My worry is that I feel I'm behind in life and think I'm late to start career when I graduate at 27. The postdoc is with my PhD advisor. Well, I sort of didn't exactly do that. I dont want you to be terrified to leave, but it is important to be strategic about it. I DREAD having to open another article to read. Cookie Notice I was expecting grad school to be similar to what I did in undergrad in that its just a take what you want out of it experience. And I dont regret finishing I was in my fifth year by the time I thought about leaving. Many of my Masters students are gaining a second degree so that they can change their career path and move on to a field that excites them. Its like playing an old NES game that was made hard since the developers didnt know how to make content and figured that making a game hard would make the playability last longer. I don't know what to do anymore. I am currently pursuing my MS (thesis option) and I have a really amazing research assistantship right now. Read it and weep. Everything was always super serious and everyone was stuck in this hivemind mentality. Anything more is a bonus. Of those who finish, lots of people feel like they didn't change the world with their PhD, and that's fine - most people don't, and that's not required. You mention you love doing research. They send us jobs on a linkserv that dont apply for us most of the time. Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. Hi y'all! Others feel forced to choose a career like Law or Medicine because they received high marks in school and their family insists they shouldnt waste them. Just because everyone around you says that you are wrong doesn't mean that you are; however, it's an incredibly strong indication you should at least take the possibility into consideration. Discussion forum for current, past, and future students of any discipline completing post-graduate studies - taught or research. Relax and put one foot in front of the other. Obey the authority figure. What is work-life balance like in academia in Japan? 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Amber Rose Barnes who boasted about killing and skinning husky pup pleads no-contest to animal cruelty and is given six-month deferred sentence, NYC Mayor Eric Adams When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools., VW wouldnt help locate car with abducted child because GPS subscription expired, US sues chemical company over cancer risk to minority area, Mississippi governor signs bill banning transgender health care for minors, Danish royals share photo in front of the Taj Mahal that reminds people of Diana's 'iconic' photo, Come see Zendaya Lose her Screen Actors Guild Award. So to anyone out there genuinely ask yourself if you want a life outside work and when you leave your work are you eager to go back and feel the desire to do it on your free time because I feel those are the only people who will seriously make it in this career. Some advisors are kind, but few are so kind that they'll use their scarce funding to renew someone who has no possibility of being useful to them in any way. For example, many people pick Psychology because they are interested in issues of the human mind. Need help with your relationship? And then I realized that I hated that shit, so I started working in tech and doubled my salary again. I got accepted into a PhD program in that field, but I soon realized how little interest I had in that field of research, especially compared to my colleagues. By Kathryn R. Wedemeyer-Strombel. Here are six common mistakes you should AVOID while writing your personal statement for grad school: #1: Generic Statements "I am sincere, dedicated, and hard-working." "I enjoy reading." I love psychology and want to understand people better." Often, by the time you are faced with the reality of your degree, its too late to change your mind. Would I have a really hard time at that, even if I'm honest and elaborate on my lack of fit with my previous institution? Should I quit my PhD, has anyone every done this and started over? Ive got tons of posts (linked below) on how to do it. Create some space around yourself for the mental work of it. This semester I will only have one course and will solely be focusing on my project. Yeah you might be right about traveling. We werent really allowed to pursue our own interests. I was never really allowed to express my own train of thought. Grad school is a volume-based business. How to draw a truncated hexagonal tiling? You can check it out and read the first chapter for free, here. I'm so lost. I know this is an old post but yesspent 5 years doing my masters and I quit. Pick one and go start on it right now - hopefully you'll feel better (it's generally worked for me, when I've been feeling down). Two first-authored papers is not bad, I seen a lot of people getting phd for way less and still being full of themselves. I am going to give myself the next few days to come to terms with my next step. You don't need more things, you have it all. I did not do well in my PhD. What do you think of a 33 and 25 age gap? Tuesday i tend to go to work. Why the High School Years are Special. And like 68% of other college students nationwide, that means you just graduated from college with debtaround $30,000 of it. Your supervisor wants you to stay, which means you probably did something right during your PhD. @Sam That's nice, but I never said getting a PhD is a bad idea. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. I'm sorry for not replying to each of your comments, but do know that I am reading them. I was only correcting the previous poster. I really cant comprehend why people even go unless there is some crazy ass reward at the end. Tell that person (or those people) to go screw off. You dont have the same stability, so you shouldnt berate yourself for deviating from what feels like proper timing. Can you imagine, how bad feeling could it be, being there, after 42km of running? And it might shock you. The school's director, Fadziso Jena, is a former certified nursing assistant whose state license expired in 2010, a year after MPI opened, according to . It's better to live a modest life that makes you happy, even at the expense of others, then to be rich and f'ing miserable b/c you decided to make everyone else happy.. usually folks that won't be alive in 20 years time.. which just leaves you miserable while they're dead. Ultimately, you have to figure out what makes you happy, and stop listening to folks constantly running you down and telling you you're not good enough. So how do you quit grad school and not ruin your life? Some are in their 20s, but many are in their 30s, 40s, or beyond. I truly never wanted to go to grad school in the first place. You've got the rest of your life to worry about that, if you want to, and it's not required even then. I had a couple of Indian folks tell me they had a massive weight lifted off their shoulders when they told their family to stuff themselves. So how do you survive? I feel that I won't be able to do anything after my postdoc year, and I will just be a burden and disappointment to my parents. Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree. Do you want to know the really good news? I kept on going because I desperately hoped I would eventually garner a genuine interest in what I was doing. Its not handing out business cards, rather, its conducting informational interviews and building relationships beyond the academy. How to choose between industry and academia after mediocre past work in both? Im really now in the process of deprograming/exiting it. I wake up at 4:30 a.m. and go to the gym, come home, shower, and start writing a story that's due later in the day. But, god-willing.. Only think. For more information, please see our worth it? You need to have a moment of clarity where you decide to be your own person and stop having your family tell you what you need to do and where you need to go in life. The irony is that the work I now do isnt really with transferrable skills from academia. I have accomplished NOTHING in the last three days. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. I really feel like you have to be insane to want to finish grad school lol. Maybe you picked a degree you didnt like, but dont forget to focus on the special friendships you made as you battled through it. But its really hard to be concrete on this. Sabrina Kaminer. Join the Lipstick Alley 2023 NCAA Tournament Challenge. I struggled with low self confidence throughout my bachelors, masters and PhD in chemical engineering. This is not an all-inclusive list. I suggest you find a counsellor and discuss where you are and how you feel. Is there a colloquial word/expression for a push that helps you to start to do something? You can have conversations with supportive professors or staff at a graduate school to find out what this would entail. @Cell Where I've worked, a PhD is automatically hired into a position that it would take ~5 years to get promoted to from entry-level with BSc, and the PhD can offer more job opportunities and security in the right industry. No. Press J to jump to the feed. Theyre unable to enroll in the classes they want, they have trouble connecting with their lecturers, or they find themselves living through unexpected financial or medical hardships. 1. And my situation is worse than before. High quality Grad School Ruined My Life accessories designed and sold by independent artists around the world. For many people, the most vividly remembered and emotionally charged of those years are spent in high school. Why is it that I feel so burnt out? I accepted this opportunity because that's what it was- an opportunity. At least for me, I never considered the results in science 'done'; also pace is probably faster, so you will get getting quite a few achievements under your belt quickly (since you are smart). The reason I say to do this while youre still enrolled is because: I would network before resume. You'll often see universities touting their 98+% 4-year graduation rate as a major marker of student success at their school. I dont feel bad at all that its not for me. What should I do? A Rant about (Potentially) OCD Ruining My Life. My SO and I moved across the country for this opportunity back in August. They throw a bunch of crazy jargon and hypothetical shit around just to fuck with us, not to get us to learn anything meaningful. They want high standards yet there is not even the reward of helping us get employed easier, rip offffff. No networking system. Not to mention I lived on loans the whole time and could never find work at the school or within the town I was in. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Last semester was my first semester of graduate school. A counsellor and discuss where you are and how you feel conversations with supportive or! I struggled with low self confidence throughout my bachelors, masters and PhD in chemical engineering in conversations being,... I realized that I hated that shit, so I started working in tech and my... The reward of helping us get employed easier, rip offffff I realized that I hated shit... And put one foot in front of the human mind shit, so I started working in tech doubled... 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