/PhD/ - PhD tards general

[Anonymous No.10360265]

Thread for PhD comradery
>discuss the ways you fucked up
>bout how you're holding up
>your work
>any other bullshit related to being a PhD stu
Also post your stipends and any other income sources

[Anonymous No.10360285]

Math student here
>have to give a workshop talk tomorrow and I'm not done learning the material, fuck (it's almost 10PM where I live)
>Actually, preparing for this talk reminded me how fun learning can be and convinced me of the value of being organized. Too bad there was just so much to learn in 2/3 weeks.

[Anonymous No.10360334]

>>10360285
Damn nice man. Good luck for tomorrow.

[Anonymous No.10360405]

Finishing my master degree and planning on doing a PhD (~semiconductors field) but it looks like it is very hard, plus I am very psychologically fragile. I am starting to believe I can't do that. Is it really that hard?

[Anonymous No.10361076]

>>10360405
You can do it. I beleive in yo

[Anonymous No.10361135]

>>10360405
Focus on finishing your master's, then. If we all worried about the distant future we'd kill ourselves 10 times out of 10.

[Anonymous No.10361167]

>>10360405
most people can do it

[Anonymous No.10361207]

How hard is to get into a PhD program?
And what are the requirements?
Does your degree grade (I think it's colled bachelor's degree) count at all or is it only about getting a good grade in your master degree?
T. Europoor undergrad

[Anonymous No.10361226]

thoughts on a 4-year combined BS/MS vs just a 4 year BS with more research? Which one looks better to PhD adcom?
>>10360405
you on the chemistry side of things? What's your research?

[Anonymous No.10361263]

>>10361226
Depends on how much research experience you have already, what your GPA is right now, if you'll be paying for it, and how good your current school is. Most people probably go from a BS to a PhD at top schools anyway.

[Anonymous No.10361269]

student recruitment day at a UC school next week. My top choice, top school in my field.

[Anonymous No.10361284]

Getting fucked by electives, they're so time consuming. Almost to time for actual work

[Anonymous No.10361301]

>>10361269
good luck anon! what field?

[Anonymous No.10361310]

>>10361301
Entomology.

I was wondering if anyone knew or has went through the UC "Student Recruitment Day", from what I can gather I am pretty much in, they just need to make sure I'm not a pyscho or super weirdo or something. I already interviewed with the PI.

Thank you.

[Anonymous No.10361321]

>>10361310
All the interview sessions are the same at every school. Have some bullet points you want to give about your current research and interests, ask some questions that show you glanced at their papers, don't be a sperg. If you already interviewed with the prof and you think it went well then don't stress over it.

[Anonymous No.10361325]

>>10361321
Yeah thanks. Just be able to talk about the research I have been doing and show interest in theirs and be able to ask some questions.

They are reimbursing my gas mileage and playing for a hotel for 2 nights I am so excited. I just want to be accepted officially.

[Anonymous No.10361327]

>>10360265
wokring on the thesis. here's a question for y'all: what is the most expensive piece of equipment that you've fried (with cost)?

me? a $100000 custom imaging system. I hope I can fix. that thesis I'm writing depends on it

[Anonymous No.10361351]

>>10361327
dumb anime poster breaking 6 figure equipment.
i once broke a ~$5 tube in chemistry lab in undergrad. small perk of theoretical phys is you dont need equipment (for the most part).

good luck though, anon, hopefully your thesis goes well. what are you imaging, btw?

[Anonymous No.10361359]

>>10361351
>dumb anime poster breaking 6 figure equipment.
kek

[Anonymous No.10361363]

>>10361325
Also, if you want to really know what the program is like talk to the grad students. The profs will all tell you that it's wonderful there and that you should join their groups, but grad students will be honest.

Grad school visits are a lot of fun so enjoy yourself.

[Anonymous No.10361369]

>>10360405
in phd you have to be more independent; learn from papers instead of books; read arxiv every day; network with other phd students, postdocs and researchers; by the end know your trade well enough to be able to do research basically on your own.

sound scary but i dont think it's that big of a leap after masters, you probably have tasted a bit of it. but it helps to be motivated i think, so you dont get pushed into a big hole of frustration/depression when things arent going very well or you are lonely or you are tired. you will have those moments and if you dont have an optimistic end goal view, you might get stuck into those feelings.

so just see if research is really what you want. good thing is your area is applicable and important enough that you can probably find a job in industry while you think if you want phd, if you arent sure yet.

[Anonymous No.10361370]

>>10361363
Yeah I'm sure it will come up, the grad students are hosting a dinner event one of the nights.

Fuck yeah dude.

[Anonymous No.10361392]

>>10361351
next gen RF personnel screening systems, the kind of thing you have to stand in the airport, except ours you walk through because it can image so fast.

honestly, i'm the kind of person that says how stupid airport security is while standing in line, and think the tech has many more interesting applications (like drone radar), but at i can't complain because i have the luxury of knowing exactly what i have to do to defend at this point.

[Anonymous No.10361394]

>>10361310
>Entomology
Riverside or Davis?

[Anonymous No.10361407]

>>10361394
Riverside

[Anonymous No.10361436]

>>10361207
Depends on where. But usually undergrad doesn't matter (assuming a masters is required, as in most decent universities), only what you did on your masters (not only grades) and professional experience.

[Anonymous No.10361446]

>>10361436
idk i feel like it is field dependent but it is quite common to straight to a PhD program from undergrad at any school regardless of "decency"

[Anonymous No.10361481]

>>10361446
Are you american be any chance?

[Anonymous No.10361486]

>>10361446
Are you american by any chance?

[Anonymous No.10361518]

>>10361446
Uhhh what?
I was sure you had to have obtained bachelor's and master degree?
How can you get into research if you haven't specialized in a field first?
But again, I guess things are different here in Europe.

>>10361436
Everyone tells me I shouldn't be stressing about getting the laude in my undergrad degree (which is something I'm trying to achieve even tho I am barely half way through second year) and that everything that matters is master degree, should I just give up on this? Is getting the laude in undergrad useless?
Also, will being published as co-author in undergrad help me if I want a career in research? How much? I had the luck to start my thesis 2 months ago even if I'm in 2 year and possibly I could partecipate to other reaserches after I'm done with that, I've heard that publications are the scientific currency...

[Anonymous No.10361529]

>>10361518
A master's is absolutely not required for a PhD in the US, myself and most of my cohort didn't have a master's before starting. I also got into Cambridge for a DPhil, so that may not even be the definitive rule for European universities either.

[Anonymous No.10361535]

>>10361486
why would anyone be anything else?

[Anonymous No.10361550]

>>10361529
Maybe it's because in America you guys focus more on the applications of stuff and get work experiences with labs etc. I always had the feel that American colleges and uni are more practical and related to work Than ours, which may have a better academic preparation but lack In providing the students with work experience and useful tools to be employed eventually

[Anonymous No.10361552]

>>10361518
>Is getting the laude in undergrad useless
Not sure, maybe it may help you to get into a good masters program.
>will being published as co-author in undergrad help me if I want a career in research?
Yes.
How much?
A lot.
>I had the luck to start my thesis 2 months ago even if I'm in 2 year
How? What do you even know by the second year to be able to write a meaningful thesis?

[Anonymous No.10361558]

>>10361518
>Is getting the laude in undergrad useless
Not sure, maybe it may help you to get into a good masters program.
>will being published as co-author in undergrad help me if I want a career in research?
Yes.
>How much?
A lot.
>I had the luck to start my thesis 2 months ago even if I'm in 2 year
How? What do you even know by the second year to be able to write a meaningful thesis?

[Anonymous No.10361571]

>>10361550
It really depends. At my large state school, the engineering department was definitely producing people for industry. If you wanted to get involved in research, you had to apply to programs or speak to professors on your own accord. We had required lab classes, but we didn't do novel research in them.

[Anonymous No.10361604]

>>10361558
It's and undergrad thesis, if a professor thinks you are worthy (most of the times depends on how well you did at his exam) he gets you into his research and guide you through it etc. I talked to a professor I liked and I asked him what were his current researches and if I could come to his lab and watch him work.
He basically got me in for the thesis the madman, without me even asking if I could.

I don't know man, but anyway even if I was in third year I would know Jack shit, cause his course (comparative anatomy) was in first year

[Anonymous No.10361651]

>>10361604
Anon, a thesis/dissertation/monograph is supposed to be several pages long with a few chapter, and is usually done by the end of your degree. Are you sure you aren't just writting a paper?

[Anonymous No.10361678]

I'm 5 weeks into my second rotation and I haven't actually done anything yet. Do you think my PI will notice

[Anonymous No.10361694]

>>10361678
If you meet regulalrly yes. But rather than trying to fool the PI into thinking you are productive, you should ask yourself whether you are fooling yourself into thinking you are phd material.

[Anonymous No.10361702]

>>10361694
It's just a rotation man

[Anonymous No.10361714]

my supervisor got cancer so I use that as an excuse to be behind schedule

[Anonymous No.10361731]

Finally! It's about time you nerds make a /phd/ general thread on /sci/. So what do you guys think about industrial PhD?

[Anonymous No.10361780]

>>10361518
i graduated summa cum laude in undergrad and went straight into a phd program, no masters required.

[Anonymous No.10361783]

>>10361780
In Europe it's more competitive partly because it's a 3-4 years PhD rather than the never ending crap you get in the US. You do also get some people here who go straight to PhD.

[Anonymous No.10362559]

>>10361651
I still haven't started writing it yet, we concluded the experiments a while ago.
I would be okay even if it was just a paper but my professor said it was my thesis so... Also I met another student in his lab who did the exact same thing with him so I should be fine.
It's an immunohistochemical exam run on an ice fish, nothing too complex

[Anonymous No.10362564]

>>10361731
good money but you ll walk you entire life with a gag in your mouth ... you decide

[Anonymous No.10362568]

>>10361783
>You do also get some people here who go straight to PhD.
citation required

[Anonymous No.10362577]

>>10361780
this is why research is so trash in the uk/us system cause you have a bunch of kids running around asking you to co author every day
Worse 75% of them are attention whore because they somehow pass everything they started but still fail simple critic thinking test.
I do not want be rude but at some point a 20 yo will never have the same maturity as a 23 or 24 yo

[Anonymous No.10362595]

>>10360265

[Anonymous No.10362602]

>>10361780
>summa cum laude
>4chan
where did it go wrong?

[Anonymous No.10362605]

>>10361780
Haha, you graduated with some cum

[Anonymous No.10362706]

>>10360265
Marking and TAing is so painful, such a waste of time

[Anonymous No.10362854]

>>10361783
>You do also get some people here who go straight to PhD.
Sounds illegal

[Anonymous No.10362912]

Computational Chemist here. 4 years, 4 publications (2 first author) in but not making any progress anymore and my relationship with my boss is going to shit. Anyone have any luck jumping ship to analyst positions of any sort in the industry? I'm going to apply to some Defense Industry Program Analyst positions.

[Anonymous No.10362973]

>>10361226
From my experience, its your research experience that matters. Unless it is specifically stated that a masters degree is required, they won't be quite anal about it. Think about it. Would you expect a student that had three years of research experience in one lab to finish a PhD or a student who had three years of research experience in various labs? The latter shows that they may not know exactly what they want to study and/or they are not committed. Keep in mind you'll be working on projects specific to your field for years once you start your PhD. Recruiters don't want to find students who are going to drop out by Year 3. Its a waste of money and time.

[Anonymous No.10363287]

>>10362602
Strong correlation between good grades and specific kinds of autism.
Also between 4chan and autism in general.

[Anonymous No.10363296]

>>10362912
Good luck, not sure if you will directly meet qualifications, might have to connect and talk with people in the field

[Anonymous No.10363344]

>>10360405
first kill urself before doing semiconductor devices. 2d materials (graphene, TMDs) are meme. wide band gap is ok, will be a lot of money in GaN + diamond, but its getting crowded. avoid transistor scaling, useless marginally gains. quantum computing is black magic, hard, very crowded, stay away. photonics is still a meme, still waiting on photonic interconnects. solar cell research useless/dead since ull always be outpriced by chink panels. monolithic 3d is getting big, but its going to be very industry driven. also not enough people care about heat management in circuits. make sure potential lab/adviser has funding secured. other than being a shit field i guess its ok.

dont be the material growth bitch

ur post semiconductor phd job prospects are being an intel fab bitch, or dropping out and doing machine learning. remember this 4-5 years from now.

t. semiconductor devices

[Anonymous No.10363409]

>>10363344
>intel fab bitch
Sounds awesome, can anyone tell me more about this gig?

[Anonymous No.10363420]

>start econ phd
>structured phd
>feels like masters except less game theory
>just wanted to write papers

[Anonymous No.10363439]

>>10363344
>Machine learning
India is literally a billion guys trained in machine learning and willing to work for $33k/yr. Do NOT do machine learning.

[Anonymous No.10363567]

>>10363439
quality over quantity. people thought all the "lowly programmer" jobs would be outsourced to india/china in early 2000s. why is silicon valley still growing? still waiting for those billions of indian devs to overtake silicon valley. in mean time, FANG ai engineers can chill out with their >$300K comp.

[Anonymous No.10363578]

>>10363567
Where have been for the last 10 years? The Indian wave dod hit and now its almost impossible to live in Silicon Valley on a programmer salary.

[Anonymous No.10363692]

>>10363578
>le 200k total comp is poor meme
nope

[Anonymous No.10363706]

>>10363578
clearly have never been to bay area. there are plenty of non-indian software engineers (even at non-FAANG) living fine in san jose or sf.

[Anonymous No.10363740]

>>10363706
>non-FAANG
you mean flush startups? Or do seriously mean to tell me normal companies pay mid six figures?

[Anonymous No.10363793]

>>10363740
yes mid six figures is pretty standard for engineers at any tech or semiconductor/circuits company in the bay area. or maybe every engineer here ive met in the past 10 years is the 1% and/or lying, and high schoolers on a chinese cartoon forum that dont even live in silicon valley know the true salaries.

if programmers are paid so poorly, then who is actually living in the $1.5-2k/month apartments in sf?

[Anonymous No.10363802]

>>10363740
>>10363793
sorry if unclear, actually meant 100-200k as standard for any engineer. machine learning can get to >300k

[Anonymous No.10363814]

>>10363802
>>10363793
thanks for the info, I didn't know that.
Is it because of the CoL in SV or do semiconductor companies just pay that much? Also, just to be clear are we talking about bachelors with a few years of experience or PhDs?

[Anonymous No.10364203]

>>10363344
Do you mind sharing what school you were at?

[Anonymous No.10364239]

>>10363706
>>10363740
>>10363793
Programmer salaries in the Bay are splitting into two groups. Companies have realized that you don't need to hire someone at 100k+/yr to do basic Javascript/CSS/HTML. There are "blue collar" CS jobs paying like 60-80k (less than it sounds with Bay area prices) and "white collar" CS jobs paying 120k+ salary with equity.

There's also high demand for local talent in the Bay that drives salaries up. If you have an established track record as a software engineer, even just a year out of school, it's pretty trivial to switch jobs whenever you feel like it. There's a whole culture around it. For employers this means they have to basically overpay for local talent or risk having people jump ship for a better offer after 4-6 months.

[Anonymous No.10364294]

>>10364239
what skills/qualifications do white-collar cs jobs ask for that blue-collar ones don't?

[Anonymous No.10364440]

>>10364294
heres 2 examples with websites, figure out which is which:
>hi i need you to build a site with accounts and payments so someone can buy our Box™
>dont worry there will only be like 10 customers per day so just copy paste some js off stackoverflow
>get it done asap so i can lay you off and get $1/hr indians to maintain it
vs.
>hi i need you to write this single page browser app with 1.5 billion daily users
>it has to work on every device and every continent including africa
>i also need you to spy on users and build profiles on people that arent even users based on context
>also if theres any downtime youre fired

heres 2 examples with javascript:
>please write some javascript code
vs.
>please write this v8 engine that interprets and runs javascript code in a browser

[Anonymous No.10364496]

>>10361407
Nice, did b.s. there, ento is legit. City sucks but better than a lot of alternatives, good luck

[Anonymous No.10364531]

>>10364203
>>10360405
further emphasis on make sure adviser has FUNDING SECURED. a red flag for any research group is if they do not have lunch or dinner group meetings due to cutting costs. if u visit and there are no meals at group meeting, figure out if its due to scheduling conflict (e.g. student classes) or if its due to money issues.

semiconductors especially is a COST INTENSIVE research field in academia. for example, photolithography and e-beam lithography tools can easily charge $100/hr to run. u never want to be in a lab where u have to be stingy with acetone or clean wipes due to a poorfag professor. wait for the cold war with china so DoD can gib us some more funding.

[Anonymous No.10364592]

>>10361678
Odds are one of the grad students will snitch on you when your PI asks. That's what happened to me anyway. That lab fucking sucked so I got comfy instead

[Anonymous No.10364691]

>>10364531
>they do not have lunch or dinner group meetings due to cutting costs
I agree with the rest of what you said regarding funding since I've seen plenty of my fellow students having to sit around waiting for grant money to appear, but this is kind of a strange requirement. No research group I've ever been in (3) has paid for lunch/dinner for their students every week, and I've never heard about it from any of my peers. Do you mean like bringing snacks/bringing your own lunches or like full blown going to a diner?

[Anonymous No.10364710]

>>10364592
what happened?

[Anonymous No.10364724]

>>10364691
why would ordering group lunch for weekly lab meetings be unreasonable? lets look at cost. lets say the group is 15 students and the budget for food is 10$/person. there are ~52 weeks per year. for a weekly lunch meeting with food, total cost per year rounding up a bit would be 15 * $10 * 52 ~ $8000 / year. for a decently funded experimental group, this should not be a big deal. this should be a conservative estimate. u can get away with even less by ordering cheaper things like 2-3 large pizzas.

by comparison, nature communications open access journal extorts a $5200 submission fee. i would honestly trade 2 nat comms papers for weekly group meals and just throw shit on arxiv.

[Anonymous No.10364730]

>>10360265
"c""s" phd student here
conference paper deadline at 8am on friday. My heuristic comparison experiments will take around 1 day to run. I still haven't finished debugging my code and I have to share a machine with some other people in my group.
Kill me

[Anonymous No.10364760]

>tfw published first paper but it's nearly all fake with fake data

[Anonymous No.10364782]

Still undergrad but have done research with PhD students for several years. Have a group meeting tomorrow, it's always awful. They stretch on for 3-ish hours

[Anonymous No.10364821]

>mfw I found out the average phd time at a chair I was interested in is 7 years

[Anonymous No.10364827]

>>10364821

[Anonymous No.10365652]

Psych PhD here (in a neuroscience-oriented area). This semester is my first as a lecturing TA, and I got mid-semester, early student feedback yesterday.

Over 50% of students said they look forward to class, and the median student described my lecture quality as 4/5.

Feelsgoodman?

The best part: every lecture I've mostly just copied the slides from a former high-quality TA, so lecturing and preparing only requires <10 hours a week even though I was told to expect 20-25.

[Anonymous No.10365822]

>>10364531
>tfw remembering the year I was doing ebeam fab on a shoe string budget after a grant expired

[Anonymous No.10367179]

>>10360334
Thanks man, it was pretty bad (classic case of write-shit-down-no-eye-contact-with-audience-itis) but eh, it passed.

[Anonymous No.10367193]

>>10364760
field?

[Anonymous No.10367353]

>>10364710
Not much really, got a pretty scathing review for my rotation evaluation but the PI is known for alienating students/employees throughout the department so my reputation hasn't been too affected so far. Then again I'm not a complete autist so I just framed it as "oh I don't think we're good fits for each other" instead of completely burning the bridge

[Anonymous No.10367458]

>>10365652
>The best part: every lecture I've mostly just copied the slides from a former high-quality TA, so lecturing and preparing only requires <10 hours a week even though I was told to expect 20-25.
Every TA ever does this.

[Anonymous No.10367468]

>>10360265

[Anonymous No.10368422]

>>10364730
IJCAI?

[Anonymous No.10368447]

Starting a PhD in maths in October. Abroad. I'm scared.

[Anonymous No.10368695]

How do you guys organize your papers and stuff?

[Anonymous No.10368721]

>>10368695
Endnote libraries

[Anonymous No.10368796]

How is the experience of doing one's PhD abroad like? I want to do my PhD abroad since it looks like a good deal but it seems like an awfully scary experience, even more so given that I've never left my country and only lived alone (read alone as with a few other fellow students) for like 2 years.

[Anonymous No.10368985]

>>10368422
ECRTS

[Anonymous No.10369008]

>>10361351
That's more than his own collection that he broke

[Anonymous No.10369019]

>>10368447
What field?

[Anonymous No.10369227]

>>10368695
Many, many thematic folders, electronic and physical, but I'm still getting the hang of it.
Also, tagging your files in a standardized way is pretty nice when you want to search for some paper you read weeks or months before

[Anonymous No.10369301]

>>10360265
So, I'm starting a PhD in math soon, any advice? I've already learned about what not to do from working with a PhD student during my time as an undergrad, so I'm now hoping to learn what to do.

[Anonymous No.10369413]

>>10369301
What not to do?

[Anonymous No.10369476]

>MD/PhD student at Top 5 Uni worldwide
>Tinder matches: 0

It never gets better.

[Anonymous No.10369896]

>>10369413
>What not to do?
Yeah, that's what I said, I know generally what I shouldn't do, but I don't know any of the tips and pieces of advice for things I should be doing.

[Anonymous No.10369914]

>>10360265

[Anonymous No.10369999]

>>10369019
Math.

[Anonymous No.10370013]

>machine learning phd
>im literally the least skilled student in my cohort and cant understand anything other students are talking about
>flub all my presentations
>struggling to come up with novel ideas
at least im closer to my goal of generating waifus with neural networks

[Anonymous No.10370338]

>>10370013
>doing a PhD on a topic that will be compiled into a toolbox in 5 years

[Anonymous No.10370396]

>>10370013
>>machine learning phd
You're a walking meme.

[Anonymous No.10370402]

My phd supervisor in a STEAM field is a workaholic nerd, very competent, and very intellectually mediocre.

That is the state of academia were an actually moron with an antisocial personality can be a professor.

[Anonymous No.10370410]

>>10370402
>STEAM
lol

[Anonymous No.10370411]

>took a zoological exam
>blazed through it, felt great taking it
>walked out of the classroom brimming with confidence
>my grade was posted
>74%
I'm crushed. I genuinely don't know how this is possible, to the point I'm considering going to the teacher and asking to see the results firsthand.

[Anonymous No.10370414]

>>10368796
You will be fine, worst case scenario you just focus all your time on your work, get a little depressed, and get done sooner (if you are not retarded).

[Anonymous No.10370424]

Help me out /phd/ bros
> I'm doing my phd in different city than I live (have a fiance here, she can't move) and traveling is killing me
> I'm doing ML, which currently boils down to writing R software
> I'm getting into -omics in collaboration with a good group
> I wanted to do actual ML and advisor gave me shitty projects with physicians (small data)
> He doesn't want me to work (industry) and to focus on my studies/research exclusively (most people in ML in academia I know work)
> Recently I showed him a cool internship offer at Oxford and wanted to apply, he showed no interest and told me to focus on papers - this got me really angry
> We published one paper, btw
> Switching to PhD in another city would be very hard for me for multiple reasons
> I need to do shitty beaurocratic stuff for our group
> He's kinda a control freak
> But he is one of the best in my country and our research topic is very good
> Btw with him I earn more than many people in industry in my city, especially with my experience
(But not much more)
> I've been lazy
> I don't feel like my PhD is going in any reasonable direction
Should I just end this fucking phd? Move to my city despite possible troubles or drop it completely? What do you say based on this description?
> Inb4 nice blog

[Anonymous No.10370441]

>>10369301
what shouldn't one do?

[Anonymous No.10370468]

>>10369476
Could be worse
>60 some Tinder matches in the last 3 months
>Not a single one has ended up meeting irl

[Anonymous No.10370471]

>>10370424
>> I'm doing ML, which currently boils down to writing R software
Bruh at least do some Pytorch

[Anonymous No.10370530]

>>10360265
My advisor was just elected to the National Academy of Engineering, how big of a deal is this?

[Anonymous No.10370543]

>>10370402
>were

[Anonymous No.10370547]

>>10370411
practical? i teach retards like you what class/subject was it

[Anonymous No.10371416]

>>10369896
But what is the advice on what not to do?

[Anonymous No.10371547]

Let's talk citations and h-index.

Does the old 'years since first publication'<='cureent h-index' still hold as a measure of decent production in the STEM fields?

[Anonymous No.10371710]

>>10370530

You know how when you finish college, the "National Society of Collegiate Scholars" sends mailers to your parents trying to scam them into paying money so they can say their child is a "scholar" or some shit?

It's like that.

[Anonymous No.10371840]

>>10362912
Don't burn that bridge with adviser, unless he's just a petulant douche (at which point why even work with him)? Worst case scenario, try to befriend other profs and ensure you'll have academic backing in the form of letters regardless of whther you finish the program or not.

[Anonymous No.10371864]

>>10364531
I am not sure how general that is. I can def see how having these extra perks are a symbol of good financial status, but not always. For instance my adviser was/is a well funded guy in a small theory group and we hardly ever did group meetings or outings. I think it partly had to do with him also being a chair and sucking all the time out of him. But overall, all his students (including me until i finished) were on grant money and he had a solid record getting grants. You are better off just asking other grads in the group or post-docs about the financials.

[Anonymous No.10371879]

>>10364760
You are advancing your """"career"""" at the expense of an entire field's progress. Commit suicide immediately.

>>10369301
Every PhD is unique and there's no golden road to anyone of them. If there is one thing you should keep in mind is social capital: peers, professors, staff etc. These are the people you may need for a hang up lift, recommendation, or record keeping issues. Don't burn bridges, cool the autism, and good luck.

[Anonymous No.10372095]

>>10360265
if it takes you 2 years to get w publication it will take you 8 years to finish a PhD

[Anonymous No.10372139]

>>10364531
Funding is not a problem as the only opportunities are secured.

I have opportunities in photonics applied to telecoms, mostly laser related, and also biophotonics in europe and china.

I am more enthusiast toward biophotonics as I loved my micro-fluidics and bionanotech courses.

Also I am about to start a 6 months internship in a decent lab on quantum yield and blueshift.

Thanks for the advices, got any more? I'm currently looking at labs in hong kong switzerland and denmark (avoiding the us).

[Anonymous No.10372448]

>>10370424
>i wanted to do actual ML
can you explain? how what you're doing is not "actual" ML?

>focus on papers
good advice

[Anonymous No.10372481]

>>10372139
Avoid HK unless you're a chink. The most important thing is getting a good supervisor who publishes at the level you want to publish.

[Anonymous No.10372487]

>>10370424
Take a holiday, and get back to work.
Set up a plan with milestone achievments towards PhD completion, and follow it.
Stop whining and do the work. Everyone hates the middle to end of their PhD.

[Anonymous No.10372660]

Any american grad students that do systems/synthetic biology research here? Im trying to decide between Berkeley Bioengineering and Rice Systems,Synthetic, and Physical Biology and am wondering which program does better research/ has better prestige/ happier students

[Anonymous No.10372938]

>>10369413
>>10371416
>>10370441
Well, for starters, if your work has potential applications in other fields, make damn sure that you phrase things in their terms and not yours and give a fuck load of motivation. At a conference I attended my undergrad advisor decided that in order to convince others to use the tools we were developing he would phrase things in term familiar to our field and not theirs, leading to a lot of confused/disinterested faces (kind of embarrassing to be honest). At there very least when entering a community, use their lingo and not yours. By god that conference was a dumpster fire. Going on what >>10371879 mentioned I think it's very solid advice, understand the community aspect of things and don't think that everyone will immediately follow your work just because you think it's worthwhile.

Related to this concerned publishing papers. I did better than most in this regard, publishing a few papers with a few more in preparation. Thing is, when writing papers there's a few things you really don't do. For example, say you want to create some slight new variant in an established framework that's possibly easier to work in. Don't just decide to present the idea without providing examples of how it could actually be applied. Seriously, the group just thought it would be okay to publish without even justifying why anyone would ever adopt this formalism, how it makes life easier, or if interesting models could even be fit into this formalism in the first place. I opposed publishing and wanted more examples. They said it's fine as is and that it's normal for a paper to get rejected once or twice. It took a over a year to find a journal to accept it for review, and that was because it ended up being a conference paper in admittingly a great journal, but that was only because my advisor presented it at a conference where the guys running it were old friends of his.

[Anonymous No.10372943]

>>10372938
This happened a two more times in more extreme cases of "why the fuck should anyone care about this paper?" The papers kept getting rejected so often that my advisor would rant at group meetings about how the editors were the gestapo and shit. Instead of taking the editors criticisms seriously, and making the paper better, he just kept it the same and somehow expected different results. Thing is, the papers weren't bad per se, the content was fine, but there was a complete lack of justification or examples as to the applicability of it, and when you're proposing the use of new tools and methods, that shit becomes really important.

Another don't, don't miss group meetings. I missed some groups meetings because I didn't want to attend if I felt I had nothing to contribute or if I feel like I hadn't made a breakthrough in the problem and have it fully complete. I actually didn't get paid once because I stopped coming for over a month. At the end of the day my advisors told me is that even if I didn't crack the problem, it was okay as long as I had write ups to show them that I was putting effort in.

Another one, I found out real fucking quick that you basically have to do a lot by yourself with not a whole lot of input. Basically, I had ideas and would mention them to the group only to be met with a few "maybe it could work" and the like but no concrete directions as to where to go. I actually had two ideas within a few months of starting research that were completely dropped by the group but then when I came back and did it all myself suddenly everyone was exciting and shit. Even more so, my advisor thought he came up with the idea only for me to mention to him that I told him about it over a year ago.

[Anonymous No.10372954]

>>10372943
In the other case in which all the new material in the paper was my sole contribution, suddenly I'm no longer the first author since I'm not the group lead. Kind of bullshit really. In any case, if you have an idea, don't expect anyone's gonna hold your hand. Buckle down, get to work, type up some notes, and once you've made some solid progress present things and then and only then will you likely get some feedback on your work. These profs have their own projects and lives so until you can actually present something with some meat they'' likely forget about any of your ideas.

Also, make connections and cast a wide net, otherwise you haven't a shot in hell to break into academia. Don't just expect people to care about you or your work. Sell yourself and what you do. Know what people are interested in and see what your works means in reference to those problems. Also, if you get married to someone who works in a department, chances are you can get hired by that department, basically as a solution to the two body problem of married academics needing to live close by. I have some other things but I imagine these posts are already too long.

[Anonymous No.10373367]

>>10370471
I'm not doing DL, but thanks for the reply.
>>10372448
actual ML = model building AKA applications. Hopefully it will happen in my -omics projects. Thanks.
>>10372487
Solid advice, will do. Thanks.

[Anonymous No.10373468]

tell me bros, is it worth it to get a phd if you want to work in the industry?
Currently in 1st year of my masters in plant biotech and I have no idea I should just look for a lab to do my master's thesis then hope to stay there for the phd or just try to find an interesting company and do a project report

[Anonymous No.10373528]

>>10373468
No, a master's is generally better for employability and lifetime earnings.

[Anonymous No.10373815]

>be TA
>catch students cheating
>tell professor
>he doesn't care

[Anonymous No.10373894]

>>10373528
this depends a lot on field

[Anonymous No.10373921]

>>10372938
>>10372943
>>10372954
Thank you for advice

[Anonymous No.10374014]

>>10373921
Eh, those are my experiences, not necessarily the norm. What I will say is that persistence and the ability to take and build off of criticism have been by far the most important things I feel like one needs to be a good grad student.

[Anonymous No.10374430]

>>10370424
>help me
>write R software
Pick one

>>10373528
true for engineering

>>10372660
Bio engineering is shit, nobody knows what they are doing and biologist are assholes who cannot even into chemistry.
go toward computational stuff or even theoretical physics, more mathematics cant be a bad idea.

>>10372139
you should also avoid reddit spacing

[Anonymous No.10374455]

>>10361327
Damn, anon. Hope you were photocopying your butt, or doing something equally glorious.

[Anonymous No.10375520]

>>10373528
I think that's the general consensus for my area, thanks for reaffirming it

[Anonymous No.10375767]

Sophomore at a community college here, about to transfer to a local university.

I've come to a roadblock and realization that I lack the knowledge, experience, resources, and guidance to carry out a real research project.

I've come up with a plan where I will treat some THP-1 cells with a certain chemical extract which will bind to a certain receptor to observe its immune and inflammatory responses in a normal cell line, pre-senescence cell line, xra treated (normal and pre-sen) cell lines...

but it stops there, I don't want to just "observe", I want to understand and be able to explain why and what is happening at the molecular level. Can I quantify cytokines like interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 to further explain that the chemical had X effect?

I don't know...

[Anonymous No.10375785]

is there anyway i could get into a phd with no undergrad research experience kek

[Anonymous No.10375859]

>>10371547
No, it varies a lot by the size of your discipline, the volume of production, and the prestige of journals.

I have an h-index of 6 from publishing low volume in top journals, while a retard friend of mine has an h-index of 11 from publishing lots of crap in low-tier journals

[Anonymous No.10376033]

>>10375785
None that you'd want to go to. Do a master's and get experience.

[Anonymous No.10376081]

>>10370013
Fellow brainlet of the cohort here, IKTF brother. Gotten 2 C's so far in my first year courses, one more and I'm out. They shouldn't have let me in

[Anonymous No.10376147]

>>10360265
Have minor corrections to do on a paper. I can see what needs to be changed and how to do it, but it's just such a pain in the ass and I'm completely over this particular paper by now.

[Anonymous No.10376207]

>>10376147
Literally me

[Anonymous No.10376232]

>>10376147
>tfw you know what needs to be done and how to do it but you aren't working
Someone make me work

[Anonymous No.10376300]

>>10372481
>who publishes at the level you want to publish
what do you mean?

[Anonymous No.10376315]

>>10372954
tell us more
>Know what people are interested in
Any tips on this? I think this is something that's a lot harder than it seems
>make connections and cast a wide net
don't these seem to be opposing factors, in the sense of connections being quality and a wide net being quantity, how can a PhD student create a large number of meaningful connections when you consider how tight-knit most departments and labs are?
>all the new material in the paper was my sole contribution, suddenly I'm no longer the first author since I'm not the group lead.
is there any way to avoid this?

[Anonymous No.10376321]

>>10375767
contact a professor about this. You're more motivated than 90% of the students who email them who are only interested in "getting into a lab" for the sake of medschool admissions.

[Anonymous No.10376345]

>>10363344
graphene is only a meme because it's blown out of proportion. But 2d materials in general.... pentacene, parylene, ultra thin metal films, PEDOT:PSS, dpp, FOTS (basically all organosilanes..), CVD nitrides, MLD/ALD organics, come on there's so much room for growth here.

[Anonymous No.10376490]

how do i make my masters free (US), RA/TA shit?

[Anonymous No.10376495]

Writing right now. A bit over 4 weeks until defense. 2 chapters already done, 3rd almost done, working on intro and conclusions right now. I think I'm going to make it bros.

[Anonymous No.10376531]

So I just found out the master's program I was interested in requires either a bachelor's thesis, which I didn't do, or a research internship, which I have no LoRs to apply with.

I considered contacting the my old department head, since she liked me and said she'd happily write one back when, but I think I'd rather die than admit to her that I've done nothing for the last year. Should I just an hero?

[Anonymous No.10376546]

>>10376531
Just bite the bullet and say that you took a "rest year" and didn't do too much because you were tired from hauling ass before and now you're rested and ready to get back on the grind.

[Anonymous No.10376561]

>>10361558
how much will publishing in undergrad help if i dont understand any of the content. I'm a junior who basically is a mathematica monkey/latex slave for a nucear theorist but he always puts my name first on papers because hes old and a nice guy. Do you think it still counts?

[Anonymous No.10376564]

>>10376321
Any advice on emailing professors? My experience so far with every professors at my school has been dismissive (I get it, they deal with tons of undergrads).

Do I succinctly explain "I am writing to inquire if you have time, space, and resources to accommodate an intern.

I am a sophomore at so-and-so community college. I will be a student at so-and-so state university in the Fall.

I would like to use X chemical on X cell-line to observe the immune and inflammatory responses. X chemical binds to so-and-so receptor, which induces differentiation into macrophages. I would like to then analyze gene expression of cytokines such as IL-6 and IL-8 by qRT-PCR. I believe this relationship has significant application to senescence, cancer, and aging research.

..."

I don't really know how I would transition to asking to join the lab with the purpose of gaining experience in the research process so that I may fully flesh out, learn new techniques/methods, and ultimately use the data that I end up finding to explain what I found.

(I can already do what I said I'd like to do, but I would like to do more than that.)

[Anonymous No.10376581]

>>10376564
edit...thinking about it...would qPCR even be the right choice to use in this case? (I'm learning some of the methods used in protein biochemistry this semester).

[Anonymous No.10376619]

Any advice on emailing professors? My experience so far with every professors at my school has been dismissive (I get it, they deal with tons of undergrads).

Do I succinctly explain "I am writing to inquire if you have time, space, and resources to accommodate an intern.

I am a sophomore at so-and-so community college. I will be a student at so-and-so state university in the Fall.

I would like to use X chemical on X cell-line to observe the immune and inflammatory responses. X chemical binds to so-and-so receptor, which induces differentiation into macrophages. I would then like to quantify cytokines such as IL-6 and IL-8, which inhibit Tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) and IL-1. I believe this relationship has significant application to senescence, cancer, and aging research.

..."

I don't really know how I would transition to asking to join the lab with the purpose of gaining experience in the research process so that I may fully flesh out, learn new techniques/methods, and ultimately use the data that I end up finding to explain what I found.

Should I also include that I am familiar working with mammalian cell cultures (and bacteria), can actually prepare solutions and media from stock (dry chemical/dilutions). Basically, I don't need my hand held is what I want to get across.

[Anonymous No.10376655]

>>10376321

Any advice on emailing professors? My experience so far with every professors at my school has been dismissive (I get it, they deal with tons of undergrads).

Do I succinctly explain "I am writing to inquire if you have time, space, and resources to accommodate an intern.

I am a sophomore at so-and-so community college. I will be a student at so-and-so state university in the Fall.

I would like to use X chemical on X cell-line to observe the immune and inflammatory responses. X chemical binds to so-and-so receptor, which induces differentiation into macrophages. I would then like to quantify cytokines such as IL-6 and IL-8, which inhibit Tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) and IL-1. I believe this relationship has significant application to senescence, cancer, and aging research.

..."

I don't really know how I would transition to asking to join the lab with the purpose of gaining experience in the research process so that I may fully flesh out, learn new techniques/methods, and ultimately use the data that I end up finding to explain what I found.

(I've taken 4 courses that only taught me the methods/techniques (including an entire course on mammalian cell culturing/methods) used in a biotech lab, but not really how to use them with a goal in mind.

[Anonymous No.10376669]

anyone doing a PhD in optics or photonics? is it a meme or should i do it?

[Anonymous No.10376694]

What's a good resource for understanding Jackson E&M? For such a popular book I'm getting garbage results online.

[Anonymous No.10376737]

I'm conflicted: I want my PhD so I can be a professor, but I have zero interest in doing research. I'm pretty intimidated by the thought of having to do my own research and writing an extensive paper on it. What should I do to kindle my interest in research?

[Anonymous No.10377055]

>>10376315
>Any tips on this? I think this is something that's a lot harder than it seems
I would say the easiest way to do that is to talk to people and read papers. Usually people within the field will try selling their as steps toward solving some problem, or justify how their method will be useful in doing x, y, z. By becoming familiar with the literature you start to get a feeling for the types of problems the researchers care about.
>>10376315
>don't these seem to be opposing factors, in the sense of connections being quality and a wide net being quantity, how can a PhD student create a large number of meaningful connections when you consider how tight-knit most departments and labs are?
Not necessarily, though I do admit, my phrasing could be better. One certainly needs to make connections, you want to know people, and you want people to know you to. What I meant by "cast a wide net" should've been phrased as, "don't put your eggs in one basket." Even if you do know some guys really well, it doesn't mean they'll necessarily be able to secure you a position or help you get in a good word at a department. I will say this, one great thing about a conference is that when the dinners begin, you have the chance to mingle and start a communication with some other researchers. It also gives you a chance to present yourself and put a face to the research.
>>10376315
>is there any way to avoid this?
There are legitimate instances of advisors being complete dicks to their students. To avoid this, I'd say ask around thoroughly about the prof before working with them. One thing I've considered, but not actually done myself, so take it with a grain of salt, is to try tracking down some of the profs former phd students and sending them a quick email to learn about working with the guy. If the guy has a good reputation, great, if not, be cautious.

[Anonymous No.10377159]

>>10377055
>One thing I've considered, but not actually done myself, so take it with a grain of salt, is to try tracking down some of the profs former phd students
be careful with this
if it's a SUCCESSFUL student; i.e., he has papers published in top conferences/journals, then this is a good idea
but if the guy hasn't been productive you need to take what they say with a grain of salt. 9 times out of 10 they will blame their advisor for their failure to produce

[Anonymous No.10377280]

>>10376737
Don't get one. It's not for you.

[Anonymous No.10377356]

>>10377280
What would be better for me then?

[Anonymous No.10377832]

>>10369914
>PhD
>student debt
Pick one nigger. PhDs are funded

[Anonymous No.10377899]

>>10360265
OP here
>just came back from a fantastic weekend trip to the beach with a friend
>getting back on my research internship work with a fresh mind sans depression
>my PhD thread is doing really good
Feels good man
>still a virgin though

[Anonymous No.10377930]

>start writing thesis
>almost everything already published, just some technical rounding up and tying in some loose ends
>realize the theoretical stuff in the previous papers can't be harmonized and I need to redo a lot of the basic stuff
>last paper with main results gets rejected
Just kill me

[Anonymous No.10378087]

>>10376561
any tips on getting such a comfy position/finding such cool professors?
>>10376655
I think the big thing is mentioning how specific aspects of their work can relate to your own experiences. Their research=their interest, so relating their research with your research will lead to them being interested in your research.
>>10377055
Thanks!
>>10377356
I guess a masters? Why exactly do you want to become a professor, if not for the research? Is it the prestige? (try doctor), the job security? (government employee), the personal freedom? (get a small business)

[Anonymous No.10378406]

>>10360265
Trying to get to Comps but advisor is cockblocking. He also won't sign any IRB paperwork because LOL who needs rules so I'm stuck unable to conduct research he's ordered.

[Anonymous No.10378502]

>>10378087
>Why exactly do you want to become a professor
I have a small teaching position at my university, and I really like it. I considered just teaching high school, but I prefer the university atmosphere and the ambition of the students.

[Anonymous No.10378548]

>>10377899
>still a virgin though
I mean, you DID pick a career in science didn't you?

[Anonymous No.10378647]

>>10378502
Why not become a lecturer or one of the many many many positions made specifically to support students?
Getting an assistant professorship is hard enough even if you truly love research.

[Anonymous No.10378690]

>>10378647
I've never heard of something like that before. Would you happen to know where I could find out some more about it?

[Anonymous No.10378784]

>>10378548
Worse. Machine Learning
>inb4 it is scianse

[Anonymous No.10378938]

>tfw I'm only equipped to go to phd and be a professor and I'd probably like it but I'm morally opposed to academia

What do I even do

[Anonymous No.10378953]

>>10378690
https://www.higheredjobs.com/admin/
check out counselling, advising, student affairs, resident life, etc.
>>10378938
why can't you go into industry?
>>10378784
at least you can wipe your tears with hundred dollar bills.
...you ARE at a top uni, right?

[Anonymous No.10378973]

>>10378953
>industry
Because in terms of my field I'm morally opposed to that as well .

[Anonymous No.10379054]

>>10378973
what's your field? ecology?

[Anonymous No.10379055]

>>10377832
Most of them time they are, but it's actually not unheard of for someone to wind up funding his own.
Usually it does mean something went horribly wrong along the way though.

[Anonymous No.10379107]

>>10360265
>discuss the ways you fucked up
I regret getting one at all....really, you can't EVER make use of that sucker unless it's in academia, and academia is for mediocre people

[Anonymous No.10379111]

>>10379107
And I have a spectalcular record with my PhD, but still, having wasted all those years....naw. If you want to work hard and push frontiers you're better of in the industry, man. I would've been somebody big by now if I put so much sweat and tears into it. Now I have to start from scratch.

[Anonymous No.10379121]

>>10370424
>What do you say based on this description?
If you make more money than you would in the industry, then no. But ML is highly paid.

[Anonymous No.10379125]

>>10370338
ML has been compiled in a toolbox for years now, but you still have to know what you're doing.

[Anonymous No.10379136]

Defending my Thesis tomorrow lads, wish me luck.

[Anonymous No.10379168]

>>10379054
Computer science

[Anonymous No.10379197]

>>10360265
>discuss the ways you fucked up
going into a specialized field with no employability, working with a no-name advisor, and going to a good but not great school

[Anonymous No.10379248]

>>10379136
You'll do great bud.

[Anonymous No.10379252]

>>10379136
We're all going to make it.

[Anonymous No.10379261]

>>10376669
It's not a meme. Lots of industry demand too.

[Anonymous No.10379284]

My schedule:

> Wake up
> Work out
> Make breakfast
> Sit at computer trying to focus on big thing I'm supposed to do /learn
> Remember there is some smaller, more immediate thing I'm supposed to do
> Start doing smaller thing
> Lunch
> Finish doing smaller thing
> Dinner
> Try to focus on bigger thing
> Am too tired to focus on it, try to read relevant physics material that will get me excited to work on it instead
> Go to sleep
> Don't retain what I read or did that day

How the heck am I supposed to ever get anything done?

I've tried prepping food faster/ working out faster, and I can't eat out or not work out because I will just feel like garbage and not even finish the small things.

[Anonymous No.10379317]

>>10379136
good luck you got this shit

[Anonymous No.10379796]

>>10378087
I dont really know how I got this and I think I just got lucky to get this guy. At my which is a generic big state school theres a website where professors list openings they have for undergrads. I just applied to a few and got this one. I think i might have got it because the description was so abstruse that not many people applied. I pretty much said I'd be fine working as slave labor.

[Anonymous No.10379835]

Ph.D. dropout here.

i like being employed more desu

[Anonymous No.10380375]

>>10378953
>you ARE at a top uni, right?
Lel nop. SUNY Buffalo. I don't even know where it stands.

[Anonymous No.10380436]

>>10379284
>The big things small, you shall make

[Anonymous No.10381090]

>>10380436
Hm, that seems like another thing in of itself.
Might be worth it though.

[Anonymous No.10381145]

>>10368422
Ijcai submission is in 2 weeks hehe

[Anonymous No.10381340]

>>10380375
The fuck kinda unknown uni is that?

[Anonymous No.10381360]

I want to get into Cornell for applied mathematics... I dream of it every night. Any cornell anons that can help? How do I do it?

[Anonymous No.10381702]

>>10378953
>you ARE at a top uni, right?
One question, what exactly is the cut-off for a "top uni"? We talking top 50 or top 25? Globally or is top within the US good enough?

[Anonymous No.10381707]

>>10381702
Top 10, globally, and it has to be top 10 both overall and in your specific field.

[Anonymous No.10381709]

>>10379835
I can find a lot of purpose for you ;)

[Anonymous No.10381785]

>>10381702
Top 20 globally for wiping your face with hundred-dollar bills. Top 100 globally for an excellent reputation and network.

[Anonymous No.10381808]

>>10378953
>...you ARE at a top uni, right?
You know what I like? A job advertisement for a PhD level position where one of the requirements is a PhD from a "top university". Like, first, thanks for being honest about how you treat PhDs past a certain school reputation. Second, what is "top"? I was almost going to ask them and then the advertisement vanished.

>>10381702
likely berkeley, caltech, MIT, stanford and the equivalents

[Anonymous No.10382184]

>>10381709
I demand a yearly salary of 80k for the first year, increasing by 12% every following year

[Anonymous No.10382246]

>>10381808
>You know what I like?
Faculty hiring based on merit. Haven't seen it yet.

[Anonymous No.10382395]

>>10363793
>1.5-2k apartment rents in SF
Did the prices go down? Last I checked, it was 2.2k+
>t. The only non-pajeet left in Fremont

[Anonymous No.10382413]

>>10382246
>Faculty hiring based on merit. Haven't seen it yet.
i knew someone who recently got hired as an assistant professor. When she was applying, I thought her chances shouldn't be very good because though she had a lot of pubs, few of them were first author or in very good journals, and she was mediocre otherwise. Her grad school was in the toilet. She got six faculty offers.

One of the shitty undergrad institutions I know hired two female faculty in a row for their department. The department had been entirely male before that

On top of this, there's so many disgusting anecdotes out there of discrimination in favor of women for faculty hiring these days

[Anonymous No.10382422]

>>10382413
Have seen the same many times over.
Add to that when a university flies in highly qualified applicants from other countries, only to get evidence of having interviewed enough people before hiring their friend's incompetent nephew.

[Anonymous No.10382686]

>>10381785
>>10381808
Okay, that's not so ba
>>10381707
>Top 10, globally, and it has to be top 10 both overall and in your specific field.
Fuck. Does Rice in mathematics count as a top uni?

[Anonymous No.10382715]

>>10369476
>don't be so down anon, women are attracted to intelligence!
>haha yeah

[Anonymous No.10382746]

i want to die and kill myself and stop living

that's all thanks

[Anonymous No.10382785]

>>10382746
https://www.stanforddaily.com/2019/02/11/male-graduate-student-found-dead-in-engineering-building/

dont worry fellow phds are in solidarity with :^)

[Anonymous No.10382855]

>>10370013
>>10376081

No see you both fucked up. My undergrad GPA was a 2.99 without research credit in Bioshit Engineering (3.21 with). I did three years of work and I’m defending a master’s in Mechanical Engineering on the way to a PhD next week. I’ve got 3 publications out so far (1 first author, 2 other), and 6 more on my professor’s desk.

Total publishable basis for projects I’m involved on should be ~12 papers with me being first author on 5 not including the 5 papers I’m planning on getting my PhD based around.

[Anonymous No.10382865]

>got into MS in engineering at Stanford
>afraid I will look like a pussy dumbass to PhD students
>so badly want to do a PhD but can't justify spending 4 more years NOT making the 120k-140k a year I'll make with the MS.

You can't make bank doing your PhD..right?

[Anonymous No.10382977]

>>10382865
You make slightly more as a PhD over a lifetime, but you have to complete a PhD. If you're doing return on investment calculations to determine whether you should do a PhD, then the answer is a resounding no.

[Anonymous No.10383061]

>>10382977
Then what is the overwhelming desire? Most people I know aren't doing things related to their thesis in operation.

[Anonymous No.10383101]

>Be me, 10382855
>>10382865
It is possible but unlikely that with the right circumstances you can. Since you’re asking I assume none of this applies. I’m making $65k/yr as a student in a midwestern state school getting my PhD working 3/4 time as a graduate “curriculum development” assistant and RA under my advisor + School fellowship (1/4 time) + grants/scholarships. It’s complicated as fuck to file taxes, but it’s sweet and allows me to justify the loss on income because I still only spent $18k last year, and I’m only spending $24k this year. My friend makes $65k working at a tech startup under our advisor + $10k and tuition as another development GA. We’re investigating doing a start up for an SBIR in which case I could pull another $10-15k if we get one.

[Anonymous No.10383547]

>>10379248
>>10379252
>>10379317
Thanks fellas, it went great. Only minor corrections!

[Anonymous No.10383690]

>>10378953
Thanks, man, I'll make sure to give it a look. I'll start asking around to see about becoming a lecturer too.

[Anonymous No.10383752]

>>10376655
i wouldn't expect to be able to just go into someone elses lab and just do your own tests. From my experience, labs will have a general area they focus on, maybe there is someone already looking at human cells lines and the immune response, or maybe they already look at chemical x, but they are likely doing their own thing with it. You should either try to find a group working on stuff you are interested in and ask if they have any projects you could work on, or join a community lab, where if you are lucky and its kitted out,there might be a community of people interested in helping you do look at that

[Anonymous No.10384350]

How long into a PhD will I finally give up and an hero.
>assuming I get in of course

[Anonymous No.10384421]

>>10383547
Yay

[Anonymous No.10384695]

Will getting a PhD make me more attractive to qts?
>asking to rid myself of this godforsaken virginity

[Anonymous No.10384823]

>>10384695
Not reliably. Only to golddiggers if you make it big, and they will dump you

[Anonymous No.10384848]

>>10384695
100% no my dude, just go get a hobby and wash more

[Anonymous No.10384860]

>>10384350
Depending on where you're doing it; second year is usually the slump. Make sure you have a regular bunch of people you can drink heavily with because otherwise there's no outlet to the bleak nothingness of existence.

>.t Brit PhD student who turns up in the morning while it's dark, leaves in the evening in the dark and spends most of the day in a dark optics lab

[Anonymous No.10384940]

>>10384695
no, lel. But a MD might. Just ask that doctor on Scrubs.

[Anonymous No.10385299]

How do you figure out if your research idea has been done?

t. researchlet looking at masters programs

[Anonymous No.10385316]

>>10384695
no way

[Anonymous No.10385352]

>>10385299
Google scholar.

[Anonymous No.10385621]

I am miserable and a fucking idiot and my classes make me feel stupid

[Anonymous No.10385683]

>>10385621
first year? that's the hardest year. it's essentially a weeder, to get rid of admissions mistakes. hang in there!

[Anonymous No.10385685]

>>10385299
You go on pubmed and search some keywords in the search tab

[Anonymous No.10385721]

>>10385683
Yeah first year. Math PhD. Somehow my advisor got fooled into thinking I'm talented and capable of something so he's been very encouraging but everything feels so depressing and all my classes feel intellectually belittling.

[Anonymous No.10386529]

>>10384695
>>10384823
>>10384848
>>10384940
>>10385316
dammit I knew it

[Anonymous No.10386854]

How difficult is it to get a PhD from a top tier American or British university if you attended a lesser known University?

Assume good grades, two bachelor's (not double major but literally two degrees) and a master's. No research experience as there are no opportunities in my country.

[Anonymous No.10386922]

>>10386854
The name of your undergrad uni isn't (or at least shouldn't be) much of a factor.

However, the lack of research experience will be.

Also, within "top" universities there are varying qualities of research groups, so there is that to consider.

[Anonymous No.10387082]

>>10386854
i think the name of the undergrad hardly matters in grad school admission. At least, for entry to grad school in the US from an undergrad in the US. International students are given less preference.

[Anonymous No.10387130]

>>10382977
Perhaps, but in terms of promotion and higher management roles, the PhD becomes a type of weed filter. I imagine if you are a unicorn with a masters things may play differently, but you may be mistaken if companies are not going to observe some sort of pedigree on the average.

[Anonymous No.10387135]

>>10384695
I wish this was true. I don't have a huge sample size to judge on though. Maybe mentioning the PhD will help rouse some interest, but otherwise you'll be judged by your autism levels.

[Anonymous No.10387234]

>>10387135
>fat
>ugly
>lazy brainlet
>and prolly too autistic to get into a PhD program in the first place
Fuck.

[Anonymous No.10388656]

>>10385621
>>10385721
It's like the Dunning-Kruger effect on the higher end: once you realize the vastness of human knowledge and that you can't possibly know it all you will inevitably feel stupid.

[Anonymous No.10388917]

>>10388656
it's unironically part of dunning kruger
the task is easy for them, so they think it is easy for everyone

[Anonymous No.10389069]

>>10388917
The reverse dumb kraut effect

[Anonymous No.10389420]

>Be me, EU phd in bio engineering started in 4 month ago, no results so far
>teacher ask some things but does not uses them, just put task on hold
>most of them are related to the previous phd student who did not finish his thesis
>possible conf in japan
>the whole team goes
>head director say he can pay for the part of the trip
>have fund for travel so we can pay the whole trip
>supervisor say my phd topic is not close enough to the conf (to me it is)
>what do, is it possible that your supervisor is just a cunt and uses you for it s own purpose
>what do, how can I prove it ?

[Anonymous No.10389432]

>>10389420
>ruining the relation with your advisor over a conference trip

[Anonymous No.10389445]

>>10389420
>lightbulb.gif
>you were the cunt all along

[Anonymous No.10389449]

>>10389432
I am not necessary mad at him, I somehow anticipated this, but I start to observe a trend here.
When we come to a decision, I would like to go in one direction, and he take the cheapest one.
During interview, we did talk about make building experiments in lab and things like that, then I came up with the project with the protocol and everything , he said I wont give you money to do that, lets see in a year, do some simulation....
Anyway, he wont be at uni for 2 weeks because he will be go to the conference... So I ll take a week of holidays or something like that, I might go hiking or idk yet :D

[Anonymous No.10389451]

>>10389445
maybe haha

[Anonymous No.10389455]

>>10389449
You're 4 months into your PhD, I wouldn't give you money either, I doubt you have the overview to estimate risk and costs. If you want anything but the cheapest you have to justify it and it seems you are quite bad at this.

[Anonymous No.10389475]

>>10389445
>>10389455
I was not sure, but ok thx, a supervisor cannot be wrong, feels good to know that :)

I do not knw about my mental health in 2 year but, at least gives a direction

[Anonymous No.10389490]

https://theindividual21.blogspot.com/

this guy has a Phd

[Anonymous No.10389523]

>>10389490
hello, can you pls go back to >>>/x/

[Anonymous No.10389536]

>>10360265
>graduated last year
>got job teaching (no research)
>havent touched research that my adviser wanted me to do for like 7 months now

It doesn't get better, ever.

[Anonymous No.10389542]

>>10389523
I'm not the author though.

[Anonymous No.10389560]

>>10389420
>yurop
>4 months into a PhD
>gib me the gib gibs
Fuck off jew

[Anonymous No.10389604]

>>10389560
I have 500p allowd for travell, it is in the contract (you fag), and head director of the dept says he can complete.
I aint jew, I am just trying to understand, if they want to build a f ing team, why left me behind thats all !
I wanted to know, do you guys have find any similar circonstances.
I though phd students helped each other, if they do not, I redefines the rules and it is as effortless to ruin someone or help someone i do not care a lot about that I just want a set of rules, to determine my behavior, and to do that I need data, thats all.
Maybe I did not explain properly (or maybe I did not ask the good person).

[Anonymous No.10389616]

>>10389604
Are you by any chance from Asia or female?

[Anonymous No.10389646]

>>10389604
Need to know the country at least. But in general, you are fucked.

[Anonymous No.10389681]

>>10389616
none of those, your std white male that you can hate freely ;)
>>10389646
the southern part of the northern country of yurop that might leave in few weeks

But does it matter, at some point ?

[Anonymous No.10389702]

>>10389681
I got my PhD from one of the better unis there. Standards are totally arbitrary, so just be a good PhD student. Remember you're a newfag in this world and need to lurk moar.

[Anonymous No.10389732]

>>10389702
thats what I though, the eternal newfag felling... aargh, head down until I get some result I guess :D

[Anonymous No.10390083]

>>10389732
You write like you're a retarded brainlet mate, no wonder they didn't want you on the trip.

[Anonymous No.10390086]

>>10389604
>>10389681
>absolute shiesty cunt

[Anonymous No.10390090]

I am struggling with homework problems in my commutative algebra class, feel like I know absolutely nothing, lack the spare time to dedicate to improving this deficiency, and I feel like I’m too stupid for a PhD and I want to fucking die.

[Anonymous No.10390135]

>>10390090
Hang in there mate. You can do this. Take things slow and steady.
>Take lots of breaks and know that some faggy anime board online has a thread filled with viscous vipers who for some weird reason have a tiny bit of humanity left in them and are rooting for the underdogs like you(and themselves)

[Anonymous No.10390140]

>>10390083
>4chan being 4chan

>>10390086
cheers m8

>>10390090
looking for usefull help on 4chan ... good luck with that.
Yesterday, someone in my office wrote a code to make a from 1 to 100 with few numbers off.
He literally wrote the entire list instead of using a for loop...

[Anonymous No.10390151]

>>10389449
>So I ll take a week of holidays or something like that, I might go hiking or idk yet :D
if you have to be babysat by your supervisor just to make sure you even show up to work, I think you should reconsider how much money you really deserve just because you want it.

[Anonymous No.10390156]

>>10389449
Dude you probably aren't right for a PhD. I'm not trying to be mean here but honestly if what you said is all true and you reacted the way you did, you probably don't have the faculty for reason required for a PhD.
>then again you're probably a high school kid larping as a scholars with your aw shucks made up uni problems

[Anonymous No.10390400]

>>10390156
obviously i did not reacted that way, I just did not say a word, and observe.
This, was my first thinking about it (primitive one can say).

>>10390151
about baby sitting, we have weekly meeting, previous intership was every 2 weeks and previous again was daily.
It is just a childish behavior I would say

>how much money you really deserve
I do not deserve it is in my contract, I can use it are it can be wasted ?

[Anonymous No.10390407]

>>10390400
***I can use it or it will be wasted

Anyway, thx to few ones who answerd, it feels like I am over thinking this

[Anonymous No.10390910]

>>10390400
Are you ESL? I'm feeling a definite communication problem here and I want to know if that's related to your mental faculties or just a language barrier.

[Anonymous No.10390971]

>>10361369
Is there a way I could do this without being PhD student, I already teach myself most things anyway

[Anonymous No.10391206]

>>10389536
If research isn't really your goal, why do you care?

[Anonymous No.10391212]

>>10390971
Not exactly, unless you work in a research environment with other doctors with a solid record in research. Even then, you would not have passed the implicit pruning and self-growth process that is a PhD.

[Anonymous No.10391395]

>>10365652
congratulations anon
you must be doing something right

[Anonymous No.10391398]

>>10370013
you stole that from gwern

[Anonymous No.10391692]

>>10389420
>>10389604
>>10389681
>>10390400
>ITT a high school retard larps as a peeechdee
>rest of sci looses its mind telling him he's a retard
Sigh, another day at 4channel