/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.4317744]

sup /sci/

Ask someone who just started a PhD in a pretty decent university, has a completely free ride, but has spent the entirety of his first semester watching Full Metal Alchemist, anything.

Your tax money at work.

[Rebirth !NuJBxbKoek No.4317745]

what're you studying

and

is FMA a good series? i was thinking of getting into it.

[Anonymous No.4317749]

>>4317745
Applied Physics and it's fucking awesome. It's all on netflix too.

[Rebirth !NuJBxbKoek No.4317756]

>>4317749

sweet.

what'd you do besides watch FMA? any research?

[Anonymous No.4317770]

i may be wrong... but all PhD students have a full ride. unless you aren't doing research or teaching (somehow...)

[CereBRO !BRAINgGMPA No.4317774]

>>4317744
>implying I pay taxes

[Anonymous No.4317780]

>>4317770


this is typically true, however its a naive way of putting it.


someone is paying. its either the government/private companies in the form of research grants/scholarships given directly to the student or to the professor for the support of a particular student, or to the professor to support whomever/whatever they want.

private schools sometimes offer support for students, public schools rarely do.


private school tuition is typically much higher than public school tuition, which is kind of an incentive to researchers to come and work at a public school.


if a graduate student tuition is $20,000 per year, and the student is receiving $10,000 per year in scholarships and grants, the professor would be stupid to instead move to University of Pennsylvania where the tution for a graduate student is more like $50,000 per year.


the next issue is salary to pay for food, rent, and electricity at the home where the graduate student never spends any time at.


typically a TA salary is the way this works, but that is not always the case (because there isnt always space). worst possible scenario which sometimes happens with really poor research groups is that the graduate student actually gets a 2nd job, typically just some shitty low wage part time job that pays the bare minimum.

I have seen it happen, but only in 1 case and it only lasted 1 year.

best case scenario, the boss has boat loads of money and he can pay you an RA salary so 100% of your time is devoted to doing research and you never teach.

[Anonymous No.4317786]

>>4317780


the other thing is that private schools typically offer a different arrangement in terms of lab space than do public schools.

this is surprising but a professor at a public school must typically RENT lab space from the university

they are usually given an office for themselves and for their graduate students, and sometimes they are given a "token" small lab (its typically fucking tiny)

that would only be used if the research group is just starting out, and sill working on their startup grant, which is money given to a new professor who is starting out and is used to get their research rolling, after which they are expected to beg for money from the government.


any extra lab space beyond basically a closet costs the professor some of their grant money.

instrument usage costs money

DI water costs money, electricity costs money, use of the schools' liquid nitrogen costs money, etc.


private schools will often give the lab space free of charge, and possibly even the use of the instruments as well.

the downside is that private school tuition is so much higher, that the costs are merely offset.

instead of paying $20,000 per year for a graduate student and maybe $20,000 worth of materials, space, and fees per year for that gradauate student's research project, a private school just charges $40-50k per year in tuition.
anyway, all of that sounds grim, but its not.


science and engineering academic research NEEDS students to do work. They are the technicians.


they want you to go. most poeple (like 90%) don't have to worry about money other than applying for grants and scholarships every year.

you will always be required to do that.

[Anonymous No.4317787]

OP here,

I'm an RA and my advisor has a shit ton of money from NSF. I'm not doing absolutely anything (other than attending classes). I get $1700 a month to attend classes and watch FMA.

This is the life motherfuckers.

[Anonymous No.4317795]

>>4317787
>$1700 a month
Reported for being a poorfag

[Anonymous No.4317961]

Congrats bro, I'm glad you are happy.

There is no way I would ever want to spend that amount of time at a University though.