PSA: Don't get a PhD, kids.

[Dauphin]

Rich, don't Oxford only give BAs. No BScs?

[Provost Harrison]

Silence you!

[Dauphin]

I'll rephrase. You have a BA? Correct?

[Provost Harrison]

M.Biochem actually.

[Dauphin]

Damnedit.

[Pekka]

Unless you really want to be a professor, meaning you should really want to do research, which means you really really want to write papers, which means you really really really want to publish in good journals, because nothing else would matter. Unless, of course, you're into it for the benefits of not having to get a real job and grow up one day.

With all the respect for everything science, universities, or at least many of them, are filled with idiots. They are not intellectually superior, they are usually just very pedantic and sometimes even hard working. As far as intellectual contributions go, well, those are more rare. As far as good professors with good management skills go, that's almost a dying breed. Any faculty is just really a battle field of inner politics, bashing and fighting. It gets irritating because everyone in there thinks they're smart, even elite smart, and no one is ready to do any kind of compromises. Most are inept when it comes to social skills, so it leads to a very hostile environment. Sociopaths will surely not notice it though, so they're kind of OK with it. If you're lucky enough to want to be a professor, and you've got a good one as your mentor, go ahead.

If not? Get your PhD and get the hell out. Of course some fields are more science driven than others, so PhD might be a good idea. But only if you reaaaally like the field. Otherwise it's a waste of time and soul. Doing a dissertation isn't difficult, the research required for it isn't that much, and really knowing the field enough to position it and know what you're talking about, it's not too heavy of a burden unless you don't have a brain. Course work isn't too much. Putting up with all the **** that goes along with it though? Why not become a whore, I mean they take it up the ass too for more money. Become a yes sir, no sir, submissive idiot robot.

So make sure you really like the subject, you got a good team and environment to work with and then you're set. You have to have both of the above.

[Provost Harrison]

...and the thing about being successful in academia is that the biggest element is down to pure bloody luck, too...

[MRT144]

Oh? In what?

Playa hating degree, honkey lips.

[Tupac Shakur]

How accurate is this statement?

By the time a person gets a couple years into grad school they're so broken and miserable it's just not possible to be an antisocial super nerd. Turning geeks into drunks is a pretty astounding side effect of physics PhD programs.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/real-genius,49980

[KrazyHorse]

Spot on.

[Tupac Shakur]

I thought of you when I read it.

[KrazyHorse]

JM is a better example, IMO.

[Zoetstofzoetje]

...and the thing about being successful in academia is that the biggest element is down to pure bloody luck, too...

God does not play dice.

[Tupac Shakur]

Why would you knowingly use a quote that has been proven incorrect in the years since it was uttered?

[KrazyHorse]

Because he's a giant douche.