Ph.D?

>No I will not provide additional information
so you're lying

>Who here has or is pursuing a Ph.D
Third-year in biophysics PhD program. Passed candidacy exams this past spring.

>and when in your life did you decide you were going to pursue one?
Over time, towards the end of undergrad and into my gap years. (I jumped around a few lab tech jobs for some years after undergrad.) Realized I had things that I wanted to acheive in science, and if I was going to do what I wanted to do, a PhD was going to get me there.

I was a super poorfag who couldn't find a job living in a cramped apartment in nyc with my parents so I decided to enroll in a PhD program in cs for the stipend and the student housing.

I regret it.

why?

>so you're lying
lel

The information necessary to establish the truth of my previous post would also necessarily reveal my identity.

believe whatever you want to

what made you so sad my friend?

no additional info, bro

I want to do a PhD just to be called Dr. I picked CS so a PhD is useless but I'm going for it anyway

why are you still on this thread if you're just going to be saying that?

I'm in the beginning of my second year of a computational chemistry PhD.

I decided to do one after I couldn't get a job with just a BS for a year and going to grad school seemed to be my only option.

I don't know if I made a good decision, but I at least get enough from my stipend that I don't need to live with my parents anymore (although they do help me a bit with money) and I don't have to work too hard (at least not at this phase).

this isn't me

what actually happened, if you're really curious to find out, is that I got married and one year into my marriage my wife cucked me for some jolly african american causing my mental health to spiral out of control

Haha nice cuck meme bro

>computational chemistry
>and I don't have to work too hard (at least not at this phase).
And you never will anonfriend, you never will.

What do you get up to as a post-doc?

Both in and out of work.

>at work
The usual. Periods of lab work, longer periods of coding analyses and writing papers, occasional teaching and supervising interns.

>out of work
Spending time with the wife and kid, shitposting on 4chins, and I go bouldering when I get the chance, which isn't all that much these days.

>when did you decide
pretty much when I applied bc why not. couldn't find work otherwise and I had some ideas I wanted to work out that I knew I'd only have the time for in a graduate program.

>what happened
In my fourth year. Passed qualifying orals, but I'm being too perfectionist in doing revisions, so late on my qual paper. It's too long, so I'm chopping up bits which will be the qual and thesis respectively. Going to finally start submitting publications this year with thesis bits.

I have no idea if I will stay in academia. I proved the things I wanted to to be correct, but I have a feeling it will go ignored because of current trends in the field, and my work might be viewed simultaneously as too technical and too old guard (even tho its not). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ that's ok tho, I sort of fell into it and as long as I'm employed I don't mind if I fall out. Academia isn't that cool unless you can find people you like working with. I did what I wanted to do, and I'm a very good teacher, so hopefully something will come of that.

Because the field is easy, or becuase there's no work/jobs?

>almost everyone itt went to grad school because they couldn't find work after doing undergrad

the economy is going to collapse soon isn't it

Definitely had it in mind most of my life. When I got a chance to work with neuron machine interaction after talking a lot to a really cool professor I just went for it. Haven't regretted it, but I'm only a semester in.

Is it true one must have a master's degree to begin pursing a PhD in Germany?

If you were born after 1985, you're fucked.

It is decoming heavily specialized.

In 30-40 years, you'll probably need a PhD like you need a bachelor's degree to find entry-level work now.

4th year MD-PhD student here (so still far from finishing my PhD). To be frank it always seemed natural to me because both my parents are doctors (PhD father and MD mother), when I was a kid I thought it was the natural course of things.
When I got older I ended up serving in my country's military for 4 years, and I actually did some research there near the end of my service, it made me realize that at least for me, studying in an ivory tower and doing research that's not grounded in something practical wasn't going to do. My path was pretty short from there to looking for subjects that can combine academic research with something practical, and I ended up going with medicine since I felt it was the most interesting.

Not him, but personally most of the computational chemistry people I know moved to computational biology to find work, but that may just be their preference.

Yes. In most of Europe, actually.

sli.mg/Do0KNL

Do you know, is it possible to get MSTP if you already have a PhD?

Doesn't really exist in my country, but I'd still pick MD-PhD over it, at least for me. First of all, a combined MD-PhD should be shorter, since you are working on both degrees at the same time for some of the years. Now, everyone should see what suits them best, but I feel my medical knowledge has really helped my research, it's like a compass always guiding me in the right direction and giving me a lot of insight other people in my lab don't have. To be frank, I also found most of the things I studied in medicine to be a lot more exciting and interesting than most of what I do and study in the lab. Nothing beats that moment when you suddenly have a great idea or find some incredible result, but I really needed med-school to keep me motivated.

I'm currently in an undergrad engineering program. A business owner (who is an engineer himself with a masters) came and talked to us about opportunities in engineering and said that anything short of a masters right now is worthless. I imagine your forecast is actually a little slow if anything.

>and said that anything short of a masters right now is worthless.
sounds like bs. if anything a master's for most engineers is not worth trouble.

Ideally it would be, but I dislike the idea of separating my classroom and clinical years, as it tends to work in the US, by the duration of my PhD.

I'm pursuing it, decided when I was a kid. My father has one, and there was no way for me to let that fucking retard outdo me.

kek

Are the computational bio people in industry or academia or otherwise?

Am I the only one who thinks that we should account for bacteria as an aspect of physics. Like we just walk through a cloud of them all the time. IMO they are just as important as atoms.

>when
junior year college

>what in
chemistry / materials engineering. degree will be in chemistry but I do research in both areas under two different professors

>should I do a PhD?
if you have extremely strong mental health. I am slowly becoming an alcoholic and im 4 months in.

kek, that's pretty common, something about thinking too much doesn't sit well with apes.

>t. freud
don't bone your mom

I'm doing bsc in chem right now and not sure what to specialize in. Anything you'd recommend?

What I've heard is that medicinal chem is one of the best and materials one of the worst in terms of future prospects, any truth in that?

no no no no no

dont listen to them

go to any credible source like reddit/chemistry or chemjobber or anywhere else. believe me, i researched my ass off on this topic including mock job searches. organic synthesis will RUIN you and people keep falling for it over and over again. everyone does organic synthesis. it teaches you nothing but organic chem and NMR.

for example, I'm only 4 months in and I've learned how to handle air sensitive materials, schlenk lines, NMR, mass spec, CV, TGA, AND synthesis. its not drug synthesis, but my resume is going to look bitchin compared to an organic chemist.

if you do materials, do something applied like I am. if you really really want to make drugs, then do biochemistry or organic synth. but you have been warned. everyone does organic and you want to be a black sheep in this job market.

>applying for phd programs in socal for microbio, deadline Dec 1
>gre this Saturday
>finals for quarter a week after

Fuck brehs why am I being tested on arbitrary vocabulary

wat

I just took a look at the most recent "Daily Pump Trap" posts at Chemjobber and something like 70% of the jobs listed are either org synth or straight up pharma/medicinal

What about grad school is fucking you up?

I am planning on grad school for Chem.

Is it true Americans can pursue a PhD right after their bachelor's?

Yes

and guess where the majority of chem majors go? pharma. no one goes into materials or energy.

So the majority competes for a big pool of jobs and the minority competes for a small pool of jobs, right? Seems like a wash more than anything

ill try to explain what im feeling.

when I got here it was like a dream. literally. I was getting paid to do research, i was meeting a bunch of people who were cool and shared the same interests, i was still choosing a lab so professors were all bending over backwards for my attention. it was great.

now as a student Im my bosses bitch. if he doesnt think I did enough work this semester: I get kicked out. If I dont do well enough if my courses?: out. If i dont pass my candidacy exams: out. I work usually from 9 am to anywhere from 7 - 9 pm every day. that may be from my position between two labs, but im not sure. im still new remember. then Icome home and i have to do homework/prepare presentations/ read papers / sleep. then it starts all over again.

getting kicked out prematurely for me means not being able to pay the lease on my apartment. having to fly back home to a bunch of people who have been bragging about me to everyone they know. and worst of all, having to give up on the dreams i made for myself. i give my first presentation of my research next week so im terrified.

no one can predict the job market in the end, but pharma is notorious for laying people off when they stick around for too long. you are replaceable in organic synth, but you'll also find in grad school that A LOT of people dont want to do industry. they want to be professors. thats not my game.

kek'd

Isn't there a point of safety? As in, after a certain amount of time (passing quals maybe?) you are set in stone?

Did you chose a grad school that has a rep for being reasonable to students, unlike some that bring in fresh grads, cum on them, then kick them to the curb.

You made it in. And from the hubris of your folks, sounds like it is a prestigious place. Do you think your peers will take your to place? Do you think the school will discard you even after the 4 months they have invested in you? Who do you have to go to for all the stress you are feeling? Have you seen people get kicked out?

also materials was in high demand when I did my research. im banking on it staying that way. take my fuckin advice unless you know you love org synth. at the very least rotate through other labs in fields to see if it could be your thing. jesus. organic professors are known to break your back and give you a miserable time as well.

What do you think about organic electronics?

Meant for

passing quals pretty much means you're safe. there are still students that drop, but mainly because of external circumstances like depression or something. I dont know any student thats been fired after passing quals though.

i chose my school based
1) on research I wanted to do
2) rank compared to other schools I was accepted to
3) cost of living in the area

its a UC school. I dont understand the first question. its not up to the school, its up to my PI which depends on a great many factors im constantly stressing over. there are free psych services on campus you can seek counseling at. I have not seen anyone in my incoming class get kicked out, but i have seen students who take their qualifiers fail I have also heard of a 5th year student (last year normative time at this school) who just quit because they couldnt stand it anymore.

as far as the people who fail their qualifier, its mainly people who havent won over the professor they work under. if your own professor wont pass you its pretty much spelling doom for you. you are allowed to stay and join another lab or make another attempt at the qual, but if your professor denies you the first time they will usually just tell you "i dont want you here anymore and i will never pass you", and thats when you go home.

it all depends on what you are learning in grad school to be honest. if it is a materials project (which it sounds like) you will be learning a bunch of characterization techniques and synthesis and skills in general. thats good. just dont do straight up organic methodology or total synthesis. thats fucking retarded. im sorry. dont buy into the walter white meme.

Do you regret your decision to pursue what graduate studies?
Do things look promising in the near future?
Do you talk to the older students about this?

What did you do in undergrad that gave you the opportunity to go to a good grad school?

Thanks btw

no, but let the record state that i hesitated for a moment.

i dont know

yes. they pretty much see it as a job at this point. they dont want to stick around any longer for the most part. but at the same time they get autonomy over their research with a lot of the pressue to produce results lifted off their shoulders. so thats a major plus. I dont have that luxury at this point. I have to impress if I expect to stay.

grades arent all that important. my gpa was a mediocre 3.3. i did 2 years of research and got decent GRE scores. found leadership roles through organizations. I got an award for my research project and some money for it in undergrad.

im happy to keep answering questions.

>im happy to keep answering questions

cool!

What was your research project in undergrad?
What was your PI like in undergrad? How much research did you do a week?

Any girls or good friends in grad school?

Do you TA?

What were some of your favorite undergrad courses?

What is your favorite reagent you get to use/

completely unrelated to what im doing now. it doesnt matter what you do, as long as you do something. another guy in our lab did Pchem research in undergrad (we are an inorganic synth lab). I did computational chemistry in undergrad.

my PI in undergrad was really nice. most professors were in undergrad. it wasnt a big research uni like the one im at now where everything is more competitive. also my old PI was older and slowing down and generally not stressing much anymore about what comes next.

there is about a 40:60 girls to guys ratio. i dont know if any are willing to meet other grad students if thats what you are asking. 90% of the people I have met thus far are in a relationship. good friends are easy to come by in anyone though. you all feel united because you are going through hell together and you all know roughly where you stand in intelligence because you were all accepted to X school. there is a great sense of camaraderie and everyone is more than willing to make friends.

I do TA, but not this quarter. I got off. next quarter I will TA to support myself.

my favorite courses were probably calculus courses, organic chemistry, and inorganic chemistry.

favorite reagent so far has been n-butyl lithium. it lights on fire when exposed to air. you pretty much only work with it in a glove box unless you are being crazy. metals in general are fun to work with though. they do crazy things. purely organic shit does not. very boring.

>completely unrelated to what im doing now

I figure. I'm currently doing organometallic research but with the amount of options available in graduate school, I anticipate I will be drawn elsewhere (something with less fucking columns lol). Like you, I hope to get into industry later down the road.

>favorite reagent so far has been n-butyl lithium

I got to work with that this semester. The concept of an aliphatic carbanion is pretty rad. Organics can be pretty boring and smelly (I am sick of TEA. FUCK DMS) but NMR is fun, especially 2D.

Do you know of any grad students getting good gigs?

What are some places grad students, who pursue industry, eventually end up?

What is some bit of advice you would give, in general, to a prospective chem grad student?

From experience, the work culture in phys and especially comp chem is extremely relaxed, at least when compared to organic and biochem

>everything you just said about organometallics

thats the chemistry side of what im doing right now and based onwhat you just said you are doing really well. I wouldnt have known a word you just said 4 months ago. keep that up and you'll do fine.

>grad students getting good gigs
a guy in my lab was an intern at Sandia National Lab. He's applying to jobs now and he's getting interviews. on the materials side of what I do, I know people who have interned at startups and Tesla. they seem to have more opportunities overall. Analytical chemistry PhDs have the most job opportunities by far, but their work is boring as hell and I wouldnt do it for any number of job interviews. no way.

The east or west coast. That's were a majority of the jobs are for whatever reason. there are a lot of jobs out here on the west coast and a lot of great chemistry. thats why im here for grad school.

advice: apply to at least 8 schools. if you dont need to apply with the chem GRE then dont. its a waste of money, incredibly difficult, and will be held against you on your applications. I applied to 4 of my 8 with my chem GRE and the other 4 without it. the only schools that accepted me were ones that didnt see my chem GRE. Once you've been accepted go to as many visitation weekends as possible. you and everyone there will be 21 and the school will basically treat you like a king/queen to get you to come there. the current uni I'm at housed us each in our own personal room in an old historic hotel / spa. They will pay for your plane tickets and everything. you'll meet a bunch of cool students there too. its super fun.

also, apply to schools that have a reasonable cost of living in the area. you will be poor as a grad student, but your location can mean the difference between having your own apartment and paying the same amount for a single room in a house.

(cont.)

apply to schools with research projects that you think are cool and you would genuinely enjoy doing hours and hours into the day. doing and thinking about just for fun. that can be challenging to figure out, but keep in mind that's the reality of what you will be doing when you get to grad school.

also force yourself to look at other projects outside of what you think you want to do. I applied to grad school wanting to do organic synthesis indefinitely. after I did my research, I found a lot of people are not happy with the way that field is going + I found other projects to be cool. now im doing inorganic/ materials engineering through an agreement between 2 professors lol.

keep in mind after taking the GRE and sending your scores and application fees and transcipts and etc etc etc applying to grad school will cost roughly $1000-1500 depending on how many school you apply to.

apply to places far away from home. go on an adventure. ive never been happier than when I went to a completely new place to meet completely new people. basically starting a blank slate. im mellowing now that im stressed, but its still a great experience.

go to grad school. every grad student that didnt immediately after undergrad says there areno jobs out there for BSc chemists and if there are, they are grunt lab work roles you will never be satisfied with.

im going to bed now, but if you keep posting ill check the thread tomorrow assuming its still up and answer then.

I'm crashing out as well, friend.
I really thank you for all your advice. Best to you and your molecular endeavors.

is anyone here doing or has anyone here completed completed a Ph.D. in mathematics?

Both

This seems true, I dont do very much in my lab... I TA about five hours a week and I think I spend maybe 20-25 more hours a week doing stuff that could be considered work in my lab (which is mostly just reading papers and writing python scripts to evaluate/maniuplate/etc data my professor produces) and nobody ever tells me I should be doing more

I kind of wish there was a *little* more pressure because I sometimes feel like I'm getting nothing done, but I just don't know what the fuck I SHOULD be doing. I talk to the prof about it and he doesn't seem to care that I'm not doing much, he says just read computational chem books, papers, etc until I find some problem or field I want to work on

how do americans get a phd before they have a master degree?

masters granted along the way during a phd program

so the phd programs in america take a year longer or so?

yeah i'm in math i would say masters program is 2 years. so a math phd would take 4-6 yrs imo with the first 2 or so years devoted to coursework and qualifying exams

it all depends on where you go and what subject/field it is

Am pursuing.

As soon as I decided to study physics, before entering college as an undergraduate.

>when in your life did you decide you were going to pursue one?

>tfw schizoid and no chance of a normal life
>tfw firmly locked out of absolutely every other avenue of human fulfillment
>tfw my terrified flailing for anything to grab onto in this world comes off as stone-faced dedication to normies

>anything short of masters is worthless
Maybe if you don't do any internships or co-ops

You're assuming that internships 1) have value, or alternately 2) /should/ have value. Either way, the tacit assumption is false. Internships are shit, and even allowing that it is literally true that they lead to better job opportunities, then it is still true that this feature of the job market as it presently exists should not be permitted to exist. Internships ought to be outlawed.

They take courses the first year and are shown the ins and outs of the lab. They get a little research done, but not much is expected. Masters programs cost $$$ in the states. PhD programs pay for your masters and offer a higher degree. Theres no point to not do a PhD here.

Was he jolly before he cucked you, or was it the cucking which made the lad so jolly?

In most universities the Masters program is attached to the first 3 or 4 semesters of a PhD program