About Graduate Studies: A Blast from the Past
Two days ago someone asked me about doing graduate studies. Â He had a master's degree and was wondering about whether to do a PhD. Â I told him that if he could imagine doing something else with his life, he probably should do so. Â Doing a PhD is just too painful. Â It's long (in my field it typically takes about 6-8 years *after* doing a Masters; lots of students take longer), it's really hard, it's really painful, and there's no guarantee of a job when you 're finished. Â If it's your passion, and you can't imagine doing anything else, you should do it (I told him). Â But otherwise ... not so much. Looking back over old blog posts, I see that I talked about graduate studies almost exactly four years ago today. Â Here is what I said then: ****************************************************************** I teach one undergraduate and one graduate course a semester. Teaching undergraduates is a passion of mine. I love doing it. These are nineteen year olds who are inquisitive, interested, and interesting. I enjoy lecturing to a [...]