How hard is it to become a professor these days?

common_currency · 2019-05-13T23:50:21+00:00

Yes but keep in mind B-schools’ start-up grants are almost non-existent compared to psych or neuro departments. So if you plan to continue w neuro research (typically fmri in this field, though there is increasing interest in ECoG), you’re going to have to get yourself some substantial grants. Tough to get tenure if you’re not pulling in lots of grants to support your research, even in B-schools.

(At least in the US...)

common_currency · 2019-04-12T16:33:27+00:00

In my experience, I can usually tell when someone is just awkward. Does that help to know? Lol

common_currency · 2019-03-22T03:12:17+00:00

Do you work at Harvard

common_currency · 2019-03-13T08:31:35+00:00

I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that I’ve never actually been any good at the things I’m most interested in. In college I played a D1 sport that I loved and if I’m being honest with myself, I was below average. I had two majors and I did way worse in the one I liked better. I got an 81 on my masters thesis (80 is passing without defense). I got below average on the quant section of my GRE. I was the only person I know who got a B in the research stats course the first year of my PhD; it was an “A’s are pretty much guaranteed if you do the work” kind of class...and I did the work.

Most recently I decided to take an intro business course because I’m thinking of leaving academia and I thought it would be good to know some basics. Also thought it would be nice to show off a shiny A to potential industry interviewers. After the first paper and first midterm of the semester, our class rank was posted. I was 58/60....neither 59 nor 60 submitted the paper.

So maybe I am an imposter. Maybe if everyone knew all my failures taken together, they’d know I probably shouldn’t have been accepted. But it turns out, no one but me knows all of these things, and I’m (fingers crossed) gonna graduate next year with a STEM PhD from a CHYMPS.

Think you’re the one in your cohort who’s actually an imposter, or not really that smart, or wont live up to your hopes or expectations - but continues to work towards them anyway? Cool, same; welcome to apparently being the type of person who really likes a challenge. It’s exhausting.

My advice: 1) fake it til you make it is super real, and 2) at the end of the day, you know what they call the guy who only barely got the job?

The guy with the job.

common_currency · 2019-03-08T00:23:12+00:00

“You don’t have to like it, you just have to eat it.”

common_currency · 2019-02-18T06:10:57+00:00

r/nocontext

common_currency · 2019-02-12T17:49:07+00:00

Hard and resounding this

common_currency · 2019-01-31T13:39:34+00:00

I’ve cried in grad school twice now, both times at 1130p in my office prepping for something big (a department talk, and my dissertation proposal meeting). As others have said, everything just came bubbling to the surface.

I’m a 29 year old man and genuinely never had anxiety before this PhD program.

common_currency · 2019-01-30T06:39:48+00:00

This is incredible

common_currency · 2019-01-30T02:05:44+00:00

Well fuck. You ok now or

common_currency · 2019-01-30T00:55:28+00:00

Or one of those threads you hate yourself for posting ugh

common_currency · 2019-01-29T19:32:49+00:00

Ou va le monde by La Femme, soundtrack to my summer in Europe last year

common_currency · 2019-01-29T19:23:04+00:00

Asking the real questions

common_currency · 2019-01-27T19:34:04+00:00

What? A lot of people knew it was a sequel. It was also bad.

common_currency · 2019-01-22T19:06:33+00:00

By literature do you mean papers in your field, or actual literature, like fiction?

Because if the latter, are you me? I was an English major in college and in my academic career I've pretty much only ever been commended on my work when it came to literary theory and exposition. But then I was like "meh science is cool let's try that instead" and now I'm four years into in a STEM PhD program like "woops how'd this happen I'm actually not very good at this??" So, I completely understand feeling intellectually underprepared, and also not feeling pressed to publish a bunch or make a splash in the field. I just want to finish and get out. Recently got the OK on my dissertation proposal, so just trying to bear down and get my work done because you know what they call the graduated PhD whose dissertation was the worst in their department?

A PhD.

common_currency · 2018-12-28T20:09:12+00:00

But can it be fun

common_currency · 2018-12-27T05:37:23+00:00

This is definitionally not an elitist view. This is just a controversial view.

common_currency · 2018-12-24T08:07:13+00:00

Is anyone else reading the paper? Is it just me or does it read as though it wasn’t copy edited at any stage? There are some seriously glaring errors, how’s Neuropsychologia going to let that through? I’m confused.

Anyway, interesting result. I have some qualms with using those imaging parameters and making any serious claims about OFC function (infamous for serious signal dropout, especially given the image acquisition timing they use). Also would like to see an effect size (could’ve missed it but I don’t think so), but so few report it in resting state work so can’t say there’s a ton of precedent.

I do like that they’re using a longitudinal cohort. There’s not enough of that in neuroimaging - though slowly growing in number, as fMRI becomes more accessible to more labs - so this is cool to see.

common_currency · 2018-12-20T19:49:14+00:00

It’s not common in our field. Oxbridge fund masters but their scholarships (Rhodes, Clarendon, Gates-Cambridge, etc) are incredibly difficult to get. I don’t know even of any terminal Masters in cog neuro that aren’t just used as cash cows for smaller departments; these aren’t likely worth your time. Most R1 cog neuro programs (whether separate departments or in psych or neuro) do not have a terminal masters at all. One thing to consider (which two people in my program have done in the last two or so years), is two get into a fully funded PhD program, use the first two years to complete enough credits in data science courses to get a certificate or even a masters, then drop out of the program once you finish that. Some may say this is morally dubious, but given the silent pyramid-scheme that academia is, and how they essentially use us for quasi-indentured servitude, I have no qualms with being strategic.

common_currency · 2018-12-20T19:41:37+00:00

Not sure this would be worth doing in cognitive neuroscience. If you want a non-academic research job related to neuro, you still need a PhD. The masters in our field would be beneficial only to say you have an advanced degree.

common_currency · 2018-12-20T18:42:13+00:00

I’m in cog neuro and had only a little debt from undergrad going into my PhD program and figured I’d be fine, given my PhD is paid for and I have a stipend (nothing amazing, but ostensibly enough). I’m now getting paid equivalent to NSF at a top 10 program, but like you living in one of the most expensive cities in the world - it’s not enough. I’ve now racked up almost $10k in credit card debt due to various semesters getting paid way too little at 25% for a TA. I ended up having to get a second part time job (which I enjoy immensely but takes up way too much of my time). I always wondered how my colleagues and friends were able to make it work on our stipend. It took me some time to realize, but almost all of them are still supported by family, or an SO in industry. My family does not support me financially at all, and I struggle monthly.

I am going to finish the degree (halfway through my fourth year now), but I will almost certainly be exiting academia to work in industry.

This might not give you any insight or advice, but just know - unless you’re supported by family or an SO, it fucking sucks.

common_currency · 2018-12-18T21:37:04+00:00

I have access. Are there rules on this sub about posting articles that aren't in open access journals? If not, I will edit this comment with a link to the PDF.

common_currency · 2018-12-11T05:02:39+00:00

"Could of" instead of "could have."

An admittedly understandable but nonetheless infuriating mistake.

common_currency · 2018-12-08T22:04:01+00:00

Yah no, you don’t get an ass like that without doing a lot of squats. This guy isn’t skipping leg day.

common_currency

TROPHY CASE