a QA position. if you want to do anything design related or even remotely complicated you need a specialized MS at least

>>9643672
It's getting to be like that for many fields now desu. Do you really think being a "quality/process engineer" is much different from "quality chemist"?

>>9643681
sweet. that's what i thought. really interested in designing high throughput RF

>>9643683
i dunno i'm not a fucking engineer. i assumed you went to a worthwhile school where the professors had career advice.

>>9643683
>>9643672
i've heard it's getting like this with almost everything. people keep saying shit like "undergrad degree now is like a highschool degree back in the 70s, and a highschool degree now is like dropping out of highschool in the 70s"

truth?

>>9643687
yeah unless you've done serious undergrad research or you've been involved in antenna design somehow odds are you really need to get a masters where you focus solely on that subject

>>9643695
I would say where and what you get your degree in matter much more than it used to. That's not to say getting a degree from a mid tier school is useless, just that times are tougher.

>>9643646
but then when someone asks what did you study you will have to say you are a cs masters and they will think you're a brainlet. What do.
I mean, not that engineering is any worse

>>9643595
gracias familia

>wanted to do Masters
>do an undergraduate biochem thesis in a lab just to see how it is
>Realize over the course of the year that the goal shifted from, "Try to understand more about the nature of thing" to "Try to determine which questions you should be asking"
>enjoy it initially, great lab environment
>the more I work on it, the more I learn that I'm a brainlet
>Did well on my thesis, prof hired me for the summer and asked me if I wanted to do a masters
>declined
>fast forward 6 months later with no job

Did I fuck up? Should I have just gotten balls deep into academia?

>>9639695
>Anyone else burnt out yet?

God yes.

>How to handle being behind on three different projects despite working 10-12 hours a day?

Just accept that life is hell.

>>9643703
>that times are tougher.

>''you ungrateful little shit, I had to work hard to be where I am! I was already living in my own house at your age! Times were so hard back then, youngs today have it easy and they manage to be lazy''

>>9643479
Youll miss this in a few years when youre post grad/post docing with retards who scribble together garbage. You didnt have any profs like this in undergrad? I miss my professors' rigor. especially in a phys masters program, my profs slop is fuckin annoying

>>9643639
Almost. went with physics though. in a chemical physics program. what area are you interested in? i have a soft spot for ochem even tho ill never use it

>>9643695
yes. add to that that stem jobs are getting more complex so they require more education

>>9643743
yep. apply now for the fall masters. you still have time

is school harder than back then? I heard it was way easier entering and getting a ph.d back then

>>9643784
I always wonder how hard a PhD was when computers weren't around. They must've spent hours and hours at libraries, or analyzing data by hand. I think that's why my advisor thinks everyone needs to put in 80 hours a week

>>9643784
>is school harder than back then?
Based on my conversations the answer is yes and no. In statistics almost everything was proof based with a toy problem or two on an exam. There were not too many computers where you could run a quick simulation, or check google to see if you were on the right path.
>I heard it was way easier entering and getting a ph.d back then
There was a lot of low hanging fruit.

>>9643773
I am coming back to school after five years in the corporate world. My patience for bullshit is not too great, but I understand when a problem is either important or designed to fuck with me.

>>9639695
Easy, bitch about it to your professors. They will give you extra time. It is incredibly difficult to make anything other than a B in grad school. In fact high grades in grad school sre looked down on because it means you weren't working on research

>>9643765
>''you ungrateful little shit, I had to work hard to be where I am! I was already living in my own house at your age! Times were so hard back then, youngs today have it easy and they manage to be lazy''

Dad shut the fuck up, all your friends died in some war so you didn't have any competition you lazy cunt.

>>9643884
>t. just getting a masters so i just have to do a few more classes and not real research lol

>>9643884
I've found grad school courses to be easier than undergrad. They are more focused and require more work (writing a paper, proposal, analyzing papers and making presentations on them every two weeks, etc) but if you just put in the effort the profs are lenient and give everyone an 80+. Hell, one of my friends did a presentation on an article she wasn't supposed to and the prof just extended her deadline and said to do it again on a proper article.

>>9643662
<1% of grad students end up getting tenure and financially the rest would’ve probably been better off just getting a job out of undergrad

>>9643773
>yep. apply now for the fall masters. you still have time

I really want to get a year or two of entry level work under my belt. Not many jobs here for a MSc biochem. I'd have to go for a PhD and I'm too much of a brainlet for that.

>>9643907
This isn't the reason baby boomers had it easier at all, but anyway.

>>9643930
It's better than nothing. Just do it and if you somehow find the discipline to do a ph.d along the way then do it after

>>9643681
Wow I wish I knew this before graduating with a 2.8.

I literally can't go to a single grad school, now with that GPA.

>all these burgers cheating going straight to a ph.d without doing a masters first

I don't have ragingWojak.jpg right now but that's how I feel, fuck you, you don't deserve this advantage

ChemE here
how bad does a gap year look with adcoms? my freshman grades were shit and I've been getting straight As since then. I want them to take into account my senior year grades, so I want to apply the year after I graduate

Received the NSF Fellowship!!

>>9643773
>what area are you interested in? i have a soft spot for ochem even tho ill never use it
I want to get into materials. Right now I'm doing mainly inorganic materials but I wouldn't mind branching out to polymers or organic solid state. I'm currently interested in groups from each subfield. Do you think these are solid choices? I know polymers are obviously big right now

>>9643954
Honestly I'd probably use the MSc just to coast into med school and try for pathology. MSc in Canada without work/industry experience is suicide.

>>9643965
Hey, I was undergrad ChemE and I took a gap year before applying. My freshman year grades were also poor (~3.7) but by the end I was in the top 15% of my graduating class. (Ivy League). I would recommend finding a lab technician position if you can, or working in research at a company. You don't want to be out of research for too long before coming back. You may even get a publication out of the gap year which makes your app even stronger than those without. I was asked by every school during the visit weekends why I didn't apply for grad school straight out, but more out of curiosity from the faculty -- there's nothing wrong with it. If you're practiced in a lab from your gap year you're actually a stronger candidate.

>>9643979
>My freshman year grades were also poor (~3.7)
nice humblebrag faggot

>>9639695
>2.8 gpa in CC (3 years spent)
>3.78 gpa once transferring, with 3.9 major GPA (another 3 years spent)
>overall is somewhere around a 3.3

how badly will adcoms' eyes bleed when applying to ME MS programs? jesus christ even my research and internships can't help me

>>9643979
3.7 is shit for any grad school worth its salt

since you don't know, salt (for food), is sodium chloride, you fucking state-school brainlet

>>9643979
>My freshman year grades were also poor (~3.7)
Uhhhh.

I guess that meme about Ivy Leagues having insane grade inflation was true.

>>9643991
Oh right, the overall also takes into account another CC I attended at the same time as the other, so two CCs and the 4 year, which was mediocre.

Fucking hell, I just want to get into a top 100.

>>9643972
Yep Im in polymers myself. Lots of funding if you can motivate yourself to care about what are essentially chunks of plastic. Materials is the way to go in chem. Some of the mat scientists Ive met have crazy work ethic and get loads of results. One of the physicists here researches materials and averages 6 patents a year. Just by himself.

>>9643963
phd programs contain a masters requirement. you get accepted into the phd program but you have to get a masters first.

>>9643930
phd is just a masters + research project. go on berkeleys website and look at phd dissertations. they arent difficult, just lots of work.

>>9643998
Don't sell yourself short. A 3.3 is fine for most top 100s, even some top 50s. Though having good research experience is a game changer for us lower GPA brainlets.

>>9642782
See >>9643321

>>9644010
I'm planning to apply to schools which claim to look at just the last 90 quarter units or 60 semester units. Does that necessarily mean that my poor performance at CC will be somewhat overlooked, at least for these specific unis?

>>9639695
>pic
kek

first year invert paleo PhD student here.
I still don't know what the fuck I'm doing for my dissertation. there are three different projects (crinoids, bivalves, trilobites) and I'm probably going to end up working on all of them to some degree and just go with whatever seems to be working.

>>9644021
Why would you do that? Why would you assume that they would toss your app out if they looked at the whole picture? Adcoms do not receive THAT many applications, and the story of you trying harder and eventually succeeding speaks to your resilience, a trait necessary in any graduate student. Your initial struggles and then righting of your course should be a part of your application package.
Seriously, don't sell yourself short -- the worst they can do is not accept you.

>got a C+ in a major course
AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

>>9644002
Materials seem to be the shit. I go to some meme liberal arts school but my research consisted of making novel materials, and is getting published. So I think this definitely helped my case when applying. I also enjoyed the whole experience overall so I'm hoping grad school will be the same.
>>9644032
This. My grades were probably worse than yours. Research is key.

>>9640170
CMU admit?

>>9644002
>phd programs contain a masters requirement. you get accepted into the phd program but you have to get a masters first.
depends on the school and the department

>>9640244
>When I say the degree is artificial intelligence type stuff too normies immediately think that means 6 figure starting job but it doesn't.
Depends on where you got the degree and how advanced it is/whether you did notable research, but at the right companies you can definitely pull 6 figures starting with (good) AI degree.

>>9639823
Does the difference between BA and BS even matter? Especially for masters programs for my case .

I'm >>9642631 and want to see if I have any chance

>>9639823
I defended my PhD in chemistry already. I was like you. I was a fifth year senior and went into gradschool because I had nothing better to do for five years of my life. I also began undergrad as a brainlet and changed majors several times.

If you already have publications and posters, just apply and you're as good as accepted. Apply direct to PhD so YOU get paid for getting a degree . I would recommend getting those applications done as soon as they open just to make sure you are first in the pile and then call the graduate coordinator to make sure they have your shit after a few days. Going to bed soon but will monitor.

>>9643966
Congratulations!

>tfw your school has had so many fraud cases that the NIH put special restrictions on all grant applications coming from your institution

>>9644655
Were they taking a large percentage of the grant money for "indirect costs"

>>9644666
At least one of them was. Others made up data, photoshopped images, or gave patients drugs that didn't work and then lied about it.

Retractionwatch.com/2016/09/01/embezzlement-15-retractions-and-a-whistleblower-could-add-up-to-trouble-for-duke/

>>9644676
Well at least you still have a lacrosse team!

>>9644268
Also probably worth telling if you did the chemistry GRE. I didn't, got into 2/5 schools I applied to

Not a grad student but applying this fall. How fucked am I for PhD admissions if I only have 1 semester of research (will start this fall) at the time I apply? My gpa will be at least 3.8/4.0 and gre is 168Q,158V, 4.5W. I am thinking of applying for optics related things at about 6 schools. The lowest ranked is probably about top 50 in the field, highest is top 5 in optics. I think I could definitely make it into a MS program, but want the PhD for funding and it will probably be quicker than MS to PhD route

>>9644831
I mean you seem to be doing okay, the research isn't great but not the worst thing in the world. I had a GPA of like 3.07 and I got into a top ~15-30 for my graduate school, I'm doing interdisciplinary studies. I had a slightly better GRE score for verbal and written and a solid amount of research under my belt too though.

Do you have a back up if you don't get in? Like some research you can do to pad your resume while you wait to reapply?

>>9644862
Well I plan to apply to some internships for summer between graduation (may 2019) to start of grad school (fall 2019), so that will help fill time if I have to reapply. I also plan on being in this research for all of my senior year and if I have to reapply I can probably stay on for another year as well. I will probably just go for a masters if it is the best I get though as I plan to go into industry, which has some good pay for my field, and the schools I am applying to seem to have plenty of RA and TA positions for masters students to get something for at least 1 year

How much does your GRE score actually matter for graduate admissions? I didn't do any prep and got 159V 160Q and 4.0W, which is above the minimum requirements for every program I'm interested in applying for. But I've heard differing opinions on how much the scores actually matter. I have a good GPA and research, as well as a few connections from my research and my internships. But should I take the summer to actually study and retake the GRE just to be safe?

>>9644889
You need at least two of the three, good GPA, good GRE, good research. The last thing being connections which supersede all the previous categories. Retake it if you want to be safe and their isn't anything too pressing to keep you from it. Fairly easy to study for and do.

>tfw setting the curve in one of my grad courses
The first time I've felt my impostor sydrome start to fade

>>9644901
That looks like the same website layout my school uses. I swear to god if I go to the same fuckin school as you assholes.

>>9644924
Blackboard is used by a ton of schools, anon.

I wish we could have a separate thread for actual grad students, and one for grad school admissions/career...

>>9644801
Yep. Did not do the chemistry gre also got into about half of those that I applied to. Got into all my target universities.

>>9644889
I had a similar score, 160Q and 160V and 4.0 writing but I got 1 higher than you on V so clearly I'm superior but anyways for what it's worth I got in everywhere I applied, I didn't apply to prestigious programs though just good middle tier state schools. If you want to get in to some top 10 program you will probably need a higher score, just depends what you want.

>>9645008
>>9644892
I just feel like the GRE is such a waste of time though. I've always felt that if you can improve your score on a standardized test by studying for it the only thing its capable of measuring is how much you studied. I've just assumed the GRE is some money-making racket that convinces people to spend hundreds on test-prep materials and retaking the test when it doesn't really tell you jack shit about someone's ability.

>>9645029
>I've just assumed the GRE is some money-making racket that convinces people to spend hundreds on test-prep materials and retaking the test when it doesn't really tell you jack shit about someone's ability

yep nailed it. But if you want into a top program you have to play the game.

>>9645029
The gre just states that you are not a complete retard and can read, write, and do math on the fly. Same idea as the SAT

How do I study for the GRE? it's impossible I'm a brainless

>>9645068
People do this? If you have half a brain, you can walk in there with a night of good sleep and score above average.

>>9645116
I don't know math

>>9644901
similar thing happened to me
>be in freshman general physics
>bored out of my fucking mind
>labs are basically a 3 year old's playroom
>get B both semester
>physics advisor scolds me
>get to modern physics
>93% on first test, next highest score was a 66%
felt fucking good and my advisor took a lot of interest in me after that

>>9645297
After the first test, I went to my professor to go over the problems I missed, and he asked me if I was going to pursue a PhD. Felt good.

>>9644901
Similar thing in undergrad too. First time I ever felt smart
>Organic one and then two
>Top score on all exams
>Actually understand the material, chemistry, and principles
>I alone am the high scoring outlier by a whole letter grade in a class of 150 students
>The professor is a fucking whack job with insane mannerisms that I later find out he was medicated for.
>I love this guy, think he's the greatest professor
>Everyone fucking hates him
>Says I will go far after the final exam score in orgo two is released
>Convinces me to go to gradschool
>Get PhD and numerous patents and pubs

I did go far, Professor Hilinski. I did go far. Thanks for showing me what I am capable of.

Just really starting to think about this. Im and EE major who will be specializing in power systems. One topic i have always been intrested in is Nuclear power plants. Does it make sense to go to grad school for NukeE or do i just stick with my EE area and further speaclize in it.

>>9645423
Sorry about spelling, i have a new screen protector on my phone, and it sucks.

>>9645431
increase your capacitance bic boi

fuck i'm glad i didnt go to grad school

i am in my second year of a 3-year physical therapy clinical doctorate graduate program

do I get to hang out with you guys

>>9645423
i'd say stick with EE since there's tons of jobs for EE majors at nuclear plants
your job at a power plant would be very similar to that at a nuclear power plant

>first exam in difficult class
>everyone else says there's no need to read the assigned literature and just study slides
>read the literature and get the highest grade on the exam
Feels good to have work pay off.

>>9646531
>first exam in class that i thought would be difficult
>do the suggested problems and struggle a little, unsure of whether or not i fully understand the material
>was the only one to get a 100 while everyone else had B's or worse
still don't understand how this is possible, i'm not that smart and it's not like i strained myself working

>>9639695
going into grad school in the fall for EE, focus in optics and communications with a little bit of microelectronics, starting with a MSEE then going to a PhD

>Am I burned out yet?

I guess I'll have to see what the future holds.

>>9644038
That's really not the end of your life so long as the rest of your classes have better grades and you can explain it away with a personal statement.

I'm planning on working for a year in the field before going on to grad school.

Right decision?

>>9644214
BS is more rigorous, most of the time, but it heavily depends on the school that you go to, if they only offer a BA and that is the highest degree then you may have to take some deficiency courses when you go into grad school.

>>9644901
Congratulations, impostor syndrome is a bitch and a half to deal with

>>9646706
Nobody is going to hire you for a year. Go to grad school or find a place that will send you there.

bump

>>9644676
>Duke
i'm a Math phdfag who's thinking of transferring there for applied math
i hope this doesn't affect the math department negatively

in the spirit of this thread, i'll be lurking and answering quesitons; if anyone has any mathfag questions for me feel free to ask

I'm a geology student. Last year my father passed away while I was taking my Field Class (it's like a senior capstone class for other majors) which was my last class to graduate.

The dean let me go home to attend the funeral saying that the department would allow me to make up the lost week later in the summer. The problem is the department never came up with any makeup work so finally the dean gave me a C- in the class so that I could graduate.

That was a 6 credit course so I took a serious hit to my GPA. I lost my 3.5 and ended with a 3.3. How likely is it for me to get into graduate school with a 3.3? Are there ways to increase my chances?

>>9642699
>tfw advisor is always shilling his on completely shitty and unproven ideas and you have to pretend like they are brilliant in front of guests

>>9643383
It's not the end of the world, it's only your second year. Work with your advisor until you feel comfortable venturing out and conducting experiments or doing research on your own, then you can do whatever you like.

>>9648279
You'll be fine. Apply and dedicate a paragraph or 2 in your personal statement describing the circumstances and how you've learned from it. Make a story out of it.

>>9643884
>B-rainlet
How did you manage to get into grad school in the first place?

>>9645382
>tfw never even had a relative motivate me like that, much less a professor

>>9648353
do we have the same advisor
post doc actually took me aside after a meeting with an actual field leader who came to visit our lab. she said "you need to stop making faces every time PI says something stupid"

>>9648603
Doubt we have the same advisor (this is literally the most common archetype in academia), but we may be the same person. I can't avoid making faces either, sometimes I have to look away or leave the room to not give myself away.

>tfw gave a presentation on my research progress for 30 mins and then he spends the next hour berating me

>>9649306
>tfw i have to give a 30 minute presentation on my research progress tomorrow
i'll be right there with you soon anon

Writing cover letters to potential professors feels like online dating. "Here's everything I've done, do you like me? NO? Well fuck you too buddy."

Can you make up a shit GPA with enough after graduation experience? Should I be upfront with professors about how shit it is in my letter to them or just add my transcripts and pray they don't care too much about it?

>>9650285
Make sure to send a dick pic with the letter.

>>9645116
>>9645068
Don't listen to this faggot he's just trying to subtly demonstrate his IQ, just play the game and study for it

>>9650808
>just play the game and study for it
Also, study the vocabulary. You can buy flash cards for $20 at Barnes and Noble (probably cheaper on Amazon). The vocabulary is no joke even for native English speakers.

>>9650539
Dick pic or asshole shot? Or both?

>>9639695
Any opinions about grad school for engineers?

Should I go for it, get a job, enlighten me anons.

>>9650988
It all depends on what you want to do for a job desu. If you want to do research/development, then most jobs require a PhD, but some in industry or govt lab might just need a MS. Also, lifetime earnings are higher with each degree if that interests you. I would advise you to at least go for a MS, as a BS in engineering is becoming more and more saturated and being one up will set you apart. Also MS and PhDs will typically be working on more cutting edge work, which may or may not interest you. You can get those jobs with just a BS, but it would probably take longer or be tougher to snag

>>9650988
and also if you plan to go to grad school, try to do it either right after undergrad or within one or two gap years, as once you get older and more ingrained in industry with good pay you will feel less of an urge to get that higher education and might just keep putting it off.

>>9645382
>>9648405
>tfw I'm always the underachiever or average scorer despite the fact I put in so much work
>even my favorite professor knows I put in the most work but still don't see results
>thinks I may have a mental disability
>tfw fell in love with a discipline I have zero aptitude for (pure Math)

Why does it hurt so much?

are the applications actually this competitive in the us? I did my masters in chem in canada and once I found a sponsor it was essentially guaranteed that I got in, and I could just start whenever I wanted. Maybe my school was the odd one out, but it was one of the better schools in Canada for chem (top 5 somewhere)

>>9648244
I'm about to finish my BS in pure math at UCLA with about a 3.0 GPA, no research. I know I have no chance of getting into a PhD, but I'm planning on doing an MS at CSULB or SJSU depending on where my wife will be living (socal or NorCal). If I do well in MS with research how likely am I to get into a good PhD program?

I've been busting my ass at UCLA but I can't cram in information quickly which is almost required at the place UCLA courses are taught, I need time to really absorb the info. I transferred from a community college, and started from dog-shit barely able to do pre-calculus to taking grad classes here at LA. I just feel I need more time to really master the material, and do not exercises. Is there hope for people like me?

>>9652508
Do more** exercises not "not"

>>9648244
No, it's just medical research, math is a completely different game.

>>9650808
brainlet detected

>graduating in a few weeks with bs in mathematics
>So fuckin excited to be done with school and start making 300k starting
>Two professors approach me independently to tell me they want me in the graduate program
>Don't know what to do...

>just fucked up some other guy's experiment by telling him to do the wrong thing

>checking out grad school requirements online
>"on your application explain why you received lower than an A on any junior/senior level course"
its not even an ivy

>>9652903
i wouldn't even want to go to a stuck-up school like that

>>9652508
>I've been busting my ass at UCLA but I can't cram in information quickly which is almost required at the place UCLA courses are taught, I need time to really absorb the info
Welcome to college, brainlet. Btw your undergrad math courses dont cover all the stuff youll need for grad school. So youll be playing catchup your entire time at an even faster pace.

>i transferred from a community college, and started from dog-shit barely able to do pre-calculus to taking grad classes here at LA.

why did you do this? why didnt you go to an easier school? and why the fuck did you pick math after you went to a community college?

>i just feel I need more time to really master the material, and do not exercises.
then youre not understanding the material. there should be a point where you realize the theory and are able to apply it broadly to a variety of problems

>Is there hope for people like me?
uh. im not trying to be mean but a 3.0 is pretty bad. most major unis require a 3.7 to get considered for grad school.
what are you going to do with a math degree? if i were you, id apply to statistics masters so you can at least get a job after

>>9651901
toronto? ubc? those are the only canadian unis worth mentioning

yes US grad schools are highly competitive. every school has students all over the globe applying. and any good job (even engineering) requires a masters now so everyone applies. it is cut throat

>>9650288
in your letter, explain why your gpa is shit. i dont want to advise you to lie but if you feel youll do better in grad school than undergrad, explain why

>>9652903
w-what school

>>9652923
>most major unis require a 3.7 to get considered for grad school.
i-is this true for engineering, as well?

My GPA at my 4 year is 3.86, but my CC gpa is 3.21, and combining the two yields a 3.42 cumulative GPA. for reference, my junior/senior level course work gpa is a 3.9

>>9652990
yes of course
a 3.45 is pretty bad as well and you probably won't get into any schools, i'm not even joking

compare yourself to this guy, even if he's not an engineering major

>>9653007
sorry, any top schools I mean

so no top 50s

>>9652990
Yes it is true of engineering

but youre fine. they wont care about your cc gpa. just write a single sentence on your application mentioning that your last 2 years gpa is good

>>9651901
>are the applications actually this competitive in the us
yes.
there are too many colleges in the US, this has benefits but some huge draw backs

>>9653039
Cool, thank you
just to reiterate and be a bit more clear, my CC days were absolute shit-tier, and I was pretty much a NEET. I spent 4 fucking years there just dicking around until I decided to get serious.

the most laughable grades I received were a B- in Calc 1 and a fucking C in the first 2 classes in the physics sequence, and a D in some geology class that I didn't take the final for, like a retard. (retook it later)

since then, I transferred and have gotten straight As at my 4 year for 2 and a half years, save for a C+ in a chem eng class (hated chem eng and ended up switching out) and a C+ in the 1st course of microelectronics, because of some very stupid circumstances, and got an A+ in the next course in the sequence. Hell, I even took a mechanics class and an E&M class for physics majors, along with real analysis, and aced them to prove that my earlier grades in community college were a sham. this might have been overkill since I didn't need those classes at all.

so then, even with my laughable CC track record, if I got all As in my EE upper div, save for that C and a B during a heavy quarter, my application won't be immediately trashed on account of my GPA, right? i've been worrying and having nightmares over this for so fucking long so I apologize if I'm being incredibly long-winded

>>9653062
>B- in Calc 1
>Cs in physics
>D IN GEOLOGY

How the fuck did you survive EE?

>>9653069
CCs are a joke son. Grades at CCs dont always translate into understanding. It is hard to care when you are sorronded by brainlets. not that poster btw

>>9653062
i also took PDEs and an upper div linear algebra course since I got a B and A- in them during CC. also didn't need them. As in both, again

i think I might be autistic

>>9653074
in diff eqs and linear algebra during CC, I mean

>>9639695
Can someone explain pic in OP to me? Are supervisors notorious for being incompetent, or was OP not a math student (therefore his advisors didn't know about log scale)

>>9653062
I think for the most part it depends on the school that you are applying to but most schools only care about relevant coursework to your grad degree and junior and senior level classes. For the most part, they won't immediately trash it or accept you it'll depend on the other people who apply at this point.

>>9653062
im a physics minor. freshman physics is retarded. theres no logic to it and the tests are all trick questions. i got a B and then aced mechanics, em, thermal, modern and optics

so on your application, explain what you just said in a more formal manner.

you should get into a decent school. once you get past the t50 schools, it doesnt really matter where you go as far as prestige. there are state-city colleges more respected than state unis. what you want to do is look for engineering heavy smaller schools. they will have connections in local industry

>>9653081
I dont know, but peer review is often laughable. I know someone submitting some papers and the reviewer just wrote across the stats parts "I dont understand this data" it wasnt wrong, they just didnt have the stats background

>>9653089
>freshman physics is retarded. theres no logic to it and the tests are all trick questions.
why do they do this?

>>9653081
The problem is, and you may or may not encounter it in grad school, but sups have a very particular way of doing things and the "I've done this my whole life" meme is fucking real so that is what OP encountered. Some old fucker who is comfy in his job and hasn't had to think outside the box in awhile getting mad that someone else did.

>>9653095
>you may or may not encounter it in grad school
its even worse in the real world. Cant tell anyone in power they are wrong, or there is a better way. And if you dare they make a point to shit on you for the next 5 years

>>9653099
This is unfortunately very true, only when you go through the entirety of the bullshit can you start shitting on other people and do it your own way.

>>9639695
>be me, PhD student
>close work with a company
>develop some method based on recent works
>supervisor is a crack in a special framerwork
>"but anon, let's look at this 60 years old method and try to improve it before under the framework I am a super crack in"
>don't even improve it, just prove some results that were intuitive
>absolutely not applicable and useless for the company
>wasted a year
I want out already

Is fame all that matter ?
Why is my supervisor such a fraud ?

I'm a bio engineering PhD student that has been working on some patentable designs for a next-generation bone glue that provides nearly 85% of natural bone and is much less invasive, bothersome, and expensive as using metal plates/screws but is still applicable in 95% of those use cases. The problem is that I don't want my university to take any of my patent rights as this will most likely set me up for life, does anyone know how I can fake what I have been spending my grant money on so that it looks like I have been doing tedious and less-fruitful research? Thanks in advance.

>>9653062
Dude don't worry, like, at all. You should place somewhere nice.

>>9653274
why dont you leave your supervisor and join the company>

please help frens
>>9653913

first year math phd

can't wait to be done with analysis

>>9652990
I mean I got in with a fellowship to a top 5 university for Mechanical engineering with a 3.14 and I'm on Fellowship for a Master's with a PhD planned to follow immediately after at the same university. I just sold myself based on my recommendations from 3 years of undergraduate research at the same university and glowing letters of rec from my advisors.

WHO HERE /IN LAB ON SATURDAY BECAUSE IF I'M NOT MY LABMATES WILL TATTLE ON ME BUT THEY'RE NOT HERE EITHER TODAY/?

>>9654119
If you arent at mit harvard stanford berkely or caltech then youre not at a top5

>>9654186
t. undergrad

>>9653099
>its even worse in the real world. Cant tell anyone in power they are wrong, or there is a better way. And if you dare they make a point to shit on you for the next 5 years
S-so my advisor really is preparing for the real world.

bump to save thread

>>9654119
>3.14 in engineering
Don't you mean a 3?

>>9654187
this guy is right >>9654186 . Also, you said you're there for a fucking Master's so his statement is even more true lol. I bet you go to a state school that sold you on the idea that they're the best in their local region. Don't tell me you go to Ohio State lmao

>>9639695
Plasma Physics here - finished the MS last Summer and after this Spring I'll be ABD. The end is almost in sight, but goddamn am I tired.

Doing laundry for the next hour or two, so happy to answer some questions.

What else can I do to make my resume look better for grad school besides GPA?

I'm about to have 4 software engineering internships (1 ML position), 3.82 GPA, vice president of a club, ~12 hackathons, 1 datathon, 15 followers on Github, 35 Github repositories (ton of side projects), 1 research stint right now in computer vision with an amazing professor, coursera ML nanodegree, 2 grad courses, 2 minors, CS major, will be doing a senior thesis, etc.
I've been a TA, mentored underrepresented kids, done competitive programming competitions.
What else is there to do to either better myself or look better for grad school besides more research and my GPA? I plan to apply for an MS in CS, concentrated on computer vision.

>>9655663
the best thing you can do is have your undergrad advisor go give a talk to another school and mingle with them and then they want to send one of their undergrads to this school and you become that undergrad

>>9655666
Is that a thing that happens? I'm right next door to an elite CS university, which I'm about to take 2 classes at. I don't typically hear about professors giving talks and sending their students directly to another university.
Also, my advisor has a ton of funding from Google. Do you think he/she could use that to their advantage to help me?

By the way, nice trips

>>9655663
1) Solid letters of rec
2) Research/internship experience. If you can get your name on a paper or even just a poster as an undergrad it goes a LONG way to getting accepted at grad schools

>>9655673
Do top MS programs (with a thesis) typically require publications or do they just help?

One thing I'm always confused by is when people say 'solid letters of recommendation'. The phrase is always lightly tossed around but nobody explains what a 'solid' letter is. For example, is a letter only solid if you've done research for all 4 years of college? Or is one semester good enough with close collaboration? If I've taken 1 grad course as an undergrad and went beyond in terms of participation, such that my professor gave me extra credit, is that a good letter? What about my academic advisor that I've known for 3 years and I regularly email? I received the highest grade out of ~200 students in his intermediate programming class; is this a strong letter?

>>9655672
yes, see if your research advisor is giving talks anywhere, and apply to those places and ask for a letter of rec from them. when the adcom sees the letter they'll think o shit.

>>9655678
Ok so how about this. My advisor created a workshop this year for the largest computer vision conference in the world. She allowed me to be a co-organizer; so I manage the actual coding competition while she advertises it. How good is this compared to a publication? Do people care about this? I mean it's conference experience and it's legitimate, but just not a published paper.

>>9655681
i seriously doubt people give a shit about publications from undergrads. if they do fuck em. it's not uncommon for even second year grad students to not have pubs yet. stop thinking it's the end all be all.
the conference sounds like it's good for getting your name out there

>>9655677
No school requires research as an undergrad, a substantial amount of incoming grad students are coming from schools with little or even no research capability, that's part of why research on your application helps you stand out.

A solid letter of recommendation means a letter written by a professor whom you know well, whose classes you did well in, or who you worked with for a couple semesters, or who you volunteered with on projects, etc.

When I sent my app in I had three letters of rec:
- The professor I'd been doing research with for a year and a half.
- The professor who I worked with helping to rewrite our departments lab curricula with
- A professor I'd taken several classes with who convinced me to stick with the program after a rough first year.

The point is you don't want to be going to someone you barely know or who barely knows your name, and you don't want to go to ANY of your potential letter writers at the last minute. If you're going to be applying to schools in the Spring, ask for letters in the Fall. Have a good idea of which schools you're going to be applying to and give them that list so that if they know what a particular institution is looking for or know people who do they can custom write a letter to help give you an edge.

>>9655685
>>9655687
Thanks guys. Honestly surprised how fast you guys were with the super helpful advice. It's always such a daunting process for me and there are almost no good guides for the top/elite grad schools, and even moreso for computer science, and even worse for computer vision. All the 'guides' I encounter for grad school just talk about "be involved" and "do well on class", like the super obvious easy stuff. They never mention "participate in ACM ICPC" or "volunteer to do this..." or "get involved by doing this...". So once I feel like I've done a lot, I have no idea what else I should do to put myself at an advantage besides the most obvious things, such as the ones you've mentioned, research and GPA. On top of that, if they do mention research and GPA, they never mention what good research or good letters look like and what everybody else has. This leads me to believe everybody has elite letters + elite GPA + they're a Rhodes scholar + they graduated with honors + 3 publications + a senior thesis + leadership in many clubs. And then the inferiority complex sets in.

>>9655654
What research have you done? Have you been to the princeton plasma lab? Why did you choose plasma? Is chen the best intro book? Would you choose plasma again?

Ive found great interest in plasma physics but unfortunately Im too old to make a career out of it.

>>9655672
Dump the female advisor, first of all.

>>9655738
Waves and dusty plasmas.
No.
I thought it was interesting as an undergrad and found a prof to work with.
Chen is pretty good, Piel's great too, Gurnett is underrated.
Probably.

>>9655758
Why?

>>9655691
No prob

>>9654170
Why would you not be in lab on saturday? Why the fuck are you even in gradschool?
I casually put in those hours and days because I actually give a fuck about my research and courses

New thread

>>>/vg/211117585
>>>/vg/211117585
>>>/vg/211117585

I'm a first year Physics PhD student. Still working on the masters part of the degree (classes).

I started doing research a few weeks ago, at the same time i had a bunch of midterms and the quantity of work i did then may have soured my relationship with my adviser, but i digress.

I am feeling extremely burnt out from my courses. I'm putting not as much work into them as I feel I should. I did well on my midterms despite my listlessness, but I don't think this quantity/quality of work i'm doing is sustainable.

I'm not looking forward to the rest of my career as a doctoral student.

>>9639695
So i graduated with my BS in Mech E from a B-tier engineering school about 2 years ago. Been working in industry for a fortune 50 company and have been pretty successful. Most of the people around me have masters degree's and I'm thinking about going back to get mine. Here's the rub;

a) I have a whopping 3.0 GPA from undergrad

b) I also have 12 months of GI Bill left that will pay for school anywhere in the world.

What do?

just finishing up my masters now in machine learning. I'd love to do a PhD but so hard to say no to industry. Particular interest is loss function surfaces

>>9656718
read graycat's reply in this thread
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16725368

i'm just a shitter so i couldnt tell you whether its good advice or not.

>>9656759
Where do you go to school?

>>9656786
edinburgh

>>9656771
his late wife sounded like she had the opposite experience as me, and his program has the opposite requirements of mine.

maybe i should have gone with math. I do enjoy it more than i do physics.

Do grad schools consider age as a factor, and if so, how heavily?

I’m 22 and will finish my undergrad by 25. Will grad school be an option? To me this question seems silly, as the difference between a 22 year old and a 25 year old is minuscule, so I don’t see it being a problem but I’m still curious. I really enjoy math and never considered it as a career until recently, so I’ve decided to return to school after a lot of self study.

>>9656718
1) Grad school gets substantially easier once you pass quals, but it's a steady increase in difficulty up to that point.

2) At the end of the day, your job as a PhD student is developing the skills and drive needed to be a competent researcher. If your adviser doesn't respect that and is basically expecting you to put out a non-stop stream of data and papers on demand then you need to find yourself a new adviser.

>>9656978
No. I'm turning 31 this summer (non-trad) and I'm still a year out from finishing my dissertation if everything goes well (knock on wood).

>>9656750
Get the Masters. Use up the gi bill

>>9656708
>Why would you not be in lab on saturday?
Because I can do work from home if it's not wet lab shit. But do go on about how you like being exploited for lots of labor

>>9656708
>Why would you not be in lab on saturday?
Not him but I'm at a football fanatic school and they've got some kind of spring football game thing going on for all the visiting potential undergrads this weekend - everything within a mile of campus is basically inaccessible by car so nobody's bothering to go in this weekend.

If it were any other weekend I'd at least put in a few hours on Saturday and Sunday doing some calibrations or some labview coding or whatever.

>>9646706
It's really all a time preference, really. There's other factors like if you did shit in school, field work will give you the upper hand by showing schools that you can do the work and have experience. Depending on your field you can get an entry level job and go back to grad school later.

>>9656874
>>9656771
upon further consideration, i guess i can take something from his experience.
that being, i should worry less about my courses (even tho they're necessary to my success) and instead focus on my research. it doesn't matter if i pass the course with a B, as long as I pass.
the research is what will get me the degree, not the homework assignments.

>>9653007
that's fucking brutal, did that guy get in anywhere? good resume desu

>>9657064
damn you must go to an EXTREMELY small school
do you guys have like 3k enrollment or something?

>>9657172
sounds to me like he's in a South Eastern university.
college ball is king in the SEC

I wouldn't be surprised if his school had 40k+ students

>>9657179
There's no way a Spring football game to show to some prospective undergrads will shut down an entire city unless the town itself is extremely small.

>>9657186
he didn't say it shuts down the entire city, and small towns can host large schools, mr. dunning-kruger.

>>9657172
>>9657179
>>9657186
SEC school, about 30K students - football is BEYOND HUGE down here, every weekend in the Fall the entire downtown area and campus are basically shutdown.

Yesterday was the game, so I could have probably maneuvered through the cleanup stuff and made it into the lab today if I'd been really motivated, but why deal with that much hassle to get a couple hours of lab work done when I could do some Spring cleaning and shitpost on 4chan instead? Tomorrow I'll be in at 7AM like I am every morning, I'll get some labview code tweaked, maybe take some experimental data if things are going well, a nice productive day.

>>9653007
Looking at this resume, it is obvious why he is not doing well. He needed to be taking those graduate courses as an undergraduate, and you should be getting a 4 (3.9 is ok) if you are in graduate school. Hence, his lack of research for the Masters threw out his app. at Berkeley (and he never stood a chance for anything higher). His accounting undergraduate hurt him the most, I believe.
Again, if he had that same GPA but with better coursework and research as an Undergraduate he would have gotten to Berkeley easy coming from his undergraduate. Top 70 means literally top ~40% of PhD Mathematics programs, so that is not saying much.

>>9652923
562314

>>9656978
not a problem at all. you're not even old

>>9657427
don't lie to him

>>9657431
exactly, math is a ‘young mans game’, but I’m hoping my efforts I’m putting in now will compensate for my unfruitful youth. I don’t ever expect to be great, I’m not delusional, but if I could above average that’d be stellar.

>>9656771
Pretty bad advice IMO. People of his kind are rather the exception to the rule, as I personally know several people who do not go to class and would significantly benefit from doing so. Even in his case he would have been much better off spending actual thought in lecture, or at least if he chose appropriate classes for his level (he should have been doing graduate classes in Undergraduate school, most likely). You need his level of passion to get into the top 10 schools, however.

>>9640170
Go get the Masters, 75k is shit money and you'll be a code monkey for life
>Machine learning
>Any job I want
>300k starting

>>9657431
I'm a non trad student (31) and about half the people in my PhD program are in their late 20s and early 30s. The most recent PhD to come out of our program was 34.

>>9656771
Sounds like his wife was a huge pussy who couldn't think with her own head.

>>9656771
this comment really resonated with me. my advisor will one day berate me, talk to me like a child, claim my work should be easy and he doesn't understand why i'm having difficulty with it. the next he's blowing smoke up my ass because he realizes that his supply of grad students is dwindling and i'm going to be his last hope for research in his lab soon. if any other boss talked to me the way he did i would have quit by now.

>>9657668
It's not like at grad orientation they stick a sorting hat on you and it says DR SO-AND-SO or PROFESSOR WHOSITS.

You pick an adviser based on your research interests and whether they seem like a nice person to work with, and if it turns out you're not a good match you find a different adviser. These retards who pick a bad mentor and then feel compelled to "stick it out" have no one but themselves to blame.

>>9657126
>>9657097
>>9656874
>>9656771
Guys, graduate school is supposed to be hard and stressful. This is what separates experts from everyone else.

Have none of you had interaction with professors? My professors have all been experts. They were able to solve any graduate level problem with ease. The could write a phd dissertation every month if they had to.

The path to getting to be an expert is supposed to be hard. Its a weeding process but its not weeding out lazy undergrad brainlets, its weeding out top students from the top of the top. It weeds out academically, via mental health, via research ability and several other categories.

When you enter the real world, youre expected to take any problem and immediately be able to map out tbe path to a solution. There are no study halls, no homework sessions. And you wont have time to take the work home with you. If you cant succeed in grad school, theres no way youll cut it afterward.

If graduate school is hard for you, youre being weeded out. Im not trying to be mean but thats something to consider.

I have a physics masters myself and even though I worked 16hours per day, 7 days per week, I had to drop from the phd program. Ive talked to profs in depth about this stuff and they think the phd programs arent hard enough, they worry about some of the people who graduate not having the ability they should.

If you are having mental health problems, take a cushy industry job and see a therapist. There were 2 suicides in my phd department alone.

>>9657720
fuck

>>9657009
Yeah I figured, but where to go? With a 3.0 GPA I don’t know who will accept me

>>9657770
Which state are you in?

>>9657720
My grad school experience (post quals anyways) has been pretty relaxed actually. Admittedly I could probably bust my ass off 60 hours a week and finish a semester or two early but so far there hasn't been any real crazy stress since I passed the exams. I come in, meet with my adviser every week to update him on how things are going, I'm on track to get maybe one paper and a couple posters out this year.

Grad school experiences may vary.

>>9657777
NorCal but why does that matter? GI bill will pay for literally anywhere and I’m ready to leave Silicon Valley with my pockets full of tech dosh. I was thinking maybe trinity college in Ireland or maybe a school in Spain but idk what I actually have a shot of getting into

>>9657720
>physics masters
>worked 16hours per day, 7 days per week
>had to drop from the phd program
sounds like you're a brainlet

>>9656978
>Do grad schools consider age as a factor, and if so, how heavily?
It depends what you want to do. If you want to go into research, you are at the age limit. This is because research requires a vast amount of knowledge, once you get to a certain age, theres just not enough time to learn it all. So graduate advisors prefer younger students.

If you want to go into i dustry then youre fine at any age. 40 year olds get phds for jobs.

>>9657781
Well I dont think youll be prepared to go into academia then. At least not teach at a university

>>9657884
Yes, genius, thats the reason I posted that. To let the reader know Im one of the people who didnt make a phd so I have experience to bback up what I wrote

>>9657911
>Well I dont think youll be prepared to go into academia then. At least not teach at a university
some people don't want to go into academia

>>9653062
How bad is it if I'm this guy AND I go to a shitty school? I too had bad CC grades and my cGPA should come out to close to a 4.5 while I got a 3.8 at UCR, and a 3.92 in my upper divs.

god kill me

>>9657934
sorry, meant close to a 3.5*

>>9657911
>>9657781
PhD research for me fluctuated a lot. Some weeks/months I had important deadlines and had to work my ass off. There were other times when I basically did nothing but show up to the weekly meetings and pretend I had been working all week.

How much does undergrad prestige matter for grad school admissions into say ChemEng? I think I fucked myself over.

>>9657944
i don't think it hurts you

>>9657944
Theres basically 3 tiers.

Ivy/public ivy
Major universities (usually university of <state> or <state> university). by major I mean national accreditation
everything else

check your schools accreditation. if you arent nationally accredited then youll likely be limited to local jobs

>>9657959
But there are tiers within the major universities in themselves. For example, the University of Michigan is obviously higher ranked than... idk the University of Akron, UT-Dallas, or UC-Riverside. This group is where most people lie. Are all these universities considered 'good' or is there even more separation there?

Not him btw

>>9657959
It's an R1 school
Specifically, it's in the UC system. That good enough to not be trashed, immediately?

>>9643655
>no working long hours.
my guy, I have bad news for you.

>>9657965
>tfw I go to UC Riverside

>>9653310
You're fucked mate. If the university finds out your work is fake say goodbye to your PhD. Typically when you sign on to graduate programs you give any patent rights away that arose from any research done in the university btw.

>>9657965
>But there are tiers within the major universities in themselves.
The effect of these inter-categorical tiers is negligible for most applications. ie Research, recommendations etc go a lot farther than uni name

Sidenote: did you go to Akron? I did a summer project there a few years ago

>>9657968
Thats the best rank. Youre fine.Cali schools are public ivys

>>9657983
Sorry to hear that man, but sometimes you have to face the harsh reality of the truth

>>9657993
>UC Riverside is a public ivy
YES
I DID IT
There's hope yet for brainlets.

>>9657993
Nah, my hometown is around Akron (generally northeast Ohio). 90% of my graduating class went to Akron, 5% went to Kent, 3% went to some small christian college, and the remaining 2%, a.k.a. me and one of my friends, went to relatively good universities. How long ago were you in Akron? Not sure if I was still in high school around that time or not.

>>9657999
2 years ago. akron's polymer division is actually nationally recognized.

70% of my school went to osu. the rest went to ou and kent. akron is a fairly shitty school overall. its right next to a crime hotspot and theres drug addicts wandering all over the campus. i read something like 30% of freshman transfer out of there

>>9657998
90% of employers are going to see the "UC" part and hire you

>>9658013
That's good to hear. Are you from Columbus? I was a freshman at my current university when you were in Akron. Most people from my high school kind of just used Akron as an excuse for "omg Akron is so cheap, I would never want to go to another university because then I'd be in debt" when in reality they're not doing themselves any favors.

>>9658024
nope, hudson. suburb of cleveland

akron IS super cheap. if youre in one of their major programs (aerospace eng, chemE, polymer, chem, premed, materials) then youre getting a fantastic deal. lots of research and co op positions but the campus is dogshit

>>9656771
Read every reply comment. Was all thoughtful in some way. Thanks anon.

>>9657911
>you are at the age limit
So I'll be at the limit of what's acceptable without it being a negative? I'll be graduating with the knowledge any other undergrad has, so I don't quite understand the arguement you're making about knowledge required and the time necessary to learn it.

>>9656771
this genuinely made me cry

>>9656978
I went into university at 23, finished undergrad at I think 26, got an MA at a state school at 27, and got accepted into Ivy and Ivy+ programs for PhD to begin my doctorate at age 28. But I am in the Humanities / Social Sciences (depending how you look at it) so YMMV. Maybe in STEM it's more by-the-numbers, and there's less flexibility.


Actually, in the year following my entry year, there were a handful of people who were in their thirties or late twenties and who had been out of the university world for a while. I think the department was especially interested in "unconventionals" that year? Departments seem to be interested in interesting people, overall.

>>9657911
>Well I dont think youll be prepared to go into academia then. At least not teach at a university
I've been TA-ing for for eight semesters, three at the engineering level, another three at the honors level, I've filled in for several professors for recitations and lectures, I've planned to go into teaching since day one, but I don't really plan to be a major researcher. If I'm running a little experiment on the side, publishing a paper or two a year I'm more than content to spend the rest of the year doing classes at a teaching college.

>>9658191
Listen to the microphones album ‘a crow looked at me’

how bad does it look if I spent 4 and a half fucking years at a CC being a pseudo-NEET and being an overall waste of space for two years then finally taking real classes in the last 2 years, and excelling at a state uni for another 2 years(gonna spend yet another year, so 3)?. this means I will spend 7 AND A HALF FUCKING YEARS IN UNDERGRAD, jesus christ. I didn't even have my first job until 23 at the end of my first year at the state uni, so I have absolutely no accomplishments for those first 4 and a half years, like an absolute parasite.

my goal is to get my MS in Chem at a top 100. is this doable, if I have excellent research, letters of rec, and close to straight As in my high level courses?

>>9658313
i got the impression that poster has some kind of autism and didn't really care for his wife, but maybe i'm just bitter.

>>9658316
Sounds like

>>9653062
You should be fine.

>>9658321
I hope you were checking out said album while typing that

It’s fucking heart breaking, moreso than anything I’ve ever known

>>9658330
yeah i started listening to it, i didn't hear about it when it came out, but you mentioned it because the artist's wife died a few years ago right

>>9658334
Yeah and he gets into heart wrenching detail

>>9658316
>>9653062
sounds like me lol

I'm just trudging along and hoping for the best, if it doesn't work out, well, it doesn't really matter anyway. Getting paid to study maths seems to be the most /comfy/ career, but certainly there are other options like industry, programming or being a self employed contractor

>>9658280
You could just become a lecturer at a major university, rather than a professor. You would begin as a junior lecturer, then lecturer, then senior lecturer, than distinguished lecturer. It wouldn't be as prestigious as a professor because you don't do research but it sounds exactly like what you want to do.

>>9653310
Make it so that what you publish is only the basics of what you have developed, and keep the advanced applications of it to yourself.

Then after you are done, you go ahead and start a shell company and apply for patents on things that are natural improvements of your phd thesis.

Or, maybe you could quit your phd, start a company and rake in the money. I am not sure about this, you should consult a lawyer to make sure your patents would be in the clear.

In summary, the university cannot claim something that only you know and you never showed em.

>>9653310
>I don't want my university to take any of my patent rights as this will most likely set me up for life
Your university likely has something like an 'Office of Commercialization' or something along those lines whose job it is to deal with these kinds of patent issues. The Bayh-Dole Act grants universities and even individuals funded by federal grant money the right to commercially patent things developed as a consequence of those grants, but there are certain guidelines and procedures you have to go through. I would say find out if your university has an office like this and talk to a representative there about what your options are.

Some things to keep in mind when deciding this:

1) Patents offer legal protection, but they don't last forever and they aren't free. Once a patent expires it becomes public domain.

2) Keeping something as a trade secret has advantages, like not having to publicly file a patent, but comes at the cost of having no legal repercussions if someone copies your work.

3) Going public may not seem like a good money making strategy, but if you're the only person who actually knows how to make this stuff and make it work, it can be a huge boost to your career and open up potential commercial sector work.

>>9657720
>graduate school is supposed to be hard and stressful
>if graduate school is hard for you, you're being weeded out

i'm getting mixed signals here

>i had to drop from the phd program

oh

I'm going to graduate school in the fall for a Biochemistry Ph.D.

The stipend is being covered by TA'ing two lab sections a week. I'm a horrendous presenter and public speaker. How can I combat this? Shit can literally keep me awake at night. Also, I coasted much of my undergrad and the GRE on illicit adderall from friends - I'm worried I'll lack the motivation.

I've been prescribed propranolol and I'm debating on seeking a benzodiazepines. Any other advice, specifically on the teaching and motivation?

>>9659426
you'll be teaching a class that doesn't matter to the students taking it, and you'll learn how to present while instructing the class

trust me. i didn't have many public speaking skills before i started teaching, and that had to change fast. you'll be nervous going in, but you'll quickly learn that being nervous won't kill you and neither will the kids in the class.

t. two semesters of TA experience

>2.5 gpa BS Chem
>Meh tier lab job (1st one)
>Anon, any interest in further schooling?

Reading this thread reminded me why I hate academics.

>>9659426
you need to get good at presenting. this is a key skill for any researcher. practice makes better

>>9658316
i'm almost 25 years old and haven't worked or gone to college ;)

>>9659426
I'm you in a year. Since ive started, ive given 3 5 minute presentations, 3 10 minute ones, and 1 45-50 minute one (lecturing a class im in). You better get good at it, or at the very least competent. Oh that's without counting all the TAing, that's JUST grad school work. Ive given maybe 16 short (5-10) minute powerpoint presentations at the beginning of labs, as well as been present for 3 hours a week for any questions/troubleshooting during a lab.

>>9652923
holy shit fucking kill yourself, faggot

>>9652508
I'm the guy you replied to
you went to a really great school (UCLA) but you have a low GPA and no research, and the primary thing grad schools look at in applicants are prior research experience (usually in the form of an REU; this is paramount), letters of recommendation, and GPA, in that order
that being said, you're not out of the game as far as PhD programs are concerned if you pull off a nice GRE and Math Subject GRE especially, and I would suggest you at apply to PhD programs now before considering applying to only masters programs; it's also the case at many places that if you're rejected for the PhD you'll still be considered for the masters automatically

this is also dependent on what the grad courses you took were, and this is where your letters of recommendation come in
if you took some really impressive shit as an undergrad and the professors you took those courses with have very good things to say about you, that could very easily offset a "low" GPA such as yours

one thing you should consider is applying to PhD programs (this is important, since that way you'll be funded and won't have to pay out of pocket, along with other privileges PhD students get), but include applications to programs that you think are "below" your standards, which you are fairly confident you would be accepted into (spoiler: with just the info posted, there are many such programs). attend this PhD program and finish a masters, making sure you find a professor to engage with you in a project which hopefully leads to a masters thesis
then, apply again to PhD programs but this time set your sights higher
your resume and thesis and letters of recommendation should speak for themselves by this point

you'll be fine

>>9652508
>>9660439
by the way, i forgot to mention:
i did two years of community college, got my associates, and then went to the shittiest, noname undergrad you could imagine because of a full-ride scholarship they offered me, which i milked dry; i did an REU during this time
i then applied to grad schools and got into the University of Chicago for computer science, then transferred into math from there

my point being, ignore that other fag; having gone to community college doesn't mean anything and the fact that you finished your bachelors at UCLA should be enough to convince you of the fact that you have potential

In undergrad i was a super hard worker who got shit done , graduated summa cum laude

joined phd program
ever since, now i save everything for the last second, turn in shit work, already got one B in my very first semester and more are on the way from the looks of it

what the fuck. where did my motivation go

>>9660466
from what I here grad school is structured completely different. You need to the face the fact that you only thrive in structures that favor severe brainlets

>>9660492
>calls other people brainlets
>’from what I here’

might as well off myself, can’t even shitpost without revealing my room temp IQ

>>9660492
It's entirely possible.
The thing is, I'm actually self-sabotaging, but I wasn't doing that in undergrad.
I just desperately pulled an all-nighter to finish an assignment after putting it off for weeks. Only finished about 80% of it... feels bad because I know if I worked 1 problem a night I would have finished it perfectly with tons of time to spare. Like it wasn't even that hard, I just fucked myself by procrastinating.
But maybe I'm self-sabotaging because the work actually is harder and I'm a brainlet? I don't know

>>9643963
yeah but i'll spend six years in this program instead of splitting it three and three

>>9644676
>Duke

>>9648371
This, if you can get you letters of rec to include it instead. It's seen as less "woe is me" if the recommenders say it instead of you.

>>9639695
>Supervisors not understanding a fucking log curve

I refuse to believe that this is real

>>9660525
every time i present ratio values on a log2 scale my advisor asks why people do it that way

>>9660531
>>9660525
i plotted most of my dissertation results with log scale. professors always understood, but other people seemed to get confused by it

Is it even worth it to go to grad school for engineering? I'm just about to finish my bachelors in ChemEng. I've already done co-op work terms and have job offers.

>>9660731
masters, yes absolutely. its just a question of going to school full time with an assistantship or doing it on the side while your employer pays for it

phd, yes if you want a career as a researcher. if you just want to maximize profit then maybe just stick to masters

>>9660742
So is this to say that not getting my Master's is a bad decision? Or just that if I wanted to it would be in fact worth it.

>>9660755
kinda both

>>9660755
your advancement will be capped at a point if you dont get the master's

>>9660507
Whenever I start to go to shit like you seem to be doing, I jump back to absolutely pleb level "101 secrets for success" sort of productivity modes.

I'm big on time logging, and break things up into pomodoro-esque time blocks (basically, force myself to take a break and do something else after a natural stopping point, and when I'm on the clock I clock out if I'm anything but 100% focused on the task at hand). It makes me feel like a massive slacker shitbag when I look back on a day that was basically shitposting, browsing, gaming, etc, so it acts as a nice motivator. I also make sure I do at least a little bit of studying (5-15 minutes) in the morning before anything else, and sort of continue that trend throughout the day (study for a little first, game later, etc). Often, after just two minutes in it becomes enjoyable and hard to stop.

I've had to deal with self sabotage a lot, so I could go into more detail if you'd like for any reason. Of course it's all common sense, but reminders are nice. I often refer to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/5950tm/text_i_just_finished_the_online_coursera_course/ for that reason.

>https://www.writersstore.com/dont-break-the-chain-jerry-seinfeld/

>>9660507
>>9660877
Also, when I'm in the mood for procrastinating, I tend to look over Cal Newport's blog for some productivity and studying tips, it at least gets me interested in my methodology, so that I'm willing to try some new things out. It also makes me feel like an unproductive shit, so that kinda gets me in gear.

>>9660507
>>9660882
This is also a good lecture worth listening to on procrastination
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhFQA998WiA

>>9660877
>>9660882
I thought I was the only person like this. A similar thing literally just happened to me today/this weekend. I had an exam today. I was planning on beginning studying on Saturday, but I procrastinated and just looked up stuff about grad school and scholarships and stuff. Then, I did some hardcore studying for 4 hours Sunday morning and procrastinated until midnight. I went to sleep at 6am for my exam at 1pm. My time could've been drastically saved if I just managed my time better.

How do you guys do this?

>>9660932
my mentality shifted in grad school because i'm essentially being paid to do the assignments and learn, as opposed to undergrad, where procrastination was necessary because of work duties.

>>9660932
>>9660943
It's the strangest thing, innit? Every single time I'm procrastinating by playing games or shitposting or whatever, I'm certainly not enjoying it - I'm being eaten up inside by the impending deadline and just trying not to think abot it. And when I finally study and embrace the deadline, it ends up being rewarding and fun. I have no idea why my brain works like this, I'll binge play vidya without enjoyment until I want to die, when, empirically and anecdotally, simply studying makes me much, much happier, regardless of productivity.

At any rate, I've largely improved by catching that little bugger before I get too entrenched in procrastinating. The text above of was basically me a year ago though.

>>9660447
Thanks man I appreciate it - unfortunately I missed the application deadline for PhDs. My wife is either coming here to LA for a bachelor's in CS, going to Cal poly SLO, or Stanford. Since she's doing CS she wants a job after she graduates which makes a PhD difficult as I'd have to leave with an MS. I'm taking graduate complex analysis with Tao right now and a Differential Geometry class. My other complex professor said that he sees me working hard and knows that I'm learning a lot, so he'd write me a good letter of recommendation. I've taken routinely the hardest math classes I can to push myself harder, taking honors analysis, algebra etc.
If I want to do a PhD I'd have to wait for my wife to finish a BS, so I figure doing a Master's wouldn't hurt. Otherwise I'd just plow through books I'm interested in and audit courses wherever she goes. I'll try to get research at the grad program and write a thesis. At SJSU they have a lot of Differential Geometry research going on; at CSULB there's a good bit of knot theory and number theory; my Algebra professor said he knew some people at SLO in topology/algebra so I'll go check that out too.

So far I seem to be relatively good at more geometric subjects, I'm slowly developing my intuition for algebra and analysis, but I think my aptitude is in differential geometry and from what I've seen of riemann surfaces, I like it a lot. We'll see what happens.

>>9660983
I dunno, maybe I'm the weird one here, but I actually find that I do better when I have a looming deadline over my head. Last time I was doing research for APS I put shit off and worked on other projects until like a week before abstracts were due... then I worked something up in a couple of days and spent the next month going into the lab 50 hours a week getting data, turned out to be one of my best presentations and I've got a paper or two's worth of results to publish now.

>>9660742
> Engineering
> research
Pick one, and ONLY one.