

Things I learnt during, and about, my PhD - hopeless
http://jamie.ideasasylum.com/2008/07/things-i-learnt-during-and-about-my-phd/

======
yummyfajitas
Ok, I think I can condense this to one sentence:

 _If your adviser is an asshole, you probably won't graduate and your grad
school experience will suck. Don't._

If you want to get a Ph.D. and do research, pick your adviser very carefully.
It is the _most important decision_ of your research career. Grad school isn't
like school, it's an apprenticeship.

Pick your adviser (the person you are apprenticed to) on two factors: the
success of their past students and how compatible you are personally with
them. Their field should be peripherally related to yours, it doesn't have to
be very close (1).

I had a great experience in grad school. I also had two great advisers.

(1) My advisers study scattering theory and complex variables. My Ph.D. was in
computational physics. It wasn't a serious problem.

~~~
timr
That's a bit like saying that you should pick your parents wisely. (Or
perhaps, that you should pick your wife carefully -- but you only get three
dates to decide!) It's wonderful advice...in retrospect.

The problem is, you can't judge anything _useful_ about your adviser in the
time that you have to do it. For those who don't know, at a good school,
you'll get a "rotation" (a quarter/semester "working" in your prospective
adviser's group), after which you'll have to decide their suitability as a
mentor for _years_ of challenging work. If you're lucky, you make a good
decision, and grad school is happy. If you're _lucky_.

That said...there are plenty of other ways to go wrong. Your adviser is a big
part of the success formula, but not the only part. Not by a long shot.

I'm happy that you had a good experience with your adviser, but I know enough
miserable grad students to know that it isn't the norm. Personally, this guy's
essay hit _way_ too close to home....

~~~
yummyfajitas
There is useful information about advisers. Perhaps not as much as is
desirable, but certainly enough to avoid making bad choices. Very important:
what happened to their old students?

My adviser: all students got academic jobs (some multiple offers) and finished
in 5 years (5 years from B.S. to Ph.D. is normal for math). The most recent
student, with whom I had overlap, said he rocked.

Another adviser I considered: fastest student took 6 years. One student took
9.5 years, and told everyone "pick a different adviser". Several never
graduated. I scratched him off my list.

As for the "three dates", it's not optimal, but you can eliminate some bad
choices. If the guy forgets to show up for "date #2"? He'll probably do that a
lot. He probably doesn't care. One guy (perfectly decent fellow) was very
formal, which doesn't really work for me. Several women students mentioned to
me they want someone encouraging. The point of the meetings is to judge
whether your personalities are compatible.

There is information out there, but lots of people don't actively seek it out.
Then they become miserable grad students. One guy in my year ignored the
advice of "9.5 years", and went on to become a miserable grad student (and now
a happy actuary with an M.S.).

I had a fantastic adviser, which might have been luck. I had an adviser who
didn't suck, which was the result of good choices.

~~~
mechanical_fish
_My adviser: all students got academic jobs (some multiple offers) and
finished in 5 years (5 years from B.S. to Ph.D. is normal for math). The most
recent student, with whom I had overlap, said he rocked._

Okay, great! I feel confident in recommending your advice: If you want an
academic job _and_ can find an adviser like this, go to grad school.
Otherwise, do not go.

Of course, if everyone followed this advice I think you might be able to fit
all the world's grad students in a high school classroom, because _your
adviser was freakishly good_.

How does the funding work in the math department? Lots of the theorists I knew
seemed to be TAs almost until the day they graduated -- and in their field,
unlike the experimental sciences, salary seemed to be a major fraction of the
expense of keeping a grad student. In the experimental wing, where it can cost
hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to keep (e.g.) a genetics student
stocked with reagents, the whole problem of adviser choice has an additional,
frustrating degree of freedom: If your adviser doesn't have money to hire you,
it doesn't matter that she's the greatest person in the world.

It might be possible to find someone who scores highly on the flush-with-cash
axis, the graduates-students-on-time axis, the good-reputation-in-field axis,
the track-record-of-successful-students axis _and_ the provides-useful-
research-advice axis... but such folks have their pick of grad student talent,
and once they're done the other students have to pick among the remaining
advisers, balancing the various factors and hoping to get lucky. Or, of
course, they can quit, which is probably a better idea, though it is hard to
make yourself do it once you've gone that far.

One overwhelmingly useful thing is to have independent funding. I had a
fellowship and I cannot overstate how helpful it was -- I was able to shop for
advisers in situations where my fellow students felt trapped by financial
realities. If you find yourself headed for grad school, apply for every
fellowship you can.

------
greendestiny
The worst thing about a PhD for me was the artificial size of it. A really
good PhD is probably a natural series of ideas that spin off from a single
theme - but in my case it was a single idea excessively dragged out. Smaller,
quicker iteration on ideas is so much more satisfying and better for
creativity.

I kind of hope that more people fill their 'do something creative' niche with
startups in the future. Its more satisfying, not least because other people
caring about what you do is _essential_ for a startup.

------
antiform
The one thing that I failed to find in the article was a clear and concrete
reason that he wanted to get a Ph.D. I don't think anybody should get a Ph.D.
to "get some ideas off [their] chest." You don't need a degree to give you
permission to build cool stuff.

Also, I wonder where he went to school, because at every school I've been to,
there have always been many resources to go to for support. You could always
talk shop with more seasoned graduate students for honest advice on classes,
advisors, or places to work outside the office. If you want books, there are
many books available devoted to advice on how to finish your dissertation,
find a research topic, or manage your time. Even for magazines, the Chronicle
of Higher Education has articles and advice for the burgeoning and established
academic. Yes, you have to do most of the research and your dissertation won't
write itself, but it doesn't have to be one man fighting the academic windmill
alone.

------
kenver
I enjoyed my PhD right up until near the end, supervisors from my experience
aren't as bad as the guy in this made out, mine were very helpful.

The only time I stopped enjoying my PhD was in my last year when I had to
totally focus on one small niche and that got a bit boring.

Looking back I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to stay in academia
afterwards, or if you're really interested in the tiny area you will
inevitably focus on.

Anyway I submit in two weeks and the experience has shown my that I need to go
commercial. Then I can enjoy playing about with whatever I like in my own time
for fun!

------
RK
_The stipends available to a PhD student are actually very good, especially if
you’ve come directly from the pasta & baked bean-eating life of an
undergraduate._

Things must be better in Ireland than in the US with regard to grad student
funding. Some of my friends get paid $1000/month as physics and engineering
PhD students.

~~~
jhayes
Sister's doing a PhD here (or there rather, from your POV). Back of the
envelope calculation, she'd be earning roughly 10% more than the minimum wage
if you view a PhD as a 36 hours/week job (I wouldn't).

Pretty sure that that's close to the norm for PhD pay though.

(Sorry, no hard figures to compare, due to a feeling that I shouldn't discuss
someone else's financial situation candidly online, even if details probably
just a google away).

------
signa11
obligatory: <http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1040>

~~~
Anon84
But, but... what happens when the Professor _IS_ a Ninja?

