[mcovalt]

Congrats on making a decision sooner rather than later. I also dropped out of graduate school and remembered having some similar thoughts as you.

I remembered feeling a bit lonely, too. There's no one to talk to about your work since no one understands it. It's a bit obvious in hindsight. Research topics are at the fuzzy fringe of human knowledge. They exist just outside of others' research topics. Your job is to find something that makes the field even more complex. Or, even better, connect the dots that show it may not be so complex after all. In either case, no one knows what the hell you're doing. If they're in your little tiny field, they may have some vague idea about how it may relate to their own little universe of research. But most likely, when you come home and a loved one asks what you did today, you won't be able to have an answer and that can be frustrating. To compound the issue, everyone is familiar with what a PhD is, but few know how academia works. And there's some not-great aspects of it.

I've continued my research on my own time because it interests me. I no longer have looming deadlines and I don't have to check my bank account in the Wendy's drive-through line to see if my stipend will cover a chicken sandwich. I still value academia, though, and I know that my hobby-research will come nowhere close to matching the quality of research done with the resources provided by academic institutions.

[Beldin]

> But most likely, when you come home and a loved one asks what you did today, you won't be able to have an answer

My PhD - and subsequent research - is in security. I will happily explain my research to anyone who will listen. In case I'm not sure, I just start explaining just in case.

How privacy in voting is important. How most scraping studies have a fundamental flaw. How to catch scientific fraud.

Current WiP is on reconstructing possible histories of NTFS files. Sounds boring? We're working to catch criminals that claim "never had that file".

Maybe it's the subject, maybe it's just me, but this research stuff is friggin awesome and I'll happily shout that to the world!

[afr0ck]

It seems like you are very new to Academia.

[Beldin]

I've been in academia since 2004; just not US academia. Maybe that's the main difference?

There's plenty of wrongs in academia on this side of the pond as well, but some of the stories here just couldn't occur.

Case in point: a regular PhD position is an actual full-time job (with regular salary, healthcare, other benefits) here. You have to apply for such a position - which comes with a supervisor & a project description. No "can't find a supervisor" problems; no deciding on a subject all on your own.