Am I in good shape for graduate school?

MWolf
Thu, 14 May 2020 22:20:58 +0000

@collegemom3717 You are right that it’s field dependent, and, and I am a field ecologist. In my field, as in most field sciences, the time spent is higher than most, since you are travelling, spend a lot of time is setting things up, data collection, etc. Field scientists spend 10-12 hour days for weeks at a time while collecting data. Lab scientists can spend even more time a week when they are running their experiments.

Of course, you are also correct that PhD students love their subject, which is my point. Unless the idea of spending most of your waking time in the coming 4-7 years engaging in research in your chosen field sounds attractive, one isn’t really ready for a PhD. Unless, as you write, running your research isn’t fun, there isn’t a reason to do a PhD. Unless one has an itch do do research, and is driven to finish their projects even after it is no longer fun, there is no reason to do a PhD.

So basically, if somebody thinks that spending (OK) 60 hours a week engaged in research in one’s subject seems excessive, they really should consider other career choices.

I should also have qualified my statement about “prestige”. That is much more important for academic jobs than for outside of academia. A person with an economics PhD from any well regarded university, meaning almost any research university out there, will be able to get a very good job outside of academia.

However, Econ departments in universities like those that the OP mentions are usually caught up in prestige when recruiting graduate students. So, they generally avoid recruiting graduate students from any universities but the ones which they consider to be their academic peers or close. A look through the undergraduate institutes of the MIT PhD students in Econ shows that they have BAs from Harvard, Princeton, UChicago, etc, as well as their foreign equivalents.

@pme3333 You should check out Columbia University’s Bridge to PhD program: