What chemistry grads do in Academia

sschoe2
Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:20:03 +0000

All those articles (the ones posted by both blindwilly and graveneworld) do is reiterate the need for growth and change within the respective fields discussed. That’s really nothing new and it’s nothing to be sad or depressed about. Technology, globalization, and the growth of information is rapidly changing and some people can’t keep up. Either you have the the ability to adapt or you don’t. The ones that don’t come on message boards proclaiming their doomsday theories and crying about being screwed over. Chalk it up as a sunk cost, learn your lesson, and move forward.



Yes the field is changing but not in a good way. The brightest Americans are being asked to compete and accept the wages of a desperate third worlder. Science jobs are becoming benefitless, unstable, and heading towards minimum wage at an alarming rate. At the same time, tuition is going up at an astounding rate. So is it worth it to spend $20k at least and 4-10 years of your life to get a job that pays less than the job a HS drop out could get to. There is nothing wrong with pointing out and warning others that pursuing a science career is a recipe for disaster and underachievement for bright young people who can do so much better for themselves elsewhere especially when idiots like the president keep calling for them to. I know I would never let my children study science nor recommend anyone else do so.

Just brushing it all off and saying you need to adapt is lame. That is like putting a culture of microbes in the autoclave and expecting them to adapt. There are some conditions that are so extreme it is not possible to adapt. Americans cannot live on the same wages as someone in Sri Lanka. It costs more to live here.