What is PhD life actually like? Before, during and after, please greentext it new faggots

man I love me some anime titties lmao

Working on biophysics PhD.

>before
Took off a few years after undergrad to work as a lab tech, job-hopped across some temp positions in industry and academia. Settled in to a tech job at a med school for a year, treated it like grad school. Asked for my own project, asked questions, designed experiments, analyzed data, etc. Got the experience and letters I needed.

>during
First year is rough between coursework and rotations. Only so many hours in a day, so do what you need to do to get into your lab, and study what you need to get a background from your classes.
Second year is better, you're in your lab and taking relevant elective coursework. Name of the game here is passing candidacy. You need to demonstrate that you know what you're doing: how to ask questions; why your field has put forth the question that you're asking; how you want to design experiments that answer your question; how you will develop your project depending on what your experiments tell you.
Third and fourth years are where you really learn how to do science. You become an independent scientist, drive a project. Hopefully write a manuscript. Also train in other skills needed in research -- writing grants, reviewing grants and manuscripts, presenting data.

>free time / week
Put in 60 - 80 hrs/wk. Usually "free time" is from Saturday afternoon/evening through Sunday morning/afternoon. Maybe early in the mornings or late in evenings.
>monthly income
Stipend is $28k/yr, comes out to around $2k/mo after taxes. Quality of live is dependent on where you live. I'm in the Midwest U.S., out here most of the grad students can get by. On the other hand, making $32k/yr in NYC or the UC system is quite different.

>career prospects
Probably good, I'm in a marketable area that has applications in biotech.

>enjoyment
Sure, it's fun. My PI and I get along fine, and I know he does have what's best for my training in mind.

thicc :)

>during
>four or five hours a day weekdays, all weekends unless an experiment needs me in the lab for a timepoint
>a bit over 2k some months, although it gets tapped six months a year for student fees
>research jobs, teaching jobs if I get a certificate, shitty sales/QA jobs
>I enjoy it but I landed in a good lab with a reasonable PI. lots of horror stories out there

>after phd from #1 ranked school
>Work the same amt. as in grad school (40-50 hr/week)
>$45k/yr
>first year of 3 yr postdoc, applying unsuccessfully for faculty jobs despite top tier pub record
>love it, basically all the best parts of grad school (research) without any of the other crap.

Jesus that's terrible.

Bioeng phd here.

>before

Undergrad with decent grades (3.3 at Ivy) but with 3 papers from research (1 first author + 2 somewhere in the middle) because I started as a freshman.

Applied to top 15 schools in my field, was flown around for interviews (aka recruitment weekends) and lived the high life before being rejected from MIT and ending up at #2 on list. I looked at the website for the group I had wanted to join and they'd chosen some guy from a state school who I'd met before at a conference. I'm fourth year now and have out-published him despite the fact that those spergs all sleep in their labs.

>during

Rotate first semester (or first two in rare cases where someone stupidly decides to rotate longer), while taking 2-3 classes. Classes are small and hard but everyone puts in the work needed and getting anything below a B+ is embarrassing to you and your future PI.

Second year you start taking fewer classes (maybe 1 per semester depending on areas you need to brush up on) and spending your time on your research project and subprojects.

People still doing helper work and/or training new skills in their second year are either in a mediocre lab or at a mediocre school. We're expected to have a paper out by the end of second year here.

Third and fourth year, you enter a bit of a crisis realizing the 8-paper prodigy you imagined yourself being isn't coming true, so you buckle down and put in even more time. At this point you're doing two projects simultaneously in between wasting 20-25% of your time in meetings with other labs wishing to collaborate with you, discussing when a good time to have another meeting will be.

Fifth (or sixth if you're slow) year, you're cranking out your dissertation and filling in experimental blanks as they come up.

>after

Apply for quantitative finance jobs because sweating in a plastic bunny suit under yellow light for another 3 years as a post doc is not appealing whatsoever, and you make >money than your MD friends.

>chemistry PhD
>about 60 hours/week in lab
>ca. $30K/yr
>pharma, fragrances, flavorings, academia
>wouldn't be worth it if I didn't love chemistry

It's not optimal, but typical, since my field (evolutionary bio) has basically zero non-academic prospects.

Also depressing is the fact that only 10 or so tenure track positions open at non-garbage-tier schools each year and each of these positions gets between 200 and 400 applicants and usually end up hiring some near-tenured assistant prof. from one of said garbage tier schools.

That said, I love the work and ability to set my own schedule/travel all the time/etc. It's definitely not for everyone, though.

sauce?

>if you didnt then you fall into the PhD glut along with the organic PhDs
Wait, so what's the deal with organic PhDs then? If someone could please inform me, this information would be extremely relevant to some immediate choices I have to make. I have heard nobody cares at least about compelx total syntheses anymore really...besides Indian and China. Is a PhD in a field that is pretty related to synthesis, like chem. biology or med chem. a good idea?

Keep in mind, I am aware of the extreme demands that a PhD in organic makes on someone. I saw it firsthand. I saw people stop. I'm talking career wise.

My advice to people considering graduate school:

You are not applying for traditional school. You are applying to an on-the-job apprenticeship program for academic research positions. Treat this as a real job. Talk to the PI up-front about expectations for hours, pay, stuff like that.

There are a lot of PIs who treat graduate students as disposable short-term researchers. They burn their students out with unreasonable hours and impossible expectations for research output. Avoid those PIs.

It's in no one's best interest for you to burn out three years into a six year program.

What can I do to get accepted to do a PhD in robotics at the university of Tokyo?

Speak japanese and be japanese

FUCK

I'm getting a master's for free instead of graduating early from undergrad

My gpa in my major in undergrad is only about a 3.7. In my grad classes I expect to end up with somewhere around 3.8-3.9. Is this good enough to to get in to good graduate schools? I have three semesters left and I have a second authorship. I'm shooting for a first authorship by when I graduate.

will I get a lot of pussy if I get a phd

>academic research positions
This mentality is why so many PhD's can't find jobs. There's plenty of jobs outside of academia that a person with a PhD can do. And they generally pay better, if that's something you're into.

I added that qualifier because, you're right, a PhD is more than suitable for doing lots of academic jobs, but the experience itself is training for a very specific kind of job.

And if you did want to do some other career, yes you can go there from a PhD but you're probably better off taking a different route. If you want to teach high school biology or do sales or QA, you don't need to slave for six years getting a PhD to be hired.

but I want to stay in the academia, how else do I get to fuck hot 20 year olds for life?

If you want something like going into a quant hedge fund, a PhD is basically a necessity and it pays very very well

No, but you will find a quite smart virgin girl who devoted herself entirely to studying and didn't have time to date guys before you.

>if that's something you're into
>money

many of us would rather take a lower paying job that's actually interesting
>inb4 being a money monkey is interesting

Personally, I'm planning on going into either private or government research, both of which typically require PhD's. There are plenty of jobs out there that require/"recommend" applicants have PhDs.

Worst case scenario it's an easy way to get a Masters degree for free. Just complete 2/3 years then bail.

Holy shit, a relevant thread.

>be me, graduated with PhD in _______ engineering last month
>started new job at government lab this week.

Before phd:
> In college
> Enjoying college
> Good at college.
> Want to stay in college forever
> Learn that you can get paid to stay in college forever.
> lol, why would anyone not do that?

During:
> Lol, I get paid to go to school
> this is the best thing ever
> This is amazing
> I work like 20 hours/week max
> Last six months were hell on earth, though

after:
> Now I have a job that pays six figures
> Gonna buy a house with girlfriend
> Job is actually pretty fun
> research position, lots of freedom
> Can't work 15 hours/week anymore, though
> Can't leave town for a month at a time without telling anybody
> I wish I could've stayed in grad school longer.

Do you have any proof of these claims?

God gave it

Second year theoretical physics PhD

>typically only work total of 10 hours/wk
>$2k/month after taxes. It all goes to rent, food, gas, and bills.
>probably best bets for decent money right out of grad school are finance or gov't research
>awesome. I tutor on the side for enjoyment money, so so far I'm hardly working, doing what I love, and I can afford to have fun too. Great time.

>evolutionary bio
>PHD

I gotta ask; what's your personal opinion on racism?

Is anything I said particularly unbelievable?

From living in Japan for 5 years, I can attest that this is very accurate.

>virgin girl
Not likely. Changes are you'll find a quite, smart, girl, who was overly trusting of a guy, and ended up getting burned from it. She now has major trust issues and be notably cynical of any feelings you may have. The fact that your social skills are probably crap won't help in sealing the deal either.

The good thing though is that if you do seal the deal, she'll likely be down for any kinky shit your fucked up mind can come up with out of fear of rejection.

This is one of the reasons I'm pursuing a phd desu and I'm not ashamed to admit it

>I work like 20 hours/week max

What kind of shit-tier school did you go to? It takes me more than twenty hours a week just to do my assignments, and that's before I start doing any independent research, or my RA/TA duties.

Suck cocktail wieners, lots of them.

Learn game, and not the vidya kind.

In uk no classes or assignments pure researc

That's the game user, you become a professor and have high criteria. Words spreads around that you lower them for girls who spread their legs. I know two professors who confirmed me they've been doing this for like two decades and one of them is a smelly manlet bald 58 year old.

What about if you're truly an exceptional brain and speak/write fluent Japanese?

Is it possible to skip undergrad into grad in the UK?

I do this too. Godtier since '98 fuck better than my students

foriegners out

Lool no just phd has no classes etc. Just research and i guess applying for shit but no coursework or anything.

Think only in maths u can skip

I'll take that was a bitter yes from a uyoku dantai.

Look Tojo, your country is one of, if not the most technologically advanced countries/country on Earth and offers a vast amount of publications.

You are going to have to start accepting a certain level of multiculturalism, if only from Europeans (which is best).

Get used to it, we're going to beer batter your women, face it.

Hafus everywhere, glorious.

Japs are okay with other races aslong as they abode to customs. There are 'only japanese' restaurantd but only means customs andlanguage not race. Coz west is rude.

In the UK?

The best part is that, due to them not slutting themselves out to any guy who gives them attention during undergrad, they almost always are clean; which is a big plus in my books.

A note though for the kinky shit; communication is essential! if you're going to stick it in her ass you need to tell her before you do (you don't have to wait for a response). If you don't communicate with her, she'll assume you don't care, and are just exploiting her. This almost always results in grief on your end, but oh man! are they hot when they're pissed. It makes it all worth the suffering they are bound to put you through.

You really have a thing for nerdy girls, don't you?

You sound like you speak from experience. There's not to many girls in my field and I presumed that if I found any they'd already have someone.

Yeah if ure autistic

Did you do a PhD there? What have you been doing in Japan for 5 years?

Yes, yes I do. They are the best in my opinion, as they have the perfect combination of brains and crazy. It's maddening in the best type of way.

Doesn't matter; stick your dirty mitts into other fields that you are at least some-what interested in (you have to show at least some passion in what they're passionate about, and they'll know if you're bs'ing them). If you're an antisocial fuck like I used to be, you might want to look into taking LSD or shrooms. They help a lot with introspection/one's emotional appeal and will definitely give you an edge, especially if you don't have the best of looks.

My father was in the armed services and ended up being stationed there, and because of such I dragged along with him at the age of 9. Twas quite the experience (the learning curve was brutal).

Good thing I am. Clinically diagnosed Asperger's when I was 18 (in the UK).

Good choice, I ideally want to get my filthy white hands on a Japanese nerdy girl and make her have my hafu babies.

20 hours a week max seriously? I just need to have time to practice piano, guitar and sc2 everyday for at least an hour each if I can do this I will phd

>I ideally want to get my filthy white hands on a Japanese nerdy girl
>diagnosed Asperger's when I was 18

You better get a hold of some acid before you leave for Japan. You're going to need an atomic bomb's worth of charisma (not to mention brians) if you want to even have a shot at getting into a good uni, let alone a nerdy wafu that doesn't have an abusive father.
If you do land yourself a good jap, then gtfo out of the country with her before her parents guilt her into killing herself. Marrying out of Japanese blood is a big no no in Japan, and any classy wafu knows this.

U ever heard of aspergers savant? No then

That's actually pretty good advice, user, thank you.

Though, I thought Japanese was becoming less xenophobic?

I sometimes watch those channels of the Japanese guys who walk around Tokyo and a couple of other cities interviewing mostly Japanese people about their views.

Many of them, including those of middle age, seem to be quite liberal (somewhat to my dismay).

How discriminator toward white Europeans are the Japanese? I thought most of it was directed toward people of African decent?

Yeah, I have, me. :^)

As a rule of thumb people are only racist and xenophobic with people with darker skin than theirs.

What if you're lighter? I mean, I'm certainly lighter than the majority of Japanese people I've seen.

I wonder why.
Probably ignorant bigotry.

Holy fuck, are you serious, every thread has to turn into your one of your opinion pieces?

Here, have more opinion.

You cannot assume that what people say, especially in public and especially in Japan, is the whole truth or even the truth.

This isn't unique to Japan; being a cunt on camera is frowned upon everywhere, and lying about tolerance because it's socially unacceptable is common everywhere in the west (think about how many American families are "fine with gays" but would not be so accepting if their son came out) but it's fair to say it's even more pronounced over there.

racist

From the user you replied to:

>becoming less xenophobic
I don't live there anymore, and I'm probably not the most informed person out there regarding this issue, but I'm fairly certain had the right idea; they are not as outspoken about it as they used to be to maintain good PR.

>those channels of the Japanese guys who walk around Tokyo
Key word Tokyo; that's one of the most liberal places you can go in Japan. I personally like northern Japan better, if you don't mind the cold.

>How discriminator toward white Europeans are the Japanese? I thought most of it was directed toward people of African decent?

Ehh you're probably going to get lumped in as an "American" by most unless your accent is obvious. If you conform and to their society and respect their culture, then the large majority won't have a problem with you. If you're not fluent in Japanese, you're always going to be though of as lesser, and because you're white, you're already thought of as lesser.

I think the main reason Blacks get such a bad rap in Japan is that they walk into the country expecting everything to be handed to them. They never take the time to understand Japanese culture beyond what is shown in anime, and that if anyone gives them crap they always fall back on the race card (trying to guilt-trip people is in no way honorable, and honestly just reinforces their prejudice towards them).

>If you're not fluent in Japanese, you're always going to be though of as lesser, and because you're white, you're already thought of as lesser.

**edit**
because you're not Japanese, you're already thought of as lesser.

>"endoresed"
>that god awful color scale
>conveniently don't post the objections

Here you go user.
>The methodology of their research has been heavily criticized for not having consistent measures of IQ across countries and for the way estimates were generated. For example, the average IQ of countries without data is reported as the average of neighboring or comparable countries. In addition to this, the way in which samples were either included or excluded in their analysis is unsystematic, potentially biasing their results. Thomas Nechyba’s review in the Journal of Economic Literature points out the following flaw:

>The degree of IQ heritability, however, has no logical bearing on this issue. Even if we take the authors’ reading of the literature as given and assume that 80 percent of IQ is heritable, the entire observed cross country difference in IQ may be environmentally rather than genetically driven. Consider, for instance, a plant variety whose size is known to be 80 percent heritable. If we grow genetically identical seeds of this plant in two plots under the same initial soil conditions and then fertilize only one plot, the dramatic differences in plant height that emerge will be entirely driven by environmental factors despite the high heritability of plant height. The fact that some countries score lower on IQ tests than others thus has nothing to say about the degree to which IQ scores are genetically predetermined or the degree to which they will change under different circumstances. Developed countries may simply be like the plants that received fertilizer earlier for reasons having nothing to do with IQ.

Lynn and Nyborg are the only ones doing research on this thanks to you virtue-signalers and ethnomasochists.
Good enough for me until better studies show up ( i.e. after the collapse of western civilisation before the end of this century emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/The-decay-of-Western-civilization-final.pdf ).

>The degree of IQ heritability, however, has no logical bearing on this issue.

>>free time / week
none
>monthly income
peanuts
>career prospects
haha
>enjoyment
100%

now that I've gotten that out of my system, here is my actual response

>>free time / week
depends on your phd, all phd's are completely different
>monthly income
You will not make good money doing any phd, anywhere, under any circumstances, ever. Expect to make 40% less, dependent on country, in US the wage difference is huge, in other countries not so huge.
>career prospects
depends on your phd, all phd's are completely different
>enjoyment
100%

>PHD in math
>any job I want
>300k starting

this is similar to my experiences doing ECE PhD at good-tier state school (although im not done yet)

grad school lifestyle is awesome. i would do this forever.

a lot of weeks i do less than 20 hrs with no problem. then there are other guys in my lab who bust their ass every day and I'm still closer to finishing than them. work smart, not hard. oh, and make sure everyone thinks you are working tons of hours even if you are not

Research on human genetics, and the genetics of IQ are done all the time... it's just that data we already have discounts any possible of racist concepts being true.

>>free time / week
i stop working after dinner, so maybe 5 hours/day -> 30-40 hours of down time including weekends
>>monthly income
my phd pays about 40k/year so a bit over 3k/month pre-tax
>>career prospects
pretty good
>>enjoyment
i'm pretty happy

chemical engineering, top 5 school

as a preface, i'm in my fourth year in an engineering phd program in a mediocre school.

i fucked up after undergrad because i couldn't find a job and joined the lab of the first professor that contacted me. this cost me 2 years of my time before he finally got 3 grants at the same time and there was money to do experiments. pay is shit, about 2k per month and you need to pay fees on top of that. a phd in engineering probably hurts your career prospects more than anything. being in a lab with no windows all day is depressing to say the least. having to sit on my ass for 2 years also killed my motivation. the biggest enjoyment is probably out of meeting the people i would have otherwise not met. most of the professors are egotistical narcissists, but the actual researchers are some of the most impressive people i have met.

as a word of advice: ask your adviser how the financial situation in the lab is, you can ask this question however you feel appropriate, but you need to get a feel for whether the lab has money or not. ask the adviser how soon you will be assigned a project and can start working on it, and ask how you will be funded, TA? RA? if TA ask for how long. it cuts into your time and you really don't get shit out of it unless you enjoy spoonfeeding shithead undergrads (you won't.)

Seems pretty kek that math majors get 10/10 wives.

>engineering

Oh. That's why.

I work in both a chem and materials engineering lab and I can guarantee you engineers don't work nearly as hard as scientists. It's actually embarrassing how lazy you fuckers are and even upsetting seeing your labs and thinking about how much I could get done in 5 years vs you.

>some guy from some state school

What's wrong with state schools?
t. State school fag

I want to get a master's degree, is it as bad as PhD?

I'm 2.5 years into a structural engineering PhD, best civil engineering school in my country and around 14th in the world.

My hours are basically 9-5 5 days a week. Nothing I can't handle. Occasionally have to come in on a weekend or stay until 9-10 PM finishing a paper but overall the hours are the same as any other job.

Income is 25k (basic), but I managed to get 3 scholarships and it is closer to 40k. Quite comfortable, manage to save some money. All tax-free.

An academic career is an option for me, although not one I will pursue. I do not enjoy research much. Though I don't regret doing a PhD and I'm confident I'll finish it, but I have no interest in remaining in research after I finish. There will be plenty of industry jobs for me when I graduate.

Enjoyment overall is fine. I have a GF, moderate circle of friends, have enough free time to relax and enough money to live comfortably and do what I want. The PhD itself though is like a niggling source of anxiety at the back of my mind, and I'll be hugely relieved when I finish it.

Can I get a phd without going for a masters degree? You used to have to be a magister first before going for phd. I have no idea what it's like now.

Yes, I did At my uni you need 1st class Honours in undergrad to go straight to a PhD

Personally I don't think having just 1st class Honours is a proper requirement

Otherwise you need a Masters

>I think the main reason Blacks get such a bad rap in Japan is that they walk into the country expecting everything to be handed to them. They never take the time to understand Japanese culture beyond what is shown in anime, and that if anyone gives them crap they always fall back on the race card (trying to guilt-trip people is in no way honorable, and honestly just reinforces their prejudice towards them).

Is this a troll? I say this because there hasn't been enough blacks who have gone to Japan to force that kind of meme en masse. That shit only works in America, Canada and some European countries because there's been a foundation laid for that kinda thing already (not necessarily by blacks only but others too). Also most blacks that do make it to Japan are those from the U.S. military not some civilian meme anime fans.

It makes more sense that they just hate blacks because of appearance, thinking of inferiority, adoption of white attitude or the few Blacks that do go there via military are on average assholes and bases the majority on that via word of mouth.

I doubt it's based on liberal guilt trip thinking that shit is usually reserved for women in non Western countries unless it's specifically an aid based.

80 hours a week and you make less than $30k??? Wtf

I think it depends on the country