This just confirms what every young person in academia knows: gotta get on uppers to be competitive.
My partner is a PhD candidate and at a recent party a postdoc was telling us how he acquired a giant crack rock at the beginning of his grad career and whenever he needed to finish a big assignment or something he would lick it.
This definitely seems like the more likely explanation. There certainly is a mental/emotional hell you go through in academia, but with this y-axis being specifically about psychiatric medication… all I’m seeing is that grad students like/need Adderall.
I was thinking more antidepressants and less Adderall
Are doctorate/grad school programs distinctly competitive? My impression was that they were more challenging but similar in nature to undergrad insofar as loads of coursework to stay on top of to complete courses and ensure you got some of the most expensive, “You endured it!” paperwork in the world.
Getting a. PhD isn’t super competitive (speaking from the US), but if you aim to get a professorship at an R1 it’s somewhat competitive across the board. The program coursework vs undergrad depends on the program too— I would say most differ somewhat substantially though. For most humanities degrees you’re doing coursework for 2-3 years and teaching undergrads while you prepare for qualifying exams, then you teach and write your thesis for a few more. The graduate courses are often in seminar (circle discussion) format rather than lecture.
Thanks for some detail! What you describe reassures me in my decision not to get further into it, particularly as a professor path seemed one of few traditional options with what I studied.
Yeah it’s not the best path for everyone, and some subject areas just don’t have enough teaching positions to reasonably expect to get one
Definitely not the same, at least in my experience. It differs by field, but in my field, grad programs basically have zero classes, and whatever classes there are are generally automatic A’s. In turn, the difficulty comes from the fact that you are basically in indentured servitude to your advisor, and there is no actual recourse for trivial things like “overwork” and “burnout.”
I know of people who did 70 hour work weeks, and for a period of time, I had to do that as well. Also, you get paid less than you would if you had just gotten a 40 hour per week job at a company.
Anyways, the advisor that you pick really makes or breaks your experience.
Depends on the program. Diploma mills for graduate degrees absolutely exist but many are extremely competitive.
It’s fucking terrible. I was on something by year 2…
Having a PhD is awesome. Getting one is awful.
Is the paper itself product of a PhD study?
Being dumb is being happy.
You can be dumb as rocks and still get a PhD. I’ve worked with some special “doctors”.
maybe it is the graduate students that are giving the phd’s programs depression
Millenial graduate students are ruining PHDs!
I’m staring at a PhD and genuinely considering it. I already have an M.S. and that was brutal. But my career stalled and nobody is hiring. Plus I hate myself. Should I do it?
I just want to do a cool project. I have no interest in academia, lol.
If it sounds interesting and other things just don’t I say go for it if you can get a funded position. Definitely ask other students before choosing an advisor so that you don’t get someone who is completely unavailable or a dick
Link anyone?
Partner has a phd. Can confirm she recommends no one ever do it.
She only finished it out of spite, so her paper work no longer has miss/Mrs and no relation to her marriage status.
