78124781 (u/78124781)

78124781 commented on PhD Simulator research.wmz.ninja/projec... · Posted by u/Smith42

lumost · 2 years ago

It really makes you wonder if the university should just have a mechanism to "fire" a grad student rather than pretending that these events aren't simply a mechanism to "fire" someone because they didn't pass X hurdle.

If the advisors can vouch for, or strike a student regardless of their qual performance - then why not simply have an end of year performance review?

78124781 · 2 years ago

Most depts do have some kind of official review, but it's more of a formality. I think they're also concerned about how students would react if they suggest that academia isn't for them directly. So instead they resort to more passive-aggressive or arbitrary measures.

On the other hand, not all departments are good fits with students and there's a very wide asymmetry in information between many new students and programs, even if you "do your research" beforehand, given just how specialized these disciplines are at a high level. It would be nice if transferring programs was made easier and if more departments would just agree to help students "master out" and look for jobs rather than discard them like roadkill.

78124781 commented on PhD Simulator research.wmz.ninja/projec... · Posted by u/Smith42

PakG1 · 2 years ago

This emphasizes how much you need to know before you even get into a program. If you don't know that much, you NEED those classes to just catch up to your peers as to understanding what the world even says about various things at a foundational level. The weight is so much easier to carry if you go in with a certain level of knowledge so that you can slack in classes if you need to rest.

78124781 · 2 years ago

This. Most grad school classes are poorly taught and the professors indifferent or discouraging to actually helping you learn. PhD students are assumed to be capable of learning these things on their own or already knowing them. If you are encountering things for the first time, you'll likely be behind.

In contrast, if you come in mostly ready to go and these classes are just refreshers, you can spend time in that class working on actual research and impressing the prof as well as not panicking if/when you realize you don't understand what's going on.

78124781 commented on PhD Simulator research.wmz.ninja/projec... · Posted by u/Smith42

gorjusborg · 2 years ago

Interesting that you point out the symmetry between pursuing education and entrepreneurship.

One of the tough things about the education route is that winning at entrepreneurship can result in huge tangible life changes, but it seems like the effects of winning at education is harder to visualize.

I get to put PhD after my name, but what else?

78124781 · 2 years ago

I actually really like the analogy. You are running a "business" of ideas. You are competing against a lot of other very smart people who are also trying to start their own ideas business and competing for a very limited pool of support (funding, postdocs, tenure-track jobs, etc.). The professors you are trying to impress in grad school are "investors" and having their imprimatur on your business will help in both advice and in obtaining more funding and convincing others that your business is worth supporting.

If you can run a successful ideas business for 10+ years in multiple locations and convince several gauntlets of committees to keep supporting you, then there's a great deal at the end for choosing this education route--your business gets a significant degree of permanent support and protection (tenure)! But to get to that point, you have to sell your ideas and develop a product that will get buy-in and support from others in your field.

There are no limits on how hard or how much you can work. There are also no guarantees that working hard will pay off either. There's a lot of luck and sometimes the market just isn't buying what you're selling at that time, even if your product is great.

78124781 commented on PhD Simulator research.wmz.ninja/projec... · Posted by u/Smith42

hattmall · 2 years ago

A teaching university and not a research university. You can / will still do some research but your job is teaching students not doing research. The pay is generally better, but of course, you will have to actually teach a lot and have a lot of office hours. Maybe once every few years you can work out a research semester. The initial pay is better but less so the opportunities for advancement as you won't be publishing much. That makes it harder to differentiate on anything other than time.

78124781 · 2 years ago

I'm not sure the salaries are better. Most R1s are now offering 90-120k starting in my field, but regional teaching Us start around 50-60k, with liberal arts colleges in the 50-80k range.

The point about the lack of opportunities for advancement/moving due to the course preps and teaching taking up your time is very true. While your friends at R1s are on pre-tenure sabbaticals, getting course buyouts, and teaching a nice grad seminar for a semester, you might be doing 3-4 new preps a year and likely getting piled with service work.

78124781 commented on PhD Simulator research.wmz.ninja/projec... · Posted by u/Smith42

chias · 2 years ago

One dynamic I experienced that also isn't in the simulation: if you focus too much on classwork early on in order to pass your RPE, it can actually be hard to find an advisor. Classwork is basically dead-end work and the more you focus on it the less you have to show for yourself when trying to convince an advisor to work with you. Your goal should be to optimize for doing just well enough to pass your classwork.

Also, random catalysmic events, like in year 4 your advisor accepts a job at a different university in another state.

78124781 · 2 years ago

Generally, the focus here should be on: 1) Not bombing any classes (i.e. A/A- in all, maybe a B+ in one; a B or below is failing) 2) Doing very good work and trying to write an original paper for professors that you want to work with while doing just enough to get by in other classes [this is in part how you figure out who you want to work with] 3) Being good enough with the literature to pass the comprehensive exams (or, as another comment points out, have some kind of protection from a sponsor; it is not uncommon to have profs use comps as a chance to take out students they don't like for various reasons, even as small as "they do X field, which I don't like" or "they work with Y, who really gets on my nerves).

Of course there's plenty of additional ways to derail this as well, including advisor moving, advisor getting into a fight with the rest of the department, advisor giving poor advice, advisor deciding that they don't like you, etc.

78124781 commented on “How is your thesis going?” Students’ perspectives on mental health and stress journals.plos.org/plosone... · Posted by u/luplex

peachypeach · 2 years ago

Honestly it really just seems like the world’s PhD programs are designed to ritually haze students and sort them into academic society based on unsustainable and barely acceptable expectations. I do not have a PhD but all my friends who do (save one) have expressed that they would rather have done something else with the time and resources it took to get theirs. Really sad. My cousin is a Psych professor at an Ivy League and he says that in his first class of the semester he tells everyone getting PhDs they will likely be taking antidepressants by the time they finish -and- that probably all of their professors are already taking them. Chilling honestly.

78124781 · 2 years ago

"Honestly it really just seems like the world’s PhD programs are designed to ritually haze students and sort them into academic society based on unsustainable and barely acceptable expectations." This is accurate. It's very hard to explain to people who haven't been through a PhD program the kinds of expectations that are placed on students (example: highly influential profs telling an incoming cohort that their expectations were "all of you should get a top-20 job"). Those who do not "make it" are spoken of in hushed tones as if they died and even those who go on to great industry jobs are considered failures of some degree.

Many of those who "make it" and get those vaunted prestigious TT jobs are also desperately depressed in many cases (at least up through getting tenure, but even afterward the whole experience seems scarring). This seems to select for incredibly dedicated and usually quite intelligent, but also very obsessive and emotionally fragile people to finally make it through into permanent employment in academia. They then often have similar expectations for their grad students to do the same as they did, even if they claim on social media to be "caring" and such.

78124781 commented on Adversarial Collaboration Project web.sas.upenn.edu/adcolla... · Posted by u/sebg

78124781 · 2 years ago

Some of the most interesting recent academic work has come out of adversarial collaborations, e.g. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/152910062311631...

The list of research projects on this website looks fascinating. Hope that these kinds of projects continue to get funded.

78124781 commented on Bay Area woman is on a crusade to prove Yelp reviews can’t be trusted sfgate.com/tech/article/y... · Posted by u/gnicholas

arbuge · 2 years ago

While on the subject, are there any review sites anywhere, not just for locations but also of products, that can be trusted?

It seems to me that all of them can be and actively are gamed.

Googling using the extension site:reddit.com caught on for a reason.

78124781 · 2 years ago

I keep seeing people swear by the NY Times' Wirecutter and they do have a much more upfront set of standards for reviewing products, but I've actually been pretty underwhelmed by the recommended buys from them. Still, I respect that they're trying. Wish that Consumer Reports was more easily available now too.

78124781 commented on Bay Area woman is on a crusade to prove Yelp reviews can’t be trusted sfgate.com/tech/article/y... · Posted by u/gnicholas

schnable · 2 years ago

It surprisingly has up to date content where I live, and generally anything 4+ stars is good and below 3 stars is not too good. The individual reviews are usually not useful, but looking at patterns and trends of recent reviews can be useful if you know how to filter out the obvious BS and one-off overreactions.

The problem is a real lack of reviews for smaller places, especially outside the downtown area. Google Maps has more content there.

78124781 · 2 years ago

I agree, though the other issue for smaller places is that they are more susceptible to review-bombing by one disgruntled party (do we really need 6 reviews from 6 different people about how the same table had to wait an hour to get the check one time?) or "5 stars for 30% off" incentives (which I have unfortunately seen a number of, especially at small businesses trying to distinguish themselves).

Google Maps I still don't understand where they get a lot of reviews from in the first place. While some look like normal reviews, there's a lot that have no comments at all or comments completely unrelated to the place ostensibly being reviewed (or just cryptic things like "not good" or "good"). It's not a bad comparison to use alongside Yelp, but it's definitely led to more clunkers, especially for places with n<20 reviews.