Phd experience reddit. Depends on the department and the students themselves! Try to reach out to other incoming students in your department, arrange some type of social event, and see if y'all hit it off. I had a clear thesis idea, contacted a prospective supervisor. Cheaply if you must, but do not use reddit for more than an hour a week. Reply. A PhD program is a big commitment, and you could always apply after another year of work experience. I accepted a PhD offer in arts at a public institution, and I am only partially funded. For context, I am in the social sciences and I applied to 14 PhD programs. I think its generally acurate that clinical is less important. You add to the literature in the 30-50 years after you receive your diploma. I don't for a moment regret getting a PhD - despite the deep anguish I suffered through the process. GS-11 is the traditional starting point for a JD, MD, or Phd. I'd like to get some feedback on whether my experience was typical for other PhDs, in the humanities or other subjects. This really depends on your lab, but for the most part the community is really close-knit, collaborative, and non-competitive. University/faculty Facebook groups/pages can also be useful. My department is well-regarded in its field and all graduate admissions (MS/PhD) are done by committee. In my case, my advisor was awful. However, I am very passionate about my subject and my…. My advice is that when you get into graduate school, you need to switch into "full time worker" mode. It's important though that one loves and enjoys a life of the intellect. ) : r/Norway. Or if there are, it’s not standard. • 2 yr. So, is anybody here a (or a former) PhD fellow in some Norwegian How many years of research experience did you have before being accepted into grad school. But, if you are talented, you will be promoted quickly but just be aware that your PhD is worth little more than an undergrad degree. My PhD application cycle is winding down, as I have received most of my decisions at this point. It also sounds like you don't really know what you want right now (which is normal), so acquiring a little more work experience after your MPH could be helpful. I did my PhD at a highly regarded UK university. Do not waste it. General Advice. I'm a Korean-American who grew up and went to college in the States, and came as an international grad student right after graduating. On a normal day of my post-class, post-fieldwork social science PhD, I work about 7-9 hours (more if you count internet surfing under the cover of 'I'm thinking about how to write this paragraph). My choice of project, PI and university will be more informed. Thinking about pursuing a phd in molecular biology. Your fields are, to my understanding, more focused on Ph It's also nice to have a few more bullet points on the CV. While the grad admissions process is full of unnecessary gatekeeping, I think requiring research experience is one hurdle that benefits both applicants and schools. I don't think I had good work/life balance. My advisor assured me that I didn’t have what it took to make it in industry or academia. Going by personal experience, I was in a history PhD program at an Ivy league school that had a top 5 program in my field. I worked (and continue to work) full-time in industry throughout my Ph. Let me know if you any questions! TheCatholicScientist. 4 major gpa, 3. I was lucky and my PI was great. The admissions committee wants to make sure you can do research before they “hire” you to do it there. They typically do side jobs like tutoring to make up the difference. So you will be fine, the idea is to teach you the skills. From what you said, I would count it as work experience but you can try to show how it is research related with the bullet points on your CV and what you write in your SOP. Grad school takes ~2 years. My background, Your school might have a Career Centre/Services dept that can help you better translate your PhD experience on your resume/cv to people in industry. It sounds like you need experience of any kind, not just academic. This would significantly increase your odd of getting in. Neither worked, you can never be devoted enough to either as “things come up” and there isn’t enough time in a day. I was rejected by 9, accepted by 2, and have 3 decisions pending. My PhD Viva Experience. Most programs have publication requirements to graduate. For hard sciences, it is normally completed in 3 years. Anyone without any research experience in undergrad and applying for graduate school? How badly will this affect the application? Hi folks, I (26 M) recently got into Stanford into a humanities PhD, which is good news and I’m super excited about. However, the 'pressure' or motivation to work was entirely self impossed. Most of the time when I talk about my experience in my grad program, I can very clearly feel my heart rate go up and my blood pressure increasing. Hi, I am 25m and I have 1 year and a half left of full time PhD in Computer Science in UK. The professor emailed me personally asking Yes, some programs work like that. D Ollieollieoxenfree12. One of the professor's duties is to apply for grants. Sharing my experience applying for Chemistry PhD programs for Fall 2020. When graduate programs have over 500 applications each, they become reliant on things like undergrad GPA for first-pass filtering and weigh less things that take time to evaluate like statements of purpose or content of letters of rec (but not who is writing them). I'm in one of the top 3 schools in Korea for science, and thought I might share some of my experiences I know some PhD students in disciplines that are not as well-compensated who have salaries more around $30,000-$35,000 in Manhattan. But one thing is that you should be clear whether it's a research MS or more a professional MS. A downside is that your advisor might still expect you to work on projects (or at least writing) during the internship which can add some stress. A PhD mostly makes sense if you expect to need or benefit from one late in your career or if you want to go in to (non)-academic research. in the land of the fjords. Also, it’s a bit too late to apply for fall 2024. A year ago, this moment seemed like an unachievable dream. My experience finding my first industry PhD Scientist position. Had lots of academic freedom to propose projects that I wanted. I would recommend reaching out the research programs UC Davis offers that usually extend a year after graduation or join a lab with the intent to be there until you get into a program. My research area is NLP + HCI, specifically social computing / computational social science. You could be leaving undergrad to get a 9-5 for a decent salary. I am trying to decide if I should be very specific about the most important parts of my experience (details of my own personal research project), or if I should give a broad overview of it all (both my research assistant positions and my responsibilities)? If you are a first year undergraduate, I would strongly recommend you look into cognition or psychology based research labs on campus, preferably with a mentor that teaches or has experience in the cog sci program. g. of course, this depends on the competitiveness of the program you're applying for. As other posters have said, the clinical programs are far more competitive than other psychology streams (e. So, you do research, publish, then compile it into a thesis and do a defense. How many semesters undergrad and how many years full time post bacc? If you actually want to work in cyber security then a PhD is a waste of time - time that would be better spent gaining experience in the field you want to work in. In my case my industry experience outlined exactly what area of research I DID NOT want to go into. S. Hi everyone! I haven't seen an acceptance thread in this subreddit yet for chemistry, so wanted to make one right now. Thus there are abundant M. For humanities and social sciences, it can Employers want tangible experience that can relate to the work they are asking you to do. program in Epidemiology. Responses to this question are going to vary wildly across departments. You might benefit from going to a master's program first, and then applying to PhD programs after you've demonstrated your research potential a bit more. in Norway - your experience! (Humanities&co. I am still working on my dissertation, but have applied for jobs listing my TA and RA experience as 'Professional Experience' and keeping my degree under an 'Education' sub-heading. I'm in industry now and very happy to be very far away from academia. There were four PhD students in my cohort and the only one of us who was in contact with a lab before applying was already an MS student here. I want to research something that is medically relevant, such as cancer or other diseases. A PhD means that you are more educated than literally everyone else in the market. And at least 1000 hours of research bare bare minimum. But I made many dear, smart friends, and love the ambience of academia more than the sorry corporate world outside. owiseone23. For example “Conducting research to the best of my ability is important to me, and I think a PhD will ensure I have the skills and experience to do that” instead of “I don’t want to suck at research. My PhD experience was a real killer. The truth is that you probably can’t get into a PhD program without research. Here's why I think a year or two of industry experience might help: I will get an idea of the skills required in industry, and will be able to work on them during PhD. Most people have a separate masters and several years of work experience before starting a public health PhD, which means the student body is pretty grounded and mature. It has been pretty anxious to wait for decisions but hopefully we can all get through this together! As another chemistry applicant, this thread is making me feel a lot better honestly. Caltech has been my top choice, and I am so grateful to have achieved my goal. So if the PhD university is different (not same as masters) you may get a few course requirements removed, but usually won't have more than a year removed from program total. Emergency medicine might be good to add. Its a curse because you are just entering the real scientific realm and your gonna get TKO'd with a degree. Get as much of that as you can, including in your summers. I’m actually from NYC and planning on applying somewhere in Europe for a phd haha. Getting a PhD isnt to add to the literature, its to learn the process. 2. I loved the research, enjoyed the company of my labmates, liked my advisors, and was close to my classmates. In my opinion (as someone in the field), you will not get into any clinical psych PhD programs without Year-long experience as an RA focusing on one project is ideal and ideally you want to produce results via publication as the first author. In my case my career grew rapidly. PhD is like ~4-7 years. I'll have 9 first author publications by the time I graduate (this is in the epidemiology field, so publications roll out fast). If you’re anything in stem, research experience is sometimes the number one thing on your application. Hi, I'm in my 5-6th year of my MS-PhD integrated program in Korea. IMO, a master's + X years of experience is at least as good as a PhD for non-academic jobs, and you won't have to give up 5+ years of earnings--or deal with the substantial non-pecuniary I wouldn't worry so much because: 1- research experience is mostly demanded when applying for Ph. PhD experience in Russia. Plus, even with decades of experience, a lot changes quickly and you'll be somewhat out of touch just from to the 3-6 years it takes to get your PhD. Found a great circle of friends that pulled through first year courses, quals, and thesis proposal. It's also nice to have a few more bullet points on the CV. Volunteer. He was just waiting for results to write up. While frustrating and a little discouraging I think these are normal things to encounter during your PhD. Live. A lot of PhD advisors are not actually very good mentors and make things even more confusing and stressful. . Getting admissions into masters program rarely needs research. PhD’s usually have a hard time being social and doing things outside of their research. student chiming in: You will be fine with roommates, the graduate student housing isn't bad. Sounds like you're in the business-related disciplines. I left feeling like a failure with no confidence in my abilities and little perspective on how I would do out in the world. I might be able to collaborate with industrial labs during PhD. You sound to be taking a gap year, at the least, and that is a very good thing. I was thinking about getting a phd in a field related to my undergrad. I did my PhD at a major state university in a STEM field. master's if you're doing a PhD). My topic was data science and I'm based in the UK. I am writing my statements of purpose for my PhD applications. Is this a normal PhD experience? Reflecting on my PhD journey and subsequent early career. Likewise, most faculty have pre-PhD experience working as research staff or in non-academic jobs. I tried to treat it like a job: clock in from 8-5 and take evenings off. I’ve read lots about the undergrad or the MBA experiences there but haven’t really heard much about other grad programs, much less humanities or social sciences. 4. programs have lower requirements, and are perfect for someone who wants to go to grad school but needs more research experience. Finished up my first interview with a CS professor for my PhD application, and thought I would share my experience for others who are interviewing this cycle (I'd also love advice if people are willing to share their thoughts!!) I got the invite January 6. If the former, some of this advice around emphasizing research experience, etc. A PhD is part investment, part consumption good; you get one for an academic job (or very research-intense non-academic job) and for the experience itself. I came here to ask about any general Mathematics graduate programs are looking for good grades in upper level courses, like Abstract Algebra, Linear Algebra, and Real Analysis. As a way of giving back and helping others, I wanted to share my experience. I had an unusual situation where my viva was 3 weeks after my thesis submission. You won't get a top-5 PhD admission without some research experience, unless you get an NSF or NDSEG fellowship On top of that, I have noticed that the work environment is rather toxic (professors lying to PhD students, firing them without good reason to use their grant money for themselves, micromanaging when everyone is at the office, …). 8. A place for PhD applicants and current students to share advice, victories, commiserations, and more! No PhD is worth doing without funding. BS salary after 7 years = roughly $80k-100k (mine was $125k with a BS and 7yrs experience) The point I'm making is that a PhD is no guarantee of a higher salary than what could be attained with a BS and equivalent years of experience. In this case cyber security. 3) sounds like it would be research experience. A job will provide a lot of opportunities for observations and research questions if you're already having a PhD in mind. Yes. I absolutely agree with this sentiment. The System with the Stufen is: one year in Stufe 1, two years in Stufe 2, three M. but 2000-2500 is a good goal for before applying. 06 overall) makes me hesitant to pursue a phD in physics despite having extensive research experience and having worked with advisors who I'm confident will speak highly of my contributions. Ita possible yeah just a lot harder practically. Do certs or something instead. Once you join a lab, you have the members of your lab plus other GOT INTO CALTECH PHD! After almost a year of taking GREs, writing SoPs and submitting applications, I got admitted to Caltech today! I honestly can’t believe it. While everyone's PhD experience is different (good and bad, and many in-between) the end Just know that many universities don't adequately recognize all of the experience of students coming into Ph. •. I have tried it both ways, full-time job + part-time phd and full-time phd and part-time job. I worked before coming to gradschool and I don't regret it. For slightly past entry level roles you don’t have the relevant experience (business and otherwise knowledge). I have less insight into this because I've never been involved in MS admissions. First year Phd here, I would like to inquire about your experiences that you believe would be valuable for incoming first-year students. But there are also ones that don't. The more research experience you have the easier youll find the PhD in practice because you will have a lot less to ABD Ph. A PhD program is basically to do research, so I highly suggest you have some research background before you apply. ”. My mediocre gpa (3. However, my PI was also abusive. I am dedicating a large section of them to my research experience. D. Other departments admit 1 or 2 students every other A few years ago, I left my physics PhD program with a masters degree after being in the program for two years. Mediocre grades in your first two years, with solid (3. But the experience was still stressful because I felt like I should always be working, but didn't always know WHAT I was supposed to be doing, and had trouble figuring out a research direction, and then The whole idea of a PhD (this is straight from my university’s definition), is to teach someone to become a researcher. Good luck! I would certainly hire you but at an entry level since, as you point out, you have absolutely no work experience. A PhD program in the US will also start with about 2 years of courses before you jump into research. programs with a masters. Rule of thumb is ~2000 hours which roughly comes out to working in a lab all 4 years maybe ~10 hours a week during the school year (~40 weeks in an academic year x 10 hours per week) + working full-time during a couple summers (~8 weeks in a summer x 40 hours per week). Clinical psychology PhD programs are extremely competitive, rivalling that of med school admissions. Definitely include any relevant work experience, including grad work. Hi all, I applied earlier this month to the University of Michigan Ph. During my PhD a lot went wrong with my project. When you get a PhD in Japan, you join a lab under the supervision of a professor. So one of the talking points you get when looking in for a non-academic job with a STEM PhD is to highlight how it's work experience, not just a degree. Many people do take off 1-3 years to work full-time in a lab after My experience doing a PhD abroad. Pro tip: make sure the flyer has your hourly rate on it - in my experience these get higher responses. I will caution, however, that I am in geosciences, where the Master's is the professional degree. Hello everyone, now that I've finally (mostly) reached a decision on where I'm going to go, I thought it would be cool to share my experience from this application season. I know that many doctoral programs recommend that an applicant have at least some research experience before applying to their schools. Some departments have relatively large cohorts (5 or 6 admits) who interact with masters students and have great in-department social lives. ago. Sharing my experience getting into a few top 10 and top 20 chemistry PhD programs I'm essentially debating between getting a masters and THEN PhD vs trying to cheaply get psych prereqs done and get some research experience somehow before applying directly to PhD. If you are a current MD/PhD, please feel free to add your 2023-24 Chemistry PhD Decisions Thread. As a future candidate for a doctoral position, I would like to gather some stories about fellas who had their Ph. You don't have any classes and your entire job is research. If the university doesn't value you enough to fund you properly that doesn't bode well for the rest of your experience there. program. So costs / time are higher this route. Meanwhile, try attend conferences and do oral/poster presentations on your research. I’m a PhD student in Australia, been learning Russian for awhile and today I started to wonder what a PhD looks like in Russia. I'm just going to add that leaving industry to pursue a PhD is much easier than leaving an unfinished PhD to go to industry. , cognitive, social, etc). Here is a "guide" on why and how I decided to move to the Netherlands for my PhD. Instead, you're choosing to leave undergrad for a 9-5 for a To PhD students at Berkeley currently, how do you feel about your PhD experience. Hello everyone, Over the past 3 month, I've been searching for a job in biotech/pharma and have found r/biotech to be extremely helpful. Since your department friends are all taking the same classes as you, you all study hard at the same time (often together) and all blow off steam at the same time (also together). Edit: These lies have resulted in a PhD student not getting paid for months, a few students' grants/fellowship applications getting thrown out because Dr. Reply reply. still applies. programs with good funding. But what kind of research actually count as "research experience" in the eyes of an admission committee? Ideally, you would want to secure funding for your PhD. 7+ in-major) grades in your last two is enough. As others before mentioned, if you worked in a TV-L 13 position the advance in Stufe is normaly included. I left with very similar feelings. 5-2 years work experience for every year spent on a PhD, and a BS usually needs 8-12 years to qualify for scientist, so they're basically already valuing PhD experience more than work experience. My experience searching for a PhD position in the Netherlands. Any First-hand Experience with UMich PhD in Epi? Admissions. You have to ask the university and try to get this expirence recognized. I know that I spent a lot of time on this subreddit looking at posts just like this, so I hope this My experience taking the OMSCS to PhD route. Any hard science professor will have plenty of research money to support your research (Normally between 2,000,000 yen to 20,000,000+ yen per year to support 5-25 students depending). Overly Detailed Interview Experience - CS PhD. I’d occasionally work half days on weekends. I'll pay off my undergrad education loan (the loan PhD is very similar to your last year as a Masters. My Experience and Advice as a First Cycle PhD Applicant **Lengthy Post**. Reflecting on your own first-year experiences, what aspects do you think you could have approached differently? also if you have any suggestions you might have for effectively planning and navigating the first year of a PhD program. I incurred issues with methodology, projects didn't go as planned, etc. For entry level roles you have a few major factors against you. I worked 6 days/week, I generally worked 10-12 hours/day. Minimum of 50 hours of an outpatient primary care doctor in the community, and minimum 50 hours of some kind of academic inpatient subspecialty of internal medicine where you round on patients. My physical and mental health suffered as did my relationships with my family and supervisors. I am enjoying my PhD experience. People normally get their research experience as undergrads. Finally came out that the PhD thought it was the post docs job to set up his experiment and run it for him. I quit after two and a half years because the time and effort needed for getting the PhD simply did not line up with the state of the job market. That said, I'm really nervous about entering a program that's a poor fit for me and wanted to see if anyone could give me an honest, first-hand account of their experience with the Ph. For future applicants who might read this I absolutely loved my PhD years. Another time a PhD student was really behind and kept blaming the post doc. It's challenging, fulfilling work, and I am becoming a better person because of it. Option 3: Hardest/most involved, but big money. Thanks for this question! I felt the same way during my PhD - wondering if maybe there was a reporting bias towards only negative experiences. PhD starting salary = roughly $90k-120k. It benefits the applicant to try some research first to see if they like it before committing several years of their life to it. You might struggle to get into top PhD programs without any research experience, regardless of your grades. From my experience with other grads, people who worked in a serious company are more responsible, diligent, dependable, etc. Yes, I loved my experience. For bare minimum you need probably at least 30 hrs of shadowing and maybe 100 hours of other clinical. If you’re a PhD student in Russia - what does your day look like? Depending on the actual responsibilities of this job it could be considered research experience. C agreed to write a letter multiple times, then never did. Some very few employers will look at total time and consider a BS + 4-6 as equivalent to a PhD but far more frequently, they're looking for 1. When I was looking for viva advice on this sub, I saw some great stuff but a lot of it didn't apply in my case, so I've decided to write about my experience. It was one of the best decisions I ever made in my PhD career. I spent two years of undergrad as a Research assistant for a group where I developed software and did data analysis work. MD/PhD and Significant Research Essays examples/guidance? First post here, but I'm applying MD/PhD this cycle and starting to work on my essays--there's a ton of info on the personal statement, but significantly less on how to structure and what makes good MD/PhD-specific essays! Wondering if anybody has any specific places to find examples or Reading your story sounds a lot like my PhD experience. We were all very confused. I recently completed my last class (GA) and will be starting my PhD this Fall. Since there are a number of questions every year about doing research through OMSCS, I figured I would post my experience here as Entry level data scientists are expected to have ~5 years of experience so a PhD with a post-doc sounds about right or being a data analyst of some sort for 5 years first or a software engineer specializing in data. Did two, one led to my current job. I just finished my undergrad in molecular and cellular biology, and am unsure what do do next. Explore. But previous experiences (time as PHD student and time as post-doc) can be considered. Ph. C agreed to submit a LOR and never wrote it, and a student getting their green card process delayed because Dr. Going for a PhD as a substitute to getting certs and/or experience is an odd comparison. If you know that you want to do research and already have both a project idea and some relevant experience than I say go for it. In my experience (mid career with a few degrees beyond public health), outside of academia, a PhD as a credential is useful in other research and leadership roles. Specialized tutoring to grad school applicants and/or other grad students (e. I graduated about 8 months ago. ) Hello world. What it really takes to get into a top program is research experience. Hey guys! This subreddit has been really helpful during my search for a PhD position in the Netherlands and the decision to pursue my studies. If a professional MS, career aspirations are probably more important. I hope this is helpful to anyone currently working on their MD/PhD essay. Gaining research experience will give you more insight into what your life would be like if you chose to go into research so you I'd say at least 100-200 hours of shadowing. I have even seen people get into reputable phd programs without RE. There are no placement exams for that level of study. Finally, the whole field has strong social justice tendencies, which extends In my experience, the course work was very managable, as you are only taking 1-2 classes at a time. cg fm rl no qv ds nf va qc gj