Mechanical Engineering PhD - Student Personality and the Stress Level

boneh3ad
Sat, 07 Mar 2015 06:30:29 +0000

For me, the qualifying exam was the most stressful few months of my life. It was a three part exam: one for each of the three major research areas in my field. Of course, my research and expertise was only in one of those, so the other two were huge stressors. Add in the possibility of failing out due to a test on a subject not related to my field and it was a real pressure cooker. Of course, Iade it through, passed apparently with flying colors, and never felt so mentally destroyed again throughout the rest of my time as a student, even leading up to my preliminary exam or my dissertation defense.

I also had an advisor who held his PhD students to a very high standard and basically never gives pats on the back. It basically means when you are doing well, you get no praise, and when you are screwing up, you are really going to hear about it. Despite that, we got along well (and still do) a dim incredibly happy I got the chance to work with him.

Overall, I don’t have any regrets about choosing to do the PhD. It certainly put me under a ton of stress, but it was still an overall good experience (despite how much my friends would tell you I complained).

Of course, if the career goal is research, then it’s not even really a choice. The only choice is where to study and with whom.

I’ll definitely second the part about watching peers from your undergrad years off buying houses or taking big vacations to Europe or Asia or wherever. That’s further compounded in the age of Facebook where it’s all plainly in front of you to see. That’s been a real treat to experience over the last year or so of my program as I came down the home stretch.