/gsg/ - grad school general

[Anonymous No.10751837]

Tenure track Engineering Assistant Professor Here: Ask me whatever

[Anonymous No.10752914]

Skeptical Chaos Theorist here. Ask me anything!

[Anonymous No.10752927]

>>10751837
How do you feel knowing that you will never accomplish anything of significance in academia unless you have a meaty grant?

[Anonymous No.10753007]

>>10752927
That's not nice, and it's simply not true. If you have something to offer to the school, they will make sure they can hold onto you.

[Anonymous No.10753190]

>>10752927
OP here
I literally don't give a shit, i am just playing the bean counting game untill tenure, if i stay untill then

[Anonymous No.10753194]

>>10751837
What is the hardest math class you've had to take? Calculus brainlet asking, by the way.

[Anonymous No.10753206]

>>10753194
All math classes are easy, most advanced course i took as a PhD student was advanced numerical methods

You don't need math to be an engineer, thats a myth

[Anonymous No.10753210]

>>10752927
Also, getting a meaty grant is not that hard, i spammed proposals to every agancy under the sun and have 2 in already

[Anonymous No.10753229]

>>10753210
Interesting, so you have active research? In what might I ask?

[Anonymous No.10753244]

>>10753229
catalysis for meme applications

[Anonymous No.10753318]

>>10751837
I am planning to apply to grad programs next year.
Now I understand that biochemistry is obviously a different field than engineering, I hear that there’s always hundreds of applications for a single TT position.
Is there really anything that you can do to increase your odds or at least have a reasonable chance or is industry just the better idea?

[Anonymous No.10753332]

>>10751837
What type of engineering? I am applying to grad school this fall from electrical engineering and not sure on whether to go for a Masters or PhD. The programs are either Optics degrees or EE degrees and I plan to focus on optical/laser engineering, or possibly other parts of optics like quantum optics or fiber. My main goal is to just get a job in industry or a govt lab and not go near academia afterwards so would PhD be a bad idea?

[Anonymous No.10753340]

what are your thoughts on these state borders?

[Anonymous No.10753359]

rwst

[Anonymous No.10753362]

i have a theoretical degree in phisics, AMA

[Anonymous No.10753373]

[Anonymous No.10753383]

>>10753373
omg i can see my house from here

[Anonymous No.10753851]

I'm just an undergrad (EE/Physics, US) but I plan to apply to grad school next year. I plan to go straight for PhD programs, but as a backup plan I will apply to european universities for an MS to lead into applying for a PhD in the US again. Would this be a bad idea? The MS universities i will be applying to are rated highly globally and i believe the degree will be a good educational experience, but will a US university see it as a negative to go overseas for the MS and maybe not recognize a foreign uni as much as a domestic one? sorry if it is a shitty question, but the euro MS would cost me a bit less so would be preferred

[Anonymous No.10753857]

>>10753373
That looks exactly like Cities: Skylines cities

[Anonymous No.10753907]

>>10753206
>most advanced course i took as a PhD student was advanced numerical methods
Fuck me, you faggots have it easy. I almost regret taking math/physics instead.
A friend of mine went the engineering route and every single summer he had lucrative internships. His thesis projects were always interesting, working on something practical. None of that stuff was available to us.

[Anonymous No.10753923]

>>10751837
Field and approximate specialty? I'm curious about your disdain for math, doing my EE PhD now and there has been a fucking TON.

[Anonymous No.10754119]

>>10753332
Not op, but no, a PhD would not be a bad idea. My company is desperately trying to hire an optical PhD with real lab experience and can't find anyone!! PhDs lead research and inspire customer confidence, those are incredibly valuable in industry.

[Anonymous No.10754273]

>>10751837
Have you worked a real job as an engineer and if you have, how different was working as an engineer compared to studying engineering?

[Anonymous No.10754292]

>>10753206
>You don't need math to be an engineer, thats a myth
What do you need, then?

[Anonymous No.10754549]

>>10753362
What degree do you have

[Anonymous No.10754580]

>>10753923
what’s the highest level math you need for your degree?

[Anonymous No.10754588]

> 2019
> IQ

[Anonymous No.10754777]

>>10754588
Seething midwit.

[Anonymous No.10754799]

>>10753318
OP here
To get a tenure track position this is what i did:
1. Published as much as possivle
2. Networked as much as possible
3. Went to every 'meet the candidate' session at natiomal conferences
4. Spammed about 400 applications over the span of 3 years (final year of PhD + 2 years postdoc)
5. Got 2 offers

The chances for TT are very low if you are not from a Stanford/MIT/Caltech etc., i am the only one i know who was able to land one over the past 10 years of PhDs from my University. The starting money is not that high untill you get the grants/talks/workshops rolling.

But the "freedom" is somewhat nice.

[Anonymous No.10754800]

>>10754292
a big enough mouth to suck management's large dong

[Anonymous No.10754806]

>>10753332
No if you like the topic/research enough to go through 4/5 years of grad school, which can be very annoying (autism everywhere + poverty etc.). Then getting a PhD will be worth it once you go to industry or national labs, but you have to network a lot, especially if you are not a citizen.

[Anonymous No.10754808]

>>10753340
I hate post WWII world order.

[Anonymous No.10754810]

>>10753332
OP here
>>10753340


Chemical

[Anonymous No.10754817]

>>10753851
Op here

If you are going to a national mid tier european university then trying to transfer to a state school then its a bad idea.

If you are going to an oxford/eth/polytechnique etc and then going to a stanford/princeton/mit then yes it may be worthwhile as long as rhe euro advisor can helo network you.

Basically depends on who you are working with, how strong is the group, and how much exposure to US universities and potential advisors they can give you.

But the easiest roite is to go directly into a PhD program on a research grant where you dont pay anything, if you are consistently unable to land one, then maybe grad school is not for you.

[Anonymous No.10754824]

>>10753923
Chemical engineering
Math is a tool, just like anything else for an engineer.

In fact most engineers out there never do any differential equations/laplace/fourier whatever at all in their day to day. The essence of engineering for a BS student is about learninng skills and problem solving methods.

[Anonymous No.10754828]

>>10754273
Yes i worked as a controls engineer post BS, before starting PhD.

Very different. It is important to have a theoretical idea of the basics (difference between feedback/feedforward, difference between P/PI/PID etc. ) But was given 3 months of on the job training about how to use programs, codes, procedures, dealing with end customers, suppliers etc.

Depends on your undergraduate program as well, i went to a mid tier engineering school in a third world country, US undergrads are more prepared for industry, but are not as smart unfortunately.

[Anonymous No.10754833]

>>10754292
OP here

Be open to using and learning new software.
Learn how to network, work with groups, deal with people etc.
Learn national codes, procedures etc to get your FE/PE licences.

When you get out there, you will be amazed at how many engineers get along with very little math, it is shockig and annoying, but it is the truth unfortunately.

[Anonymous No.10754851]

>>10754828
>>10754833
Thanks bros. I'm starting a mech e degree in the UK in September. I will be paying extra focus to the software/programming side.

[Anonymous No.10754978]

>>10751837
based grinder-genius alliance actually making a difference in the world

[Anonymous No.10754998]

>>10753194
I found combinatorics to be hard, but i don't think many people will end up taking taking it, i also find algebra and topology to be hard, but im okay with analysis and geometry.

[Anonymous No.10755181]

>>10751837
>It's another IQ thread

[Anonymous No.10755382]

>>10754119
okay sounds good to me
>>10754806
nah im a US citizen and im basically autistic anyways, i have had a few internships and may try to do some during grad school as well so hopefully that will help

[Anonymous No.10755416]

>>10754799
Interesting


I honestly just want to get a comfy teaching job but at make state school to give back

Is non-tenure track a common offer? How many papers did you have under your belt when you applied? Did you go to a top/meme school or just any R1 school?

[Anonymous No.10755426]

>be engineer
>mfw literally every other degree in existence HAS to AT LEAST do a master's to even compete with my salary

feels good to be do the hardest program

[Anonymous No.10755615]

>>10755416
I went to a R1 state school. I had about 12 papers (7 ok, 5 garbage) by the time i finished.

Non-tenure positions are a waste of time and the pay is abysmal, also there is no job security, you can get fired for any minor reason or budget readjustment whim. Unless you know the Department very well, i have seen cases where big profs hire their good previous students in non-tenure positions to keep them around.

Getting a PhD so that you end up in a ""comfy"" teaching positon (unless it is a tenured teachig track), is probably the dumbest thing you can do. These people end up nowhere, because they lose all their research skills. Academia in the US is built on research and grants, teaching is secondary. Unless you are black etc and end up at an HBCU, then that is pretty common because the research standards are abysmal anyways, and the main focus is helping as many minorities/rares graduate as possible.

[Anonymous No.10755618]

>>10753340

[Anonymous No.10755628]

>>10755181
Another seething midwit.

[Anonymous No.10755634]

>>10755426
the conclusions don’t follow from the premises and i have no idea why you think signals and systems, em and de’s is difficult

[Anonymous No.10755698]

>>10753194
Hardest classes were the ones where I either lacked the prerequisites or the motivation to keep up with the abstractions and proofs. (As a corollary, this includes every upper division course I took in the physics department, since physics seems to be more about pulling stuff out of your ass and seeing if it works than deductive reasoning or pattern recognition, which is more or less what math boils down to.)

[Anonymous No.10756818]

Any abusive advisor stories?

[Anonymous No.10756826]

>>10751837
I'm about to enter my second year of MS in Pure Mathematics, applying out for PhDs.

I was wondering if it'd be worth the time to take a year off and be a lecturer at a local State University or CC for a year, and work with one of my MS professors to try to get a publication, or to go straight into the PhD

[Anonymous No.10756838]

>>10756826
Apply, if you get accepted to a good PhD program, then go.
Otherwise, get a more professional relevant job, being a lecturer at a CC will help your teaching skills etc, but may end up being a waste of time.

[Anonymous No.10756867]

4th year PhD student in Computational Science in Engineering here. AMA

>>10751837
How many hours do you work a week as a prof? Is it more or less stressful than grad school?

[Anonymous No.10756900]

>>10751837
what would you do if one of your students hid momijis around all their experiments

pic clearly unrelated

[Anonymous No.10757139]

>>10756900
OP here
Idk what that is, but has to be clean and results have to be reproducible at all times

>>10756867
I work an average of 70 hours. For me, it is easier than being a graduate student, but more boring, because i spend a big amount of my time doing admin work.

[Anonymous No.10757154]

>>10751837
do you enjoy being a diversity hire?
did you humiliate yourself by sucking up to the sjws in the administration?
what apart from your proofreading did you contribute to the papers that bear your name?
do you enjoy writing grant proposals instead of doing science?
how does it feel being old geezer laughed at by your students?
do you feel that the clarity of your thinking diminishes?

In general, how does it feel to be a sore looser?

[Anonymous No.10757160]

>>10753206
>You don't need math to be an engineer, thats a myth
go back to /pol retard

[Anonymous No.10757166]

>>10753210
I fucking hate you then. You are doing useless bullshit that will be forgotten 2 years after you publish this shit. And sadly, bi portion of US and Chineese academias do this shit: just slap another minuscule modification to your method and rush to publish some shit to write another grant. Could you please just die and remove the noise you papers create?

[Anonymous No.10757180]

>>10754824
>Chemical engineering
you're bloody lab monkey. The only useful thing you do with your brain is washing vials after you pathetic experiments.

>The essence of engineering for a BS student is about learninng skills and problem solving methods

haven't heard anything more stupid yet

[Anonymous No.10757199]

>>10757154
>do you enjoy being a diversity hire?
I am not even american lmao
>did you humiliate yourself by sucking up to the sjws in the administration?
not at all
>what apart from your proofreading did you contribute to the papers that bear your name?
Did all the work, i am pretty good
>do you enjoy writing grant proposals instead of doing science?
thats the game and I like winning
>how does it feel being old geezer laughed at by your students?
circle of life
>do you feel that the clarity of your thinking diminishes?
it fluctuates significantly
>In general, how does it feel to be a sore looser?
not sure

>>10757160
lol

>>10757166
you have a very romantic view of science

>>10757180
stay mad lmao

[Anonymous No.10757294]

>>10753907
>preferring pracitcal over theoretical tasks
>choosing maths/pysics over engineering
dont tell me you choose your major for the presitge

[Anonymous No.10757313]

I'm a junior (Biochemistry). I always thought I wanted to get a PhD, but I think I'm starting to realize I might just want only a masters and just go right into biotech. Retire at ~50 years old, then get a PhD later on in life. What do you guys think?

[Anonymous No.10757379]

>>10757199
>thats the game and I like winning
play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
>you have a very romantic view of science
you probably are married with children and you forgone your dreams for the sake of natural comfort and a sense of belonging and stability. That's why you think that I am too idealistic. You look at your work as the means instead of the end goal, obviously you have different perspective on science. But honestly, I kinda dislike people like you ever since all these bullshit discussion of vacations, cars and children at the lunch with my labmates and professors. Bloody pissed me off, I thought I was the only crazy one. But since then I found similarly driven people and just accepted existence of folks like you.

[Anonymous No.10757409]

>>10757379
None of that is true, i do have dreams and ambitions of doing good science, however you dont get the freedom to do so unless you play the game with the admins and the bean counters, this is the case of academia in the us, unfortunately.

I used to be like you, and i disliked people who spam academia, but it is the only way out of being a mindless postdoc for 10 years. I have seen many stick to their guns and drown or get too disillusioned by the system they leave completely.

I am disillusioned myself, and plan on leaving academia eventually, but as long as i am in it, i will not sink.

[Anonymous No.10757413]

>>10753194
A course taught by Terry Tao. The guy talks like Eminem, it's hard to follow.

[Anonymous No.10757511]

>>10753206
>you dont need math to be an engineer
maybe to be a bad one

[Anonymous No.10757563]

>>10751837
How did you review when taking the Licensure exam for Engineers?

[Anonymous No.10757564]

>>10751837
Kek

[Anonymous No.10757586]

>>10751837

>tfw 120 big boy

[Anonymous No.10757682]

>>10755615
What about getting in a comfy permanent teaching-only position?

[Anonymous No.10757703]

>>10757586
Go for a trade. You don't belong in science.

[Anonymous No.10757735]

LMAO @ all the engineers getting mad that they aren't good at math and that they don't need it

[Anonymous No.10758163]

>>10757586
You can alway find a job in HVAC

[Anonymous No.10758192]

>>10757682
Yes, teaching track position are not uncommon,
however you have to do continuous improvement teaching/accreditation etc activities, which I never found appealing myself

[Anonymous No.10758220]

>>10751837
So my advisor told me I was a disappointment and that I should be ashamed of myself at our last meeting. Anyone else have this experience?

[Anonymous No.10758369]

>>10757379
>you probably are married with children and you forgone your dreams for the sake of natural comfort and a sense of belonging and stability.
what are your dreams, travel and work for some jew who pays you lots of money?

[Anonymous No.10758416]

>>10758220
not personally, but heard people go through it before, as long as you are not at risk of being kicked out, just ignore and keep working

[Anonymous No.10758417]

>>10758163
The pay its shit

[Anonymous No.10758450]

>>10758416
>just ignore and keep working
Pretty much all I can do until I get back in his good graces.

[Anonymous No.10758453]

>>10758220
>I should be ashamed of myself at our last meeting.
u should

[Anonymous No.10758490]

>tfw applied to a masters in mathematical statistics and a masters in math
Kinda low key hoping that I get rejected from mathematical statistics and accepted to math since then I don't need to make the choice between jobs or something challenging. I will know in 2 weeks or so

[chorizo No.10758757]

>>10751837
ahahahahahaha

[Anonymous No.10759900]

>>10753206
>you don't need math to be an engineer
pcb soldering blue collar worker detected