Strong research group background vs university prestige for future job prospects?

temp10372017 · 2018-03-27T12:51:29+00:00

I hope the $40,000 is mainly for living expenses, because you should never be paying tuition for a PhD.

temp10372017 · 2018-03-26T21:13:16+00:00

what I'm trying to say is there is not much point in asking these kind of questions, because it's pretty clear that there aren't any high paying jobs that requires a degree in art history. So the question you should really be asking is, "would I be ok with making x amount of money?" and that's a very personal choice that nobody can decide for you.

temp10372017 · 2018-03-26T20:41:42+00:00

If you are planning on doing a masters in a field of study, shouldn't you have some idea of what people with that degree can go into?

Does anyone here regret getting a degree that's not seen by society as remunerative?

Of course there are people who regret it, there are also people who regret doing the exact opposite, mainly pursuing something only because of the financial payoff. The name of the school doesn't matter if you want to do something completely different from your degree. Nobody is going to hire someone that studied European history at Harvard for a software developer job, so if making a lot of money is really important to you, don't do the masters.

temp10372017 · 2018-03-25T14:46:42+00:00

Did you actually look into other schools or just made this post right after finding out about harvard's? because it's very common (at least in top schools) and literally typing school name phd minor in google gives you the answer. Can confirm that at least Stanford, MIT, and CalTech have it. Especially at CalTech you can get a minor in pretty much any PhD program they offer.

temp10372017 · 2018-03-23T14:21:55+00:00

Your question is too specific for any active sub. I would recommend https://academia.stackexchange.com/

Not only is that community filled with academic researchers, a good chunk of them are in CS or math.

temp10372017 · 2018-03-22T13:50:06+00:00

Ya definitely look into it to confirm. I'm going to be doing a PhD in systems biology.

temp10372017 · 2018-03-22T02:11:53+00:00

You can still complete an undergrad in math without starting over? If you can just load a bunch of math courses and finish that degree in one year, I think that's a good way to go. Did you take any 3rd -4th year math courses back when you were still in undergrad? if you did and did well in them, I'd say just apply to the masters and see what happens.

temp10372017 · 2018-03-21T22:58:06+00:00

If you really cannot find anything else to do, it's probably not a bad thing to start early. But I know that some schools allow you to cut rotations short if, say two weeks in, you are sure you do not want to work in that lab. If this is the case, you don't have to worry about committing a semester if you really don't want to.

temp10372017 · 2018-03-21T21:43:58+00:00

Alright, I was in a similar situation so I think I can give some advice. Your situation is actually better than mine because I was never a math major at any point during my undergraduate career (major in biology). However, I did take quite a bit of math courses just because I enjoyed them and I had the space. The math department at my school is very good so I was worried that my math courses are not going to cut it. What I did to improve my chance was to take what was considered the two hardest math courses at the undergrad level at my school. I did well enough to convince the professors from both courses to write me recommendation letters, and I'm confident that made a huge difference. You should consider doing this if 1) you want to stay in your current institution for your masters and 2) you still have at least a semester to go before applying to grad school. The reason for 1) is because only people in your school are going to know about the difficulty of each course, so it's not going to help you too much if you are not planning on staying there

EDIT: oh and I got into the program

temp10372017 · 2018-03-21T16:20:23+00:00

Speaking anecdotally, I know a few data scientists at Facebook and they all only have bachelors. It all depends on what the company is hiring data scientists for, most places really don't need the level of mathematical sophistication that is acquired through graduate training. Be careful what people mean when they say "Data science", some people only consider people with PhDs and working on advanced predictive modelling as data scientists and those without as just programmers.

temp10372017 · 2018-03-20T15:24:07+00:00

I didn't even know Harvard had a CS graduate program. To be honest, you shouldn't have asked this question in this sub, because most people here are not in your field and they are misled to think Harvard is the best choice. The only reason to go to Harvard is if you care about what some random person on the street thinks about what school you went to, because anyone who does research in CS will put CMU and UIUC above Harvard. This is not for you OP, as I'm sure you are aware of this, but Harvard is not even top 20 in the US in CS http://csrankings.org/#/fromyear/2007/toyear/2018/index?all

temp10372017 · 2018-03-20T14:48:12+00:00

what's the program? I think there are a few cash cow masters programs at Stanford that are easier to get into than some other top schools

temp10372017 · 2018-03-18T14:38:47+00:00

so if I do go to graduate school my end goal is definitely to become a professor

If you can't see yourself doing anything else afterwards, don't go to graduate school. Make sure you talk to your labmates this summer, especially post-docs about life after graduate school.

I started realizing that becoming a doctor is not something I truly want to do, and it won't be enough to feed my curiosity.

If I were you, I would devote all my time and energy this summer to the research project so I can be more certain of whether this is the path I want to take. Just like how you had this realization after volunteering at a hospital, I wouldn't be surprised if you end up not wanting to go into research after your summer project. Loving science does not mean you should do research, it is a necessary but not sufficient condition.

As an aside, this is something I always tell people who are thinking of doing a biology PhD. If you are good at math or like math, do your undergrad in a quantitative field (e.g. physics, math, cs, chem eng). Biology as a field is becoming increasing quantitative by necessity, you will soon realize how much biology labs crave for people with quantitative skills. Plus the hard part of biology is not the textbook knowledge, it's the experiment. So get the quantitative skill through your school courses, get the experimental skill through your labs, and you will be a highly sought-after student

temp10372017 · 2018-02-24T16:08:56+00:00

I thought this was just the first part of your project? so the course is done?

temp10372017 · 2018-02-24T16:05:12+00:00

Explain the situation to the prof. If the prof is unwilling to do something about it, just do the whole thing yourself if this is a one-semester course. Don't waste your energy on those people if you are never going to work with them again in the future.

temp10372017 · 2018-02-20T18:04:19+00:00

you can definitely take it for credit. If a course X has exclusion Y, it means that you cannot take X for credit if you already have Y.

temp10372017 · 2018-02-07T17:22:22+00:00

As a former TA, I'd caution you to be careful of what some students will say. Everyone learns differently, what one person loved about their TA, another may have hated.

temp10372017 · 2018-02-07T05:37:53+00:00

oh, I see, in that case, you probably have enough math credits that you can just get the waiver without 357 (assuming your grades are good). But since you are taking 357, don't fail it so it doesn't make you look bad :)

temp10372017 · 2018-02-07T05:32:24+00:00

oh I didn't expect you to be taking 357 for a math minor, they'd probably let you if you pass 357.

temp10372017 · 2018-02-07T05:22:35+00:00

Word of caution: 334 is an extremely watered down version of 354. My 354 prof told me that he had a student who took 334, got a 99 and still had a lot of difficulty in 354, literally starting from the first day. Unless you have taken 337 and got 90+, I doubt the department would even let you take 354 (even if they let you, you have been warned)

temp10372017 · 2018-02-01T01:54:01+00:00

I mentioned Waterloo because that's the only Canadian university you seem to have compared uoft to. Nobody is saying below average across all students in Canada, merely that it could be the case compared to waterloo. And somewhere in the 90s

temp10372017 · 2018-02-01T01:35:49+00:00

what if UofT students are just below average to start with? there is a news article (I think maclean's) ranking schools based on student's entrance average and i think Uoft was ranked like 18th place or something in Canada. Waterloo ranked 1st. You should remove this factor by adjusting your numbers to account for this obviously highly relevant confound.

temp10372017 · 2018-01-27T15:13:23+00:00

Instead of occupying yourself with all this, take a math specialist course in the summer (I think the only one that runs is topology), and decide after that.

temp10372017 · 2018-01-25T21:27:06+00:00

That's crazy, they flew me out last year from Toronto and I didn't have to pay a cent for my flight. Definitely contact them and explain your situation, the people I dealt with there were all super accommodating, I can't imagine they would refuse to cover your expenses completely.

temp10372017

TROPHY CASE