Phdcels how is your daily life?

[thespanishcel]

Always been curious about what your routine is or how a normal day in your life goes. When I passed from undergraduate to a postgrad it was a huge change having so few lectures per week (I had less than 10 hours) and not having to worry anymore about exams as my masters grading was entirely assignment based. I also liked the relaxed atmosphere, professors gave you stuff to read but it was never compulsory, it was just "very recommended" so you would understand better the next lecture but they were never going to ask you if you read it or deduct points from your grade. So if the reading was interesting I would do it but if it was boring I didn't give a fuck and in the next lecture I understood the content quite well so all good. Regarding my assignments I didn't like cramming so I started long before the deadline and did a little bit of work (around 250/500 words) every day and it was much better.

Is it similar for PhD students or you have even more freedoms? Do you go to lectures or just thesis supervisor meetings? Are there exams? How many hours a week are you physically on campus? How are you graded until you submit your thesis which takes around 3/4 years?

 

[mistersinister]

Don't know, don't care
Will never do a PhD that's for sure
I prefer work

 

[thespanishcel]

Don't know, don't care
Will never do a PhD that's for sure
I prefer work

I don't want to do it either. It takes too long and I'm tired of reading papers and other academic sheit, couldn't see myself doing it for another 3/4 years and on top of that researching something 100% original that hasn't been done before.

 

[CurryLMAO]

Me and @Fallenleaves are PhD in nuclear physics
Expect doomsday soon

 

[DryDick]

Me and @Fallenleaves are PhD in nuclear physics
Expect doomsday soon

My cousin is a genius who got a PhD in nuclear physics from Stanford. I got a shitty psychology degree and haven't worked in that field at all, just crappy retail jobs

 

[Linesnap99]

I prefer work

thats what a normie would say innit

 

[Transcended Trucel]

My cousin is a genius who got a PhD in nuclear physics from Stanford. I got a shitty psychology degree and haven't worked in that field at all, just crappy retail jobs

IQ mogged brutal

 

[erenyeager]

I don't want to do it either. It takes too long and I'm tired of reading papers and other academic sheit, couldn't see myself doing it for another 3/4 years and on top of that researching something 100% original that hasn't been done before.

Academics don't mean shit in a world that keep sucking men who are top 1percenr

 

[Ahnfeltia]

Is it similar for PhD students or you have even more freedoms? Do you go to lectures or just thesis supervisor meetings? Are there exams? How many hours a week are you physically on campus? How are you graded until you submit your thesis which takes around 3/4 years?

For me as a math PhD student in the Netherlands:

• In addition to research, I basically just have to be a teaching assistent (TA) for one course per quarter for three quarters of the year (barring the last year, in which you only do research).
• I don't have to attend any lectures, altho there are nonmandatory seminars and conferences and stuff. I happen to have a weekly supervisor meeting of one hour, altho this is probably a bit more frequent than necessary.
• No courses, no exams.
• I'm only on campus for TAing and supervisor meetings. I have a shared office, but I hardly ever go there. I prefer working from home. This is rare AFAIK.
• There are no in-between grades. There is only a single go-no-go after about a year.
• PhD programs here (in math anyways) usually last 4 years.

Barring the grading work I have to do (which often seriously drives me up the wall due to the quality being so piss-poor) I find it pretty chill. Then again, my contract stipulates 40 hours per week, but I seldomly work more than 30

 

[Freder]

Barring the grading work I have to do (which often seriously drives me up the wall due to the quality being so piss-poor

And they fucking hate me when I say that even science and engineering degrees are a lot easier to get in todays world than they used to be.

 

[MediumDiploma]

And they fucking hate me when I say that even science and engineering degrees are a lot easier to get in todays world than they used to be.

and why is that? is it because of the internet?

 

[MediumDiploma]

my professor said it is harder today, they have to make tests harder because of the internet , and keep the class grade percentage in their requires baseline and threshold.

 

[thespanishcel]

For me as a math PhD student in the Netherlands:

• In addition to research, I basically just have to be a teaching assistent (TA) for one course per quarter for three quarters of the year (barring the last year, in which you only do research).
• I don't have to attend any lectures, altho there are nonmandatory seminars and conferences and stuff. I happen to have a weekly supervisor meeting of one hour, altho this is probably a bit more frequent than necessary.
• No courses, no exams.
• I'm only on campus for TAing and supervisor meetings. I have a shared office, but I hardly ever go there. I prefer working from home. This is rare AFAIK.
• There are no in-between grades. There is only a single go-no-go after about a year.
• PhD programs here (in math anyways) usually last 4 years.

Barring the grading work I have to do (which often seriously drives me up the wall due to the quality being so piss-poor) I find it pretty chill. Then again, my contract stipulates 40 hours per week, but I seldomly work more than 30

That's interesting and is your supervisor very strict and analyzes your thesis with magnifying glass? Because after submitting my master's dissertation I realized I fucked up kinda badly in one of the statistical tests and while it didn't invalidate my entire research, it was a mistake very easy to notice and that should have been addressed. However the supervisor and other people who graded didn't seem to care (or were too lazy to look at my dissertation with a bit of detail) and gave me a very good grade kek.

 

[thespanishcel]

my professor said it is harder today, they have to make tests harder because of the internet , and keep the class grade percentage in their requires baseline and threshold.

In my country Spain all the old students and professors say that before 2009 when the Bologna Process was stablished (the objective was to make all the university system in the EU more standardized and similar between countries) university was much harder because there was much more independent learning. You went to lectures (non mandatory assistance) where the professor just explained and then you were on your own until the final exam, which weighted 100% of the grade in that course. After Bologna they introduced something called "continous assessment" where you also have midterms, group projects and assignments so the weight of the final exam is reduced or in very rare occassions there isn't a final exam, it really depends on the course and the professor. I had courses where the final exam just weighted 40% and there was no minimum grade (you could get a 0 but still pass if you did flawlessly in the continous assement so the final grade is 5 or more) while in others it weighted 70% and if you didn't pass it you failed the course. If you want you can also choose "unique assessment" which as the name says it's just doing the final exam.

They say it's easier because it feels like high school 2.0 because all those assignments and group projects can be considered mandatory homework and also that the difficulty level has been reduced but honestly I've looked at exams from pre-Bologna years and they aren't that different, what has really changed is the structure: Before Bologna it was common that you had courses that lasted more than one semester and you had to study all that crap for the final exam. Nowadays, those annual courses are usually divided in two or three parts (and you do one part per semester) with each part which its own exam and grade.

 

[Ahnfeltia]

And they fucking hate me when I say that even science and engineering degrees are a lot easier to get in todays world than they used to be.

One aspect that may contribute to this is that (to my knowledge) Dutch educational institutions (all of them) will adjust the level if everyone did poorly.

In secondary school I distinctly remember that one time in French class everyone fluked a test except me. The teacher allowed everyone to do a retake because we can't have everyone fluke now can we? A couple of months later the situation was reversed: I seriously botched a test whereas the rest of the class did OK. Guess who wasn't allowed a retake?

In university it wasn't rare for everyone's grades to be adjusted upward because the exam had been made so poorly. In primary school standards are being lowered as well: secondary school teachers complain endlessly about how kids fresh out of primary school are inept when it comes to spelling and arithmetic.

That's interesting and is your supervisor very strict and analyzes your thesis with magnifying glass? Because after submitting my master's dissertation I realized I fucked up kinda badly in one of the statistical tests and while it didn't invalidate my entire research, it was a mistake very easy to notice and that should have been addressed. However the supervisor and other people who graded didn't seem to care (or were too lazy to look at my dissertation with a bit of detail) and gave me a very good grade kek.

My supervisor ain't very strict at all. My supervisors of the past haven't been either. Heck, when working on my bachelor thesis (which essentially consisted of fleshing out my supervisor's paper) I found mistakes in his peer-reviewed published paper. The paper that was supposed to be the starting point for my master thesis was also flawed. I'm pretty sure my master thesis contains a mistake as well, but my supervisor of course didn't notice. They're probably too busy having a life to do their work properly.

The quality of academia is absolutely abysmal these days. I wouldn't be surprised if I am the strictest and most conscientious person in the department.

 

[Freder]

and why is that? is it because of the internet?

Internet is one thing, but standards and requirements for what student have to know are much lower now too. If university kept same level they used to 80% of universities would go bankrupt.

Imagine University where you need to know much more and you can't use internet, shit you would have to study in library 24/7 and by doing so you would read about many other subjects just to find one you were searching for. Your knowledge would be much broader and way deeper.

 

[JayGoptri]

Always been curious about what your routine is or how a normal day in your life goes. When I passed from undergraduate to a postgrad it was a huge change having so few lectures per week (I had less than 10 hours) and not having to worry anymore about exams as my masters grading was entirely assignment based. I also liked the relaxed atmosphere, professors gave you stuff to read but it was never compulsory, it was just "very recommended" so you would understand better the next lecture but they were never going to ask you if you read it or deduct points from your grade. So if the reading was interesting I would do it but if it was boring I didn't give a fuck and in the next lecture I understood the content quite well so all good. Regarding my assignments I didn't like cramming so I started long before the deadline and did a little bit of work (around 250/500 words) every day and it was much better.

Is it similar for PhD students or you have even more freedoms? Do you go to lectures or just thesis supervisor meetings? Are there exams? How many hours a week are you physically on campus? How are you graded until you submit your thesis which takes around 3/4 years?

I've been around this world enough to know, now days, in a humanities pH.d, especially if you lodging and food is paid for or you are NEET, you will be doing a lot of NOTHING. You will have discussions with people to help you wrote your dissertation and eventually publish. If you enjoy this sort of thing then you will like it. Though it depends on the field. Today almost EVERYwhere in the Humanities fields is Left-wing centred. So trying to write a social-psychology piece which finds evidence (say for example) that "Incels have a real plight" , and then trying to have it published and taken seriously by mainstream academics, FORGET IT !

 

[Oroborus]

 

[thespanishcel]

I've been around this world enough to know, now days, in a humanities pH.d, especially if you lodging and food is paid for or you are NEET, you will be doing a lot of NOTHING. You will have discussions with people to help you wrote your dissertation and eventually publish. If you enjoy this sort of thing then you will like it. Though it depends on the field. Today almost EVERYwhere in the Humanities fields is Left-wing centred. So trying to write a social-psychology piece which finds evidence (say for example) that "Incels have a real plight" , and then trying to have it published and taken seriously by mainstream academics, FORGET IT !

Wow so I had a completely wrong idea of PhD programs. I thought that your supervisor was very strict and looked at every tiny detail of your thesis and that's why it took so long to write it, because it had to be perfect kek. I'm aware that humanities is very left wing so doing a PhD in that area must be suifuel, at least in science you can be neutral and in business unless you're doing something like marketing or HR you can avoid talking about feminism, wokeness and all that sheit too.

 

[JayGoptri]

Wow so I had a completely wrong idea of PhD programs. I thought that your supervisor was very strict and looked at every tiny detail of your thesis and that's why it took so long to write it, because it had to be perfect kek. I'm aware that humanities is very left wing so doing a PhD in that area must be suifuel, at least in science you can be neutral and in business unless you're doing something like marketing or HR you can avoid talking about feminism, wokeness and all that sheit too.

Even in some Sciences and Business it has started to become troublesome but less so, I imagine.

Nah, pH.d is mostly bullshit. There might be some exceptions depending on individual programs or mentors but, usually it's a big jack-off fest.

 

[Zer0/∞]

Bunch of bragging high IQ privileged fags. @Incelius Savage

 

[Incelius Savage]

Bunch of bragging high IQ privileged fags. @Incelius Savage

Not reading a single word. Fuck those motherfuckers