Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by eli_gottlieb 5193 days ago
Do keep in mind, while we're all bashing academia, that there are those who go the opposite direction. I finished a researchy undergrad, went to industry, basically got miserable, and have gone right back to apply for PhD programs. I'm incredibly happy to know I have at least the one admission, even if it doesn't have guaranteed funding!
1 comments
sunahsuh 5193 days ago
Just for full disclosure, I did the same, in that I did research and publication as an undergrad, worked in industry briefly and then went back to do a PhD (in my case, I had gotten in before I finished undergrad and deferred my admission to work for a bit.)

Personally, I'm not bashing academia per se -- I think it's great for people with the right mix of temperament and motivation. The travesty is that so many people that start PhDs go in without a clear understanding of what the degree entails and what characteristics are necessary for success in their programs and the tenure race. I could go on for a long time about the reasons but I think a lot of it boils down to the way schools work up to undergrad -- the kinds of qualities that get you good grades up through college are not well correlated with the things that make you a great researcher. The worst is in fields where the norm is for undergrads to go straight into PhD programs.

And please note I'm not at all saying this as a comment on your situation. I suspect the fact that you've done research as an undergrad probably means you have a good handle on what you're getting yourself into =)

link
eli_gottlieb 5192 days ago
I quite agree, actually, and I'm glad that my undergraduate department had an actual course to solve this problem.

CS491DD: Empirical Research Methods in Computer Science

One of my favorites, despite the incredible workload. Though for my field I would have preferred Formal Research Methods in CS, but hey.

There's also the NSF-sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates program, which is basically "summer internship in graduate school." If you do those and like it, you should go for a PhD, because you like academia.

On the other hand, I really didn't like industry when I got there, and for that I blame the fact that I didn't have an industrial internship in college. I didn't know what I would think of full-time industrial programming until I got there.

link