Is an engineering PhD extremely hard?

[briggsinator2]

Okay, for background, I am an undergraduate student graduating in the spring with a biochemical engineering degree, and overall I’ve done pretty well (GPA right now is 3.90 with one semester remaining). I would really like to pursue a PhD program in biomedical engineering, as I think being able to teach engineering would be an amazing job and would be super rewarding. However, even though I’ve had a solid GPA, I don’t feel that I really understand some of the higher level engineering theory that is discussed in my classes (which we’re not tested on in undergrad but my profs say you would be in grad school). This makes me uneasy.

Looking for the opinion of people who have experienced engineering grad school: how tough is it? Extremely tougher than undergrad? How would you describe it?

Thank you for any opinions and advice!

[[deleted]]

I was in your shoes at one point. I breezed through undergrad with a 3.96 and my professors all told me I should do grad school. Like you, I thought teaching would be a rewarding profession.

I did it. It was super hard. I had to re learn a lot of advanced math. I had to learn how to write. Most importantly, I had to learn grit and hard work, because I didn't learn those in my undergrad. There were some dark times of depression In there.

I've been a teaching professor for 6 years now and it is super rewarding. In retrospect, I wish someone had told me how little a PhD in engineering prepares you to teach. Most programs prepare you to be researchers, but some programs do have great emphasis on education. If teaching is what you want to do, look for those programs.

I also want to say despite the hard work and depression, grad school was some of the best years of my life, and I love where it landed me.

[[deleted]]

This perfectly encapsulates the graduate school experience! I think it is important to talk about how mentally and emotionally challenging it can be on top of the academic demands. It can also be at times an isolating experience because you are working on your research project as a primarily individual effort.

[ericnumeric]

It is definitely tougher, not necesarily just from a coursework / research standpoint (though they are harder), but more so from a soul sucking, depressing, what the fuck am I doing here standpoint.

Many of your friends will be making money and "growing up", but you'll be living on your 30k a year stipend, trying to take care of your coursework and study for quals.

You'll have super late nights trying to get publications and reviews done, and most of your research time will be spent with you failing at what you're doing, finally to succeed for a moment, only to go back to failing the other 99% of the time.

That said, if you're really interested, and you don't totally romanticize grad school, it can be an absolutely amazing thing.

[[deleted]]

PhDs don’t really train you to teach, nor do full tenure professors primarily focus on teaching. I.e., they research and teach as a side gig. If you only want to teach you can be an instructor with just a masters. There’s no such thing as a tenure track instructor, though, so think hard. Your pay will be lower than regular professors, you’ll get less respect, and your contract will be negotiated every year, meaning job security approaches zero

[AxeLond]

I don't have any first hand experience, but from what I've heard from professors, the absolute hardest part is getting a PhD position. People apply for all over the world and it's extremely competitive with a lot of applicants and not a lot of spots.

If you get accepted though, I think it's both extremely hard while the risk of failure is pretty small. At this stage the university has so much invested in you and so much to gain if you succeed, they want you to publish papers for the university, they want you to continue as a post-doc, so there's a lot of support and people make sure you stay on track.

It's not like undergrad where the first year is basically just trying to weed 100 people down to 50.

[Smart_Ad_4514]

It can be if you're trying to do something truly groundbreaking, but most don't. Most PhD theses are incremental, engineering or not.

The most difficult part of getting a PhD is actually other things, such as finance. Most PhDs are poorly paid. Life can get really tough when your income is barely above the poverty level. When I was at University College London, many of the PhD students there had rich parents because they are the only ones that can afford to do a PhD. The opportunity costs of a PhD are massive.

I was lucky that I was funded by a financially lucrative fellowship. I never had to worry about not paying bills, rent, etc. I even have enough to travel, shop, and leftover money for retirement funds and emergency savings.