What is your experience and feeling like after studying for a doctorate or getting a doctorate?
What is it like to have a doctorate title, but many people have mentioned the impact of doctoral life on them, so you are also welcome to talk about your feelings as a doctoral student in this question.
Source: https://www.zhihu.com/question/20365338
Author: David Dong
In fact, the process of studying a Ph.D. is very painful, and most people have probably mentioned it; if everyone says it is painful, it is probably a universal truth.
Why the pain? In fact, it is difficult for people who have not really experienced it to understand. It is a kind of pain of constant self-denial.
The most painful part of doing a Ph.D. is that you have already touched the boundary of knowledge. In this boundary, it is too easy to feel that what you are doing is a mess.
Before studying for a Ph.D., you only need to study, learn the theories and knowledge that others have already done and carefully packaged. Before you have a deep understanding of a field, you feel that everything is so beautiful and so lofty. This is often the initial stage of PhD study. You are full of expectations, and you are full of ambitions with a few papers written by masters. You are determined to learn from masters and do the most valuable research that changes the world.
After you do some in-depth research, you find that the things written by the big guys also have a lot of packaging elements, avoiding the important and taking the light. Basically, major problems cannot be solved, and small problems cannot make you graduate smoothly.
At this time, you may be determined to solve major problems so that you can graduate without worry. At this time, the boundless pain begins. No matter how you study and research, you feel that there is no way out. Many of the things you wrote in the initial topic are unrealistic.
Then you start to succumb to reality, after all, you still have to graduate first. This is the more painful stage. In order to graduate, you obviously feel that what you are doing is a bunch of Xiang, but you still have to make this pile of Xiang with exquisite packaging, so that outsiders look like the most elegant masterpiece.
In fact, people who really do research understand that it is too difficult to make truly wonderful and outstanding research within the boundaries of knowledge. Most research papers are full of loopholes in the eyes of truly proficient people. Because a real breakthrough is bound to be impossible to mature. Most of the mature things are things that have been polished countless times, and they are not things that can be achieved by one person. But these are extremely disillusioned for a researcher who has just started, especially his research is often finalized and is not allowed to be changed, unless he does not plan to take this doctorate. It is difficult for people who have not really experienced this mental journey to understand. A more obvious example in the public eye is Wang Yin . The disillusionment he experienced during the research process is what most PhDs have experienced. The problem he mentioned is indeed a fact, but it is also evidence that he does not understand research. Doing innovative research is such a painful thing. Even the best research is like a cloud at the very beginning, and you have to package it into something that looks good in order for it to survive. Afterwards it may really be worthless, or it may be, but at this stage, you can't really know and be sure.
The reason why the doctor suffers is because he can't give up at this stage when he clearly feels that what he is doing is a mess, and he needs to bite the bullet and pack it. This packaging ability is one of the basic abilities of researchers and an important step in doctoral training.
Why is it very happy and easy to graduate with a Ph.D.; because you don't need to pack it so compulsively! Even if you feel that what you are doing is Tuanxiang, it is a big deal to change the subject.
But for me personally, in fact, I have been very self-hypnotized during my doctoral period. I feel that the things I make are very valuable, but the packaging is not enough. So I don’t feel too much after graduating with a Ph.D., but I feel very excited after the post-doctoral period. The research and packaging that have not been completed during the Ph.D. stage can continue. After I have a degree, I still have the confidence. If the academic packaging is still not good enough, it’s a big deal. Just go do it yourself.
In the end, I would like to advise everyone who is studying for a Ph.D. or who is determined to do a Ph.D. not to dig into a dead end. It is a particularly painful thing to be at the boundary of knowledge. What is widely accepted today may be difficult even for creators to accept at the beginning . In the initial stage of research, vision and thinking are not enough to allow you to make truly outstanding and valuable contributions. During the process of studying for a Ph.D., survival is still the first goal. Ambitious ideals are bound to be tortured, and a lot of patience is required. . People outside of academia may not understand that in academia, truly breakthrough and valuable things are the most difficult to publish, because the way you express them must not conform to the usual academic habits. What is counterintuitive is that it is far more difficult to be recognized for an outstanding major contribution than for a relatively small improvement. Significant progress is almost impossible to make at the beginning of an academic, because even if you have such an idea, your writing skills are not good enough to get such a thing published.
take it easy.
Author: Mia Su
My background: Ph.D. in American liberal arts social science, female, my major is child developmental psychology . I graduated with a full scholarship and came to the United States in 2010. I graduated as a graduate student in 2012 and continued to study for a Ph. Have tenured professor qualifications, and participate in the tenured professor) assistant professor.
In the spring of 2015, when I hadn’t even started looking for a job, because of a colleague’s recommendation (unbeknownst to me), the head of the Department of Psychology at a certain state college sent me an offer email directly, which was a non- tenure (Non-tenured professor system) The work of an assistant professor (American professors are divided into tenure and non-tenure, the specific situation seems to be answered by someone on Zhihu, so I will not elaborate on it), and told me that it is possible to change to tenure- track . I was really flattered when I received the offer. I was happy and declined them, because I wanted to spend the last year on my graduation thesis. Secondly, the teaching task of this job was greater than what I wanted. Furthermore, My mentor would never let me work full-time before I graduated.
In the fall of 2015, I officially started looking for a job. I voted for an assistant professor in the tenure-track of 4 American public universities . I took 3 phone interviews one after another from November, and successfully entered the On-campus interview, becoming a final candidate. I started preparing for the interview during the winter vacation in December. The interview started in January of 2016, and I flew to 3 schools within a month, and the interviews of each school were about 1 week apart. The tenured professor position in the United States is about 1 out of 100 doctoral candidates in our major, and there will be 3 final candidates. Our major is considered average. I heard that in our school’s English major a few years ago, 250 PhDs competed for one position, which is too scary.
Let me briefly tell you what kind of itinerary the interview is like. Because I was invited, the air ticket and hotel were paid by the other school, so I flew one day in advance. The next day is the official interview day. From 8:00 in the morning, the head of the department will come to the hotel to take over, and then he will meet with the professors of the recruitment team, the deputy dean, the dean, graduate student representatives, various institutions in the school (internal funding, teaching training agency), interspersed with scientific research reports during this period, and a trial lecture for undergraduates. Each itinerary lasts about an hour, and someone will take you to the location of the next meeting. I remember that when I went to the toilet after a meeting, there were people waiting for me outside. Lunch and dinner are with future colleagues. Because this is a tenured professor position, the whole day is an interview and an assessment of you. Various meetings are used to examine your scientific research ability, teaching level, and postgraduate level, etc. Meals are used to judge other than work. Besides, are you a gregarious and interesting person (whether you are likable). The last time I got back to the hotel was already 10pm. The process of the three schools is roughly the same, very exciting and really tiring, and I flew away on the third day.
That is, during the interview, I felt for the first time that I was treated as an adult, or as a Dr. Being selected for the campus interview means that the other party believes that your professional level has reached their standards. At this time, they will also show their best side. I hope you can choose them. Several schools have taken me to tour the campus, see the scenery of the city where I live, and go to very good restaurants. Besides, expressing a strong interest in your research makes me feel very recognized and respected. I remember that after the interview, the first school called my tutor, and the tutor asked me "isn't it nice to be treat like an adult". Ha ha ha ha.
Two weeks after all the interviews, I started to receive responses. In the end, I got 1.9 out of 2 offers. How to explain this data? 0.9 is because the school’s recruitment committee selected me as the top candidate, but the dean selected another one because the other candidate is already an assistant professor of a certain university, and I am only a doctoral student. In the United States, under normal circumstances, the dean will support the decision of the recruitment committee, because they are the ones who know the candidate's situation best, but from time to time the dean does veto it.
At that time, everyone thought that the job must belong to me (because the head of the department called my supervisor and another recommender after my interview, and directly said that I was a top candidate ) . So I was very sorry and more helpless when I called. He said that the dean had just been transferred, and during his tenure, he was indeed more inclined towards PhD students than the PhD students who were about to graduate. The head of the department said that he was still arguing with the dean, saying that my supervisor said that I would definitely graduate in the summer of 2016, but the dean insisted on his own opinion. In the United States, it is quite normal for doctoral dissertation defenses to be postponed. The dean was unwilling to take the risk so he chose another one. The head of the department comforted me and said, you have to know that you are the best we have selected, and your score is higher than those who are already assistant professors. This is a huge achievement.
Before I hung up the phone, I started crying and felt wronged. My teachers were also very angry. But you have to move on, don't you? What's more, "you don't wanna be in a department where the dean goes against the faculty", so this is actually a warning sign.
It didn't take long for me to get an offer, which was the school I was going to. The ranking of this school is better, and the department likes me from top to bottom. When I got this offer, I contacted the third school, hoping they could give me an answer. But the third school hadn't interviewed all the candidates at that time and couldn't make a decision. I also want to go to the second school, but if the third school also gets an offer, I can raise higher conditions with the second school.
As I write this, I want to tell everyone that I am a very lucky individual who can perform like this in the job market. There are very few tenure-track professorships in the United States now, because there are only two situations in which people will be recruited: 1. Existing professors retire or change jobs; Therefore, it is more common to find faculty members after completing a PhD for at least 2 years. I have seen a lot of postdocs who have been doing postdocs for 4 or 6 years, waiting for vacancies while doing postdocs. Of course, this refers to the situation where you want to enter a university as a professor, and you don't need to enter an enterprise.
And this needs to talk about the experience of reading a Ph.D. My major is 98% American, 2% international. During the 6 years I was studying, apart from me, there was a Chinese teacher who was 4 or 5 years older than me and finally graduated in 10 years, and the rest were all Americans. English, especially spoken language, writing must be very proficient. In the past few years of class, the amount of reading was also very large. But because of this, compared with the situation where a large number of foreign students gather together in other majors, my English has improved relatively much faster.
To sum up, my PhD reading experience is determined by the following four conditions:
1. Mentor , I am really very lucky to have a particularly good mentor, a master figure in the academic world, who has been cited more than 34,000 times in academics. Various masters in our professional field are either his good friends or have worked with him. Let's put it this way, when I participate in international and domestic academic conferences, as long as I report my supervisor's name, almost everyone will say, then you must be great. My mentor has dedicated his life to this subject. He has a 27-year-old database, which has recorded the development of nearly 600 children since 1988, including teacher reports, parent interviews, etc., and is still being updated every year. Many of those children are now parents, so the data is particularly precious. Various national funds have been supporting it for so many years.
He has very high requirements for students, that is, when we publish papers together, as long as he thinks you can submit, he will definitely win. No reviewer will be stricter than him. But if you want to pass him, it will take longer than other teachers. Although demanding, he will help you, guide you, and guide you. Shaping you to be a better scientist , and stimulate your critical thinking . Super patient, but very cautious about academic perfectionism. Every time I have a meeting with him, I record it, because he speaks eloquently, and the height and depth of thinking are completely beyond my reach. He is also very protective of students, provided that he appreciates you. Because he was so famous, many people wanted to ask him to be a mentor, but either they thought he was too cold to dare, or they were rejected by him. So my mentor chose me, and I really feel so lucky. but! ! ! I still broke down several times, because his academic requirements are too high. For example, I wrote my graduation thesis for more than two years, and he revised each chapter no less than 30 times. Before the final submission to the defense committee, he can ask me the kind of thinking-challenging questions (he will hope You think a little deeper), so I broke down not because he was strict, but because I was sad about the limitations of my thinking ability. For the first 30 times, I may still be able to rely on a lot of reading, discuss with him, ask other scholars, and improve my own thinking, but after 30 times, I feel that I can no longer think deeply, and I feel so powerless. And it is through this kind of training that I have a deeper understanding of my small professional field. Learning is uncomfortable, it is very true.
I have a good relationship with my mentor and his family in private. He often invites us to have dinner at their house on Thanksgiving and Christmas. We also talk about other things, NBA, news and facts, everything. One thing I think American tutors (in most cases, or what I hear and see around me) is
very good is that the boundary (boundary) between them and students is very clear. What kind of help with personal affairs, gift giving, deliberately not allowing graduation, these things have never happened before. They really hope to cultivate a great scholar
or scientist.
2. Good professional . Our major ranks third and fourth in the United States. Professors in the department are very cooperative, so students have many opportunities to work with many teachers. In addition to my supervisor, I have also worked in two other laboratories, one for 5 years and the other for one year. There are very big differences between the two laboratories. If you are interested, I will talk about it separately later. Because of different laboratory experiences, I will naturally learn more things and see problems from more diverse angles.
I also hold meetings all over the country, once a year on average. In addition to the funding provided by the laboratory, the department also supports each student with $500 a year. So we all love meetings, lol.
Our data analysis class is taught by two well-known teachers who graduated from Harvard. Which courses have laid a solid foundation for us in statistical analysis of data (although it is difficult to cry when reading). At the same time, other teachers in the department are also very willing to help students. During the preparation of my work materials, a total of 5 teachers revised my materials. You know, university professors are very busy, and I am not a student under their supervision, but they are willing to spend time on me, which is really commendable.
In addition, the major students are very good, smart and conscientious, with independent thinking ability. Everyone takes good care of me, and we often gather to chat and play games on weekends. We formed a deep friendship. The best of them is my best friend. When she got married, I flew to her wedding. She just flew 5 hours and came back to accompany me on a small graduation trip (she graduated last year and is now a professor at a certain state university). How to make friends with foreigners, everyone is interested, I can also talk about it later.
3. Good for undergraduate students . Why do you say this? Because I graduated from graduate school, and after a year of systematic teaching training, I began to teach undergraduates independently. So up to now, I have taught a total of 5 undergraduate courses with different majors, including teaching statistics for American undergraduate liberal arts students (you can imagine the high mathematics teaching art in China, which is probably the feeling). . . There are more stories about teaching lessons. Generally speaking, I enjoy the job of "teacher" very much, and sometimes even more than the status of "scholar". The feedback that students give you, the growth of students, the process of receiving knowledge and using it in practice is a great sense of accomplishment for me.
4. Where and by whom . I live in a small town in the southern United States, a college town. Although I was born in a city in southern China and went to university in Beijing, I like and adapt to life in a small town very much. Life is very simple. Although there are few Chinese restaurants, practicing cooking skills is also the joy of life. The sun is in the sky for basically 350 days a year, and I like sunshine. The duplex where I live has a large lawn of about 100 square meters in the front and back, so I also learned the skills of mowing the lawn and cutting branches, and enjoyed it. The folk customs in the Great South are simple and simple. When you run on the road, someone will say hi to you, and the neighbor's grandmother will send you vegetables grown by yourself, and they will exchange gifts on holidays. I also adopted a dog when I was 14 years old, because with her company, life is more interesting. The law and order is very good, I never lock the door when I go to work.
I wrote so much in one breath when my body has not fully recovered (I played too high on the graduation trip with my girlfriends, and I had a fever when I came back, sweating). Please forgive me for my mixed Chinese and English. I try my best to use Chinese, but my brain response is a bit slow. I am very sorry.
This is the first time I answered on Zhihu. First, I want to share it with everyone. Second, I am very grateful and grateful for the six years of my PhD life. I feel very lucky and hope to share this luck with more people. Although I wanted to graduate very much, but I was about to defend my defense, and I was really sad in my heart.
最后送给想要读博的朋友几句话，Choose the major that you are devoted to push the limits of knowledge forward, and keep swimming! It is a VERY difficult process, but it is supposed to be like that, otherwise everybody is a Dr. You can do it!
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Thank you for your love, and best wishes to everyone who is advancing towards your dreams.
Author: Jin Haifeng
I spent six years studying for a Ph.D. in the United States, during which time I changed supervisors. Now that I am about to graduate, looking back, I gradually understand how the game of PhD is played.
I have summarized three items, which may not be applicable to the domestic situation, and are for reference only.
1. About independence
Doctoral study should be a rare career choice in the twenties that requires a high degree of independence. To study for an undergraduate degree is to complete one course after another, and to study for a master's degree is to complete the work assigned by the tutor. While studying for a doctoral degree is to independently operate your own scientific research system. The requirements for independence are generally higher than those required by large companies for grassroots employees.
When it comes to independence, we must first clarify what the role of a mentor is. The mentor is both the technical lead and the administrative lead . As a technical director, the supervisor should give you a scope of topics for a large thesis, and regularly comment on your scientific research content. As an administrator, a mentor needs to ensure that the lab is well-funded and continues to attract top talent.
Different mentors have different styles, but they all fall within the scope of these two roles. The more successful and famous the tutor is, the more he is inclined to the executive director. Students need to be more independent.
As a student, you are responsible for leading the research process. This includes formulating specific research topics and seeking feedback from supervisors to revise the thesis. In short, the student is the leader, and the tutor is a server who is only responsible for answering your questions.
Two, thick and thin
The output during the doctoral period does not increase linearly, but through sufficient accumulation in the early stage, it explodes in the later stage. Therefore, in the process of studying for a doctoral degree, you must always take this as a premise to control the rhythm.
In the early stage, we must lay a solid professional foundation in related fields. But be careful not to lay the foundation by learning knowledge in class in the undergraduate era, but to lay the foundation through practice. That is to supplement the basic knowledge involved in the process of doing scientific research, and don't do things with a muddle-headed mentality. In this way, explosive growth may occur later.
For example, you feel that there are loopholes in your knowledge in a certain aspect, so you find a thick textbook and start learning, pursuing a systematic and comprehensive mastery. This is a less efficient way. Because a lot of knowledge will be learned but not used, and soon forgotten. For another example, in the process of reading a thesis or doing an experiment, you encounter a knowledge blind spot, so in order to fully understand the thesis or complete the experiment, you need to learn the necessary knowledge points by checking the information. This is practice-oriented. Efficient and not easy to forget.
3. Don’t be afraid of being crushed
The measurement standard for a doctoral student's scientific research is usually relatively simple, that is, the number of papers and the quality of the journal conferences he is in. This has led to our very clear ability to see that others are better than ourselves. And according to my observation, there can be a very large gap between the strongest and the worst doctoral students.
A single standard of measurement will inevitably lead us to a feeling of being crushed by a great god, creating an illusion that I am very poor. In fact, it doesn't matter, just because you are poor under this single standard, it doesn't mean that your future development will be poor. After graduation you will be measured by a different set of standards. So, if you can see ahead of time what the future will measure you against without meeting graduation standards, then prepare ahead of time and you will be more successful as you enter the next stage of your life.
Summarize
I believe that the above three points of experience are not only applicable to the doctoral stage. And it will also be extended to my future career and will be used for life.
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