/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.14778005]

>"all of our PhD positions are fully funded"
>"we provided a generous stipend of $18,500 per year"

So if you want to add to a field as a PhD you have to be born rich? Or do people live off debt for 8-12 years (undergrad+ PhD)? Do they not understand that this doesn't even cover sharing a cramped apartment and eating rice and lentils for every meal after they hit you with the health insurance premium? Do they realize McDonald's is in many areas paying twice this?

Why are teaching stipends so shit? If you're teaching 30 students who are paying on average $10,000 a semester for 5 classes on average, that should be $60,000 for that class. I get there is overhead, but if they pay the instructor $3,000, as places do, that's 95% overhead. I make more currently teaching community college than a bunch of top end programs give for teaching.

How does anyone with a family ever do these? Maybe they don't. It's over, isn't it?

[Anonymous No.14778029]

>>14778005
PhD/Postdoc grind has got to be one of the most obvious goyslave debttraps in the entire United States. You go to college for 8-10 years (Undergrad + PhD), then spend multiple years grinding away at the poverty level for the miniscule chance of a tenure track position, where at the peak of your career at 50 years old with no family you might finally make six figures for the first time in your life (Never mind the fact that people in the work force were doing that straight out of college or at least into their late 20's).

[Anonymous No.14778051]

>>14778005
>How does anyone with a family ever do these?
Assuming you're an American, welfare.

[Anonymous No.14778065]

>>14778005
>>14778029

Poor, angry, right wing incel detected. Maybe you should take personal responsibility for once in your life, and stop blaming all your problems on minorities and the government and the corporations like some schizo. Maybe you and your family should have been preparing and saving money ahead of time, but obviously you and your parents are too lazy and stupid to take the initiative. If that's the case, then you probably aren't the type of person who belongs in graduate school in the first place.

[Anonymous No.14778096]

>>14778005
I have mostly seen people just use their parents money to get through their MSc or PhDs. The ones who don't have parents money use whatever money they saved fron working for a few years, but still live like Vietnamese rice farmers. So yes, life is infinitely more comfy if you have some parental capital, and yes PhDs are getting fleeced on many levels. At least you are realizing how insane that value proposition is, because plenty of people just go headlong into things believing it will 'work itself out'.

I wouldn't say it is "over", but I think you have to be insane to accept the lifestyle most of these programs will give you (if you don't have daddy's money). You would be better served literally just taking some shitty industry job out of undergrad and hopping jobs every few years for the salary bumps. If you really need to contribute to the body of knowledge seriously think about it, because in reality you won't make a giant splash in the science world. More likely, you will do some ultra niche shit like crystallizing a frog liver protein or discovering that some gene is upregulated when you eat too much dim sum. Niche stuff is cool, but not many people can be satisfied by that

[Anonymous No.14778101]

>>14778065
This, but applied to spics and niggers.

[Anonymous No.14778118]

>>14778005
Just get a loan bro.

[Anonymous No.14778146]

>>14778051
Makes sense. Guy I know who did a neuroscience PhD had his family on expanded Medicare, WIC, and other food stamp programs while he was studying. Eventually seems to have made good money, although he went private sector before finishing due to the poverty wages and is ended up ABD.

Apparently some programs can be real dicks about letting you submit your dissertation after you are forced to leave to find work.

>>14778096
Yeah, but where do I get time to do research while working? I suppose I could cut back on hours at work and still make 7-8 times as much money, but being in a program gets you a lot of resources. Plus, no one will read your shit or offer any help without a credential. Plus my work would suck up 100% of my time if I let them.

There is a real dearth of good graduate level online classes too. I don't even mind them being expensive, it's more the pain of hitting arbitrary requirements. Like, "no, I didn't do my other degrees in electrical engineering. Yes I feel totally confident in my ability to take this graduate information theory course because I've already taught a good deal of it to myself, otherwise I wouldn't be paying for it."

The online programs are mostly cash cows anyhow, so IDK why they make it hard to get in. How many people who haven't taken the proper steps to prepare sign up for a random group theory class anyhow?

[Anonymous No.14778182]

>>14778005
The catch is, the PhD program itself costs like $50-70k/yr if you don't have funding so technically you're getting a $70k+ salary. You are also basically forced to accept this unless you are actually rich.

If you're in a technical or applied field, you will probably be working internships over summer or a couple semesters that will add up to a livable salary. It's definitely something that has to be done before starting a family though.

[Anonymous No.14778538]

>>14778182
>try to get a phd
>just work a summer job bucko, that's how I did it
>if you think about it you don't have to pay them, that's a real advantage son
maximum americano

[Anonymous No.14778599]

>>14778005
I get 36k a year.

[Anonymous No.14778646]

>>14778538
not a fucking summer job you illiterate nigger. an internship.

a phd level r&d internship at a tech company will get you $10k+ a month easily. do that for 3 months over summer and your income for the year is $48k. spend a regular semester there too and you have another $40k so you can spend the next year and a half on your dissertation.

obviously not an option in pure math or something where you're literally spending 5 years on a degree with little to no use for society but in any applied field it is a part of the calculations.

[Anonymous No.14778692]

>>14778146
>Guy I know who did a neuroscience PhD had his family on expanded Medicare, WIC, and other food stamp programs while he was studying
There's an ocean of gimmies up for grabs out there, and all you need to qualify for them is a SNAP card. And having children makes it very easy to qualify for a SNAP card. In a lot of states, your colleague would have been eligible for Medicaid for himself and his wife as well as their kids. You can get free school supplies. You can get free or deeply discounted admission to museums and zoos. You can get free Christmas presents for your kids donated by charity groups. And as long as you're willing to commute, you don't have to live in a ghetto for any of this. You can even be a homeowner, since your primary residence is an excluded asset for means testing.

[Anonymous No.14778751]

Help a retard out here. Is the stipend on top of funding for housing and tuition does the stipend go toward it.

[Anonymous No.14778758]

>>14778029
Yup. I did a PhD and a few rounds of postdoc contracts. Pay is the pits but I saw I could not get tenure, so I left for industry. The PhD skills have been useful in industry and I don't regret my career choices.

Just keep in mind that this route practically ensures you will be single for the rest of your life.

[Anonymous No.14778764]

>>14778751
You might also want to check out in >>>/sci/scg

[Anonymous No.14778802]

>>14778758
nah you just gotta find a girl who wants to move to a new random midwestern state every two years

[Anonymous No.14778980]

Yeah, PhD is near impossible if you have life. Anectodal, but I completed my masters in math with a thesis, and it satisfied my thirst. Already had a 6 figure job at the time and there was no way I could lose it as I had a family to feed.
The daily commute was bullshit,and if I had to it all over again I would try online. At no point in my studies from undergrad to finishing my masters did I ever feel the need for help from professors.
Total expense: $0, as I had the GI bill, so I could afford to get a degree in something I loved as opposed to something practical.

[Anonymous No.14779256]

>>14778980
What did you go into after after your math masters? gonna be in a similar situation soon

[Anonymous No.14779269]

>>14778005
I think the idea is you're supposed to publish books for money.

[Anonymous No.14779433]

How bad is just having a 4 years degree? (if it's bad at all)