How old is 'too old' for graduate school?

How old is 'too old' for graduate school?

I know must people say 'never', the same answer if a person were to ask if they are too old for college, but this doesn't change the fact that after some age it being there can become rather awkward due to the possible relation with peers at work.

I want to do a PhD, possibly in neuroscience, although I come from a more general field since my master's degree was in cognitive science, with emphasis on cognitive neuroscience.
The downside is my age, I'm 28 y/o.

I've been reading the board for a while and I think most people here are undergraduates and very young. Are there any old people in graduate school with similar experiences?

I've asked professors before and nearly all of them say in your 40s.

not OP, but i was wondering i hear this meme that your best scientific/mathematical discoveries will be made from age 20-25, after that you're just working on minor additions to your main discoveries.

Is there any truth to this?

This dude's pretty much on the mark. Grad school is sort of a shit show in terms of age and no one really notices up to a point. People in my department go from 19 to mid 30s. Depending on the field and school, some people can stay in school for 7 or so years (longest of heard of was 14). So even if people come in young, they usually don't leave that way. Since grad school is like prison, the only two days that matter are the first and last. So on the first day/week, you'll feel like and old fuck. After that, you just blend in with all the other old miserable fucks.

>How old is "too old" for graduate school
Why are you asking this question? You're choosing to specialize in a field that greatly interests you. Age doesn't matter as much as your interest
>tbqh senpai, I would say 40s

No. It's a dangerous myth that has been going on since Hardy's "A Mathematician's Apology".
Wiles finished his proof of FLT when he was close to 40, the same applies to Perelman and the Poincare Conjecture.

Most notably, Weierstrass, was in his 40's when he got his PhD; his age didn't stop him to become "the father of modern analysis."

Wiles was 33. Perelman was 36. The reason the Fields medal has an age limit is to avoid falling into the trap of becoming a lifetime achievement award. Like muscles, the brain has its prime years. Nowhere is this more apparent than in math.

The father of modern analysis may have gotten his PhD in his 40s, but the father of modern algebra died at age 20.

>The reason the Fields medal has an age limit is to avoid falling into the trap of becoming a lifetime achievement award.
it shouldn't matter the age of the achievement

> The downside is my age, I'm 28 y/o.

LOL give me a break! 28 is just about the median age for grad school, even Masters degrees.

I went when I was 31 and was barely about the average.

What are they teaching people these days, that they think they have to conquer the world by the age of 30?? Life doesn't even BEGIN until 30.

I was told that if you want to do a PhD, you have to do it in your early twenties. Later life gets in the way.

It does. Good luck buying a house/car or raising a child on a graduate stipend. It definitely puts life on hold.

college is free here
but still, later in life we do not have as much time as when we were younger

>Like muscles, the brain has its prime years
This is getting proven wrong. For some reason the brain doesn't age in the way you think. Usually if you're stupider as you get older then you either were stupid from the beginning or you're going through early stages of some brain degenerative disease. There's been talks to increase the age limit of the fields medal to 60.

It depends of the kind of life you lead. I read somewhere that brain scans showed that people who practiced meditation for several years had the brain of a twenty-something y/o in their old life.
Meditation, at least in the Vipassana tradition, is essentially a focus exercise. I wonder if other activities that required sustained focus have the same effect on the brain.

Quora is probably a better place for this answer.

You should look at Barry Rountree's answers. He actually doesn't recommend starting a PhD until you are 30 unless you want to be dean or something. He started his at age 37 or so and works at a national lab now.

I'm biased in this recommendation, however. I know him well.

PhD are often meant for the person to become a professor or work in some government capacity as an expert. In certain fields this can help you get jobs in think tanks. In reality an undergrad degree is enough. Masters is for some jobs or personal enrichment. Average PhD is 35 if I remember. Physics is 29 and increasing. So 30 is dead on. Studies have shown that the brain fully developed at 29-32. The old adage of the brain being developed at 18 is based on bad science. Most people on this board are in their early 20s and your frontal lobe hasn't finished developing. This part doesn't stop growing until the age of 28-29. Which is why somehow you magically become "mature" and look back to your youth by saying "how stupid was I".

Interesting stuff.

Wish I had discussed this before applying. PhD school here I come!

What are studying? The whole get it before 30 is retarded. Most college grads even those with great publishing records don't know what they want in life before 30. It smart to start at 30, if you want to get a PhD. Regardless of field; except women studies. I rather get a PhD in fucking history than women/gender studies. Get a PhD in history and go teach aboard to wealthy families.

most of my lab is 30+ years old. I'm 22 along with 1 other guy. you're more than fine. they're all married, one has a kid, others are engaged or have gfs

>they're all married, one has a kid, others are engaged or have gfs
Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

good to see a fellow memester at work ;) (;

I would meme again 10/10. What are your studying?

>I was told that if you want to do a PhD, you have to do it in your early twenties. Later life gets in the way.

I wouldn't agree with this statement completely -- I don't think you have to do your PhD in your early-20s -- but the point is salient. I would say that it does get harder to go back to graduate school with each additional year you're out in "the real world".

In biomedical research, programs tend to vary with regards to the student they'll recruit: some prefer 21- and 22-year-olds just out of undergrad; others prefer mid- to late-20s students with several years post-undergraduate research experience. It's really not all that uncommon to see a grad students in their 30s who have worked in industry with a BS or MS, hit a ceiling, then come back to get a PhD. But, by their 40s, it seems that most people have found their path and are sticking to the course.

Who cares, what if you just want to learn something more than what is available in a nontraditional format? If you have the means and the time you should just do it.

28 is extremely young, especially given what the future hold.

I feel you though, I felt old for a while and I'm only 22.

Starting mine now, will be 28 years old in january.
I don't feel old at all desu, I wouldn't worry about it. Gonna work on neuroscience too (but from a comp sci perspective)

My summer project supervisor did his Phd at the age of 30 or something like that so don't worry about it.

>Talking about great Mathematicians
Man, those people liked to talk about it being a young man's game because they were all so young when they started. What does it matter?

You felt old for grad school at 22? Isn't that exactly the right age for a typical new Bachelor's graduate?