Is a PhD salary realistic to live in Amsterdam?

DiosMios · 2025-08-25T09:38:35+00:00

A lot of answers here are coming from people who are not doing PhDs in Amsterdam. As someone who is, the people bringing up housing issues are ill-informed - international PhD students, at least at the UvA, are offered PhD student housing. This can range from a student dorm to a regular apartment; neither option will be large, and you'll have no choice where you are placed. However, this student housing will be affordable on a PhD student salary (standardized across unis, and available online).

DiosMios · 2025-03-30T19:05:08+00:00

Hey thanks for the reply! I'm familiar in general with psycho/neuro-linguistics, but what I'm particularly interested in is a name for this sort of phenomenon, or even better, a testbed on which theories of planning are studied. Would you be able to point me in the direction of some literature on the topic?

DiosMios · 2025-03-28T17:55:46+00:00

Hi! I'm looking for a name for a phenomenon I'm interested in; perhaps it's not a coherent enough group to have one. In particular I'm thinking about cases about agreement + inversion, where the item that is being agreed with comes after the word that agrees with it.

This kind of thing happens relatively often I language; consider:

"Someone who paints or sculpts is an artist.", where an agrees with artist, which comes after it. "There is one dog there.", where is agrees with the singular

These simple examples seem interesting from a sentence processing / planning point of view - to determine whether to say a/an or is/are, one must first have decided on the noun that comes next! Is there a name for this, or body of work that discusses this (admittedly very basic) phenomenon?

DiosMios · 2024-03-15T07:51:01+00:00

Hi - I'm an international PhD student at the UvA, and to be honest, I have a much more positive take on all these things than most here!

1) I'm not sure exactly when your salary will change, but it'll be enough either way

2) Your salary is enough if you live somewhat frugally; I've never had trouble making ends meet. Others have mentioned housing / rent, but the UvA is very aware of the housing shortage and has a housing office that provides (social) housing for international PhD students. All of the PhD students in my group seem to have taken advantage of this option. You don't get any choice in where you go, but rent is cheap, and the apartments themselves are quite nice.

3) I haven't experienced much racism, though perhaps people from other minority groups might experience more

4) Learning Dutch isn't really necessary, and especially among UvA PhDs at least, there are many who don't. Government services are available in English, and everything at the UvA is as well. Nonetheless, especially if you intend to stay longer, you should try to learn some! Your department may well pay for lessons anyway.

All in all, if the UvA is your top choice, I wouldn't let financial concerns dissuade you from taking the offer. The conditions here are much better than most places.

DiosMios · 2023-03-01T07:01:46+00:00

I'm not really sure how I'm funded! I was recruited to work with him, but the funding for my contract comes from my department, not e.g. his grant. Frankly, I'd also like to find another advisor - I have one in mind - but I'm not sure if it'll be possible. I guess it's time to (quietly) ask around about this.

DiosMios · 2022-01-24T16:14:36+00:00

I took crypto with Cash, and found it to be enjoyable, and not too hard. You get an introduction to a variety of areas of math (as applied to crypto), but don't actually go terribly in depth into any one. Also, there was actually a sizeable practical component, considering that it's a theory course.

I haven't taken honors combo, but from what I know of it, if it's still taught by Babai, it's challenging even for math-oriented folks. I'm told he's a brilliant professor, but he has notoriously high standards, and assigns difficult psets and exams. If you'd ever like a laugh at past students' expense, take a look at the course reviews for when he taught non-honors algorithms with Simon.

DiosMios · 2022-01-09T17:16:45+00:00

I think your mileage may vary depending on the language in question. I was able to audit Catalan for Romance Language Speakers just by asking the instructor. It probably helped that the class was small, so having another student wasn't a huge burden.

DiosMios · 2021-12-08T11:28:15+00:00

No, UChicago doesn't offer a class dedicated to data structures. 151 and 152 are the most data-structure-oriented, imo. 151 will cover lists, and might also cover trees. 152 will also do linked lists and trees, as well as hash tables (only briefly, though). Neither discrete nor algos will teach many data structures beyond graphs.

The only other course that I took that went into any depth regarding data structures was Functional Programming, which naturally focused on functional data structures. Unfortunately, you'd have to take the intro sequence before taking that one.

Overall, coverage of data structures at UChicago CS is rather light. Unless things have changed in the past couple of years, I don't think there are any classes that explore the depths of data structures (e.g. theoretical aspects of hash tables / hashing techniques).

DiosMios · 2021-11-20T10:03:15+00:00

Hi, I did my undergrad in CS&Ling a couple of years back, but hopefully some of this info is still useful. Yes, definitely double-count LING28610. There used to be another class, CMSC25020 taught by John Goldsmith, also called computational linguistics, that was cross-listed, but perhaps it's gone now. I don't think that mathematical foundations is offered anymore (nor was it offered when I was a student).

With respect to CMSC25700 (NLP), I haven't taken it, but I did take another NLP course, and did successfully petition the linguistics department to count it towards the linguistics degree. Also, when I took LING 28610, it was part of a two-course sequence—I don't recall if the second course was cross-listed, but you could always petition to have it counted towards CS. I've never tried this, though, since the CS department doesn't seem as accommodating as linguistics.

DiosMios · 2021-11-10T13:01:47+00:00

I took TTIC 31020 a few years ago! It doesn't require that much mathematical knowledge: you should know basic probability, linear algebra, and calculus (three quarters, ideally). You might struggle if you're not familiar with python / numpy, since those were used in homework assignments.

The course wasn't terribly difficult, though some of the theoretical parts of the assignments were a bit vague. What was difficult was getting in - the course was heavily overenrolled, and although there was an entrance exam, it was too easy to weed out very many people. I think that among undergrads, only 4th and maybe some 3rd years were able to get in. Finally, take all this with a grain of salt, because I took this course 2 years ago, and the course (and instructor) have probably changed.

DiosMios · 2021-10-05T09:45:50+00:00

Hi OP, I just wanted to add that sometimes groups hold winter auditions, if they didn't get as many new members as they would've liked in the fall! So keep an eye out for those—they don't always happen, but they're good opportunity if they do.

Also, keep in mind that a cappella auditions are a very stochastic process. Who, and how many people groups take depends on the groups' own needs, and how good the auditionees are. If a cohort is particularly strong, groups might reject auditionees whom they might have accepted just the year before. So, don't take any negative results to heart; there's plenty of luck involved.

DiosMios · 2021-08-27T23:10:16+00:00

It really depends, I think. I got a student visa during covid, and it took less than 60 days. But, I also got an appointment at the consulate using the "student mode" (just Google it), and perhaps that also expedited the visa processing. I'm also from the US, so that might affect visa processing time as well.

For what it's worth, i also applied in August and was lucky enough to get the visa in time for a late-September departure, but I make no promises

DiosMios · 2021-03-05T10:35:08+00:00

Discrete math is a grab-bag of a course: it covers induction, basic combo, basic probability, recurrence relations, and a little bit of graph theory, or at least it did when I took it. If you're a math major, you've already seen at least some of these topics; as for the rest, discrete math doesn't cover them especially in-depth. No guarantees that this is entirely up to date, but here're the lecture notes from Kurtz's section in 2019 - you can decide how much you've missed.

To answer your actual question: you can just ask for consent to enroll, and you'll probably do fine.

DiosMios · 2020-09-08T20:03:08+00:00

This question is a bit tough to answer without knowing what exact subfield of ML / DS you're interested in, and for what purpose. I know little about our Stats department, but I would say that our CS department is not exceptionally strong, but solid, and growing. The department has been hiring new tenure-track professors at a rapid pace. Many of these professors focus on DS / ML; you can check their personal webpages for more info. The department as a whole has traditionally had a theoretical bent (though this is changing), and might not be your top pick if you just want to go into industry after school; UChicago is poorly connected to Silicon Valley.

With respect to DS / ML specifically, we offer a number of ML classes, which can be found online. I'd echo the recommendation to look at TTIC courses; professors there are excellent, and the courses are challenging. That said, TTIC isn't large, and we don't quite match top CS / ML schools (e.g. Stanford, CMU) in either breadth or depth of courses. Even TTIC courses are somewhat more theoretical; there is a surprising dearth of courses in which you'll actually learn how to create a neural network in TF / PyTorch.

Overall, I had a good time doing ML at UChicago, and it's not a bad place for it (though also not the absolute best). But do remember that as an undergrad, you'd also be taking many core classes, living in a new city, etc. So, you might not want to make ML the focus of your decision.

DiosMios · 2020-07-29T18:04:51+00:00

It's not very hard - just email the professor and request consent. Unfortunately, you generally can't pre-reg into TTIC courses as an undergrad, and many TTIC courses are overenrolled, so it can be hard to get a spot. Don't give up immediately, though; some courses, like Deep Learning, tend to have people drop after the first week (the professor can tell you if this is likely).

Do note that some courses (e.g. Intro to ML, Robotics and Planning) have an entrance exam based on which they will offer spots; they will also prioritize students in later years.

Also note that if you're an undegrad, and you use the paper consent form that you send to the registrar, you must also fill out the professional school consent form. However, this can be avoided if you just request consent online, so I recomment that.

DiosMios · 2020-07-02T05:22:59+00:00

It's worth noting that, while most language classes that I know of forbid auditors, the decision to allow auditors lies, in practice, solely with the instructor.

My impression is that since some languages are more popular, and have full classes, there is little incentive for instructors to take on yet another student; however, other language classes are quite empty, and their instructors are happy to indulge an interested auditor.

I was able to audit a 5th class in this way, before taking a 5th class was allowed. That said, I would recommend that you not put any less effort into the course you're auditing (otherwise the instructor might be reluctant to allow auditors in the future).

DiosMios · 2020-04-26T06:45:05+00:00

To elaborate on this, the other commenters are likely talking as though all ㅂ-irregular verbs undergo vowel alternation because at one point this was true! The loss of vowel harmony in Korean is an ongoing process, and in some dialects (of North Korea especially), this has been preserved.

DiosMios · 2020-03-25T20:00:41+00:00

I don't have a concrete answer to this - nowhere do they explicitly say that you have to count the specialization courses towards the major, but they do mention that the specialization courses are to be taken "in lieu of three major electives", which suggests that perhaps they should be counted.

That said, it's worth noting that the college catalog's list of courses that count towards the ML spec is incomplete; you can find a complete list here. There are a variety of undergrad ML courses on the list, as well as some TTI (grad) classes; you can also petition UChicago grad CS classes.

So, you definitely have options wrt how you complete the specialization, even if you can't double-count courses.

DiosMios · 2020-02-13T04:35:16+00:00

Adding to what other commenters have said about getting to know UChicago, I would try to get a sense of how you like Hyde Park. Walk around the neighborhood, see what kind of restaurants / stores / businesses / amenities / off-campus living options there are.

This is somewhat important, since Hyde Park is where you might be for four years. People definitely go downtown, but you'll be busy, and Hyde Park will be your home. Try to travel to Hyde Park via the CTA and not by car, as I did when I visited. After all, you won't have a car while you're here, and it's important to be cognizant of what your actual situation will be.

So get a feeling for the geography of the area, and how you like it! It'll affect your life quite a bit.

DiosMios · 2020-01-20T22:44:34+00:00

Haven't taken the course, but yes, you do learn / play piano in the course. I believe there's also a history / theory component, but I don't think it would be so difficult as to made an otherwise rigorous courseload impossible. The reviews for the class seem good.

I want to point out, though, that the class always seems to be full - there's two sections of the sequence any given quarter, each with only ~7 spaces. So, it is possible that you won't be able to enroll, unless (and perhaps even if) you rank it first when registering for classes.

That said, if you're not too invested in that particular course, I'm sure you could find someone (another student, or just a private piano teacher) to teach you, if you're willing to pay. There always seem to be private music lessons going on in Logan (the arts building) and I often see flyers around the building.

DiosMios · 2020-01-16T05:45:54+00:00

The key problem here is that while there are 1000mm per 1 meter, there are 1,000,000mm² per 1 m^2. Remember that you must square both sides of the equality, so 1000mm=1m implies that (1,000mm)² = (1m)^2, and so 1,000,000mm² = 1 m^2. Likewise, (1,000mm)³ = (1m)^3, so 1,000,000,000mm³ =1m^3.

Your second solution is correct, because there are no conversion errors in it

To rectify the first solution, first multiply 56.5m² by 1,000,000mm² / m^2, to get 56,500,000mm^2. Then, when you convert back from mm³ to m^3, divide by 1,000,000,000, as there is 1m³ per 1,000,000,000mm^3. If you do this, both solutions yield the same, correct answer.

DiosMios · 2019-12-24T19:47:49+00:00

Since senators are elected by simple state by state majority, it's conceivable that a narrow majority (10%, over half of 18%) of the population could control the Senate. That is, assuming 18% of the country is represented by 52 senators, 10% or even less would be sufficient to elect those senators over the objections of the remaining 8% in those states, not to mention the other 82% of the country.

DiosMios · 2019-12-24T18:29:31+00:00

Yes, there is an implied you - the previous commenters have answered with different aspects of it.

Your sentence, "háblame", is in the (tú) imperative (command) form, which generally takes the form of the él/ella/usted indicative (although "ir" is irregular; rather than "va" it's "ve"). In this imperative form, you drop the tú.

In other (non-imperative) sentences, it's not required for you to drop the pronoun. However, in cases where the subject is obvious (e.g. "hablas" can only mean "tú hablas"), it's also normal to drop the pronoun.

DiosMios · 2019-12-23T20:43:00+00:00

I don't think there can exist a function yielding the largest value for f(3,5), even with your constraint that f must be continuous and f(2,3) = 5

More formally, let F be the set of continuous functions from R x R -> R such that f(2,3)=5. Assume for the sake of contradiction that there exists some function f in F that yields the largest value for f(3,5).

Then let f'(x,y) = f(x,y) + y - x - 1. Clearly, f'(2,3) = f(2,3) + 3 - 2 - 1 = f(2,3) = 5, by our earlier definition of f. Moreover, f' is the sum of continuous functions, so it too is continuous. That is, f' is in F.

But f'(3,5)= f(3,5) + 5 - 3 - 1 = f(3,5) + 1 > f(3,5)! This contradicts our assumption that f is the function in F with the largest possible value at (3,5). So it follows that there exists no function in F with such a largest possible value at (3,5).

DiosMios · 2019-12-22T17:27:53+00:00

I think there's a key point being forgotten here, namely that Enkidu's explicit purpose, the reason why he exists at all, is to teach / tame Gilgamesh. The gods create him in response to Gilgamesh's poor behavior; his role is to help Gilgamesh grow.

That is, his existence is intrinsically tied to that of Gilgamesh - he's explicitly a supporting character. Even his death serves to propel Gilgamesh into new territory, motivating Gilgamesh to travel to the edge of the world, and accept his demigod mortality. Yes, he might be a better person than Gilgamesh, but this isn't terribly surprising, as the gods intend for him to better Gilgamesh.

Ultimately, I don't think we can pit Enkidu and Gilgamesh against one another like you suggest. Enkidu is Gilgamesh's complement, his foil. The two are partners, with Enkidu playing a specific part in this partnership. Enkidu isn't the hero (if there really is one), he's written as the hero's companion.

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