Getting an MS or a PhD is a bad idea if you don’t know what you’re going to do with it, and sometimes even if you do: namely, if you think you want to become a professor. A majority of faculty openings these days are for non-tenture-track adjuncts, and of people in those positions, a majority are on public assistance to make ends meet. And those are PhDs! And furthermore, they have little hope of ever getting out of that track. If your first academic job is not a tenure track position, it’s not likely you’ll get consideration for one later, especially since you won’t be able to generate much in the way of publications while trying to get all the adjunct work you can just to feed yourself.
I failed to land in academia, but I failed upwards and landed a pretty cushy gig in biotech that pays better than academia and has saner expectations and hours, among other perks. Most, but not all, of my peers are PhDs, which is in no small part due to the glut of biotech PhDs out there (see first paragraph for reference), but it also means that if someone wanted to get into a career like mine, they’d have to do at least some grad school. So, I maybe could have gotten a job making this much by this point in my career with just a BS, but probably not in biotech. Does that mean it wasn’t worth it? I’m not sure. I think I like being in biotech more than high tech by a fair margin, and I pissed away some Sklansky bucks to make that happen.
Always sad I missed out on the golden days of online poker. Didn’t turn 18 till 2006 and started with like $50 sometime around then and didn’t really try to take poker seriously till 2008. I still made it to NL400 and made some decent money, but I probably could have gotten to high stakes and made some bank before black friday.
I’ve mentioned my deplorable buddy that owns a greenhouse. He was really pissed about the shutdown because he depends on Easter to sell flowers. Anyway, someone in his family must have died because he’s now begging people to take it seriously. I feel bad for the dude but JFC, why do conservatives insist on not giving a shit until something bad happens to them? Drives me nuts.
My story is very similar. I was going to be a professor but ended up in private sector as well. I loved my time in my PhD program but I look back at the lost earnings potential and wonder. I also think much of the value of and advanced degree comes from learning critical and analytical thinking skills. You get that with a masters. The PhD ends up being too hyper specialized in today’s academic world.
Of course, I only have experience with the Canadian model where a masters is a degree unto itself and requires a defence and thesis. I know some US schools give a masters as part of a PhD program at the end of course work.
It was unreal from 2003 to about 2006. It was SO easy to make money. I was making like $90k a year online part time while going to school. When the sng solvers came it was like executing a simple formula to collect basically guaranteed money.
I don’t really agree. At least in our department, you got your masters after defending your thesis proposal, at which point you’d at least have the groundwork for reading scientific literature, and writing out your thesis proposal is admirable, but the quality of scientist I was at that point is far short of where I was after I worked to bring a project to fruition. Critical thinking skills aren’t a binary.
My Masters was a full blown thesis with original research just a less complex problem than my PhD. I didn’t mean to suggest I didn’t benefit from my doctoral work. I guess I just look back and think about what I use now and mostly point to earlier education.
Jalfrezi,
At no point did I ever support Bloomberg, or indicate that I supported him. You, on the other hand, spent a month downplaying COVID, whatabouting the flu, and malaria, making fun of and mocking those who were concerned, and when finally confronted with the fact that you were moronically wrong, hand-waved it away as “you didn’t expect government incompetence.” Not expecting government incompetence just shows that you are even dumber than your posts from a month ago first indicated. Also, you’re a jackass. I would remind you of the first rule of posting on an Internet forum, If you can’t spot the asshole in the thread, you’re the asshole in the thread.
Lol, also some ace detective work by Jalfrezi concluding you’re my gimmick account because your name sounds similar. Real man of genius work there. Totally makes sense that I’d make a gimmick account that sounds just like my actual account.
So, I’m home with minimicrodaughter and got the whole scoop on her friend’s family.
Dad (who has a cancer history) tested positive, recovered and tested negative.
Mom tested positive and has not yet tested negative, has not been in the hospital, but has been having pretty bad symptoms.
The kid - has had 4 tests, 2 swabs and 2 antibody and has tested negative every time. I don’t know for how long, but they all lived together for some time between when the parents were exposed (on a trip to Colorado) and the parents tested positive. Since testing positive they have lived together in the same relatively large house and have done what they can to keep separate there.
The kid is 18 and the parents are in their early 50’s.
Partypoker SNG’s in 2005 were a thing of beauty. You could be a really shitty player like me and still turn a profit. Hell, you could just about fold into the money if you wanted to.
Corn tortillas. Don’t forget about corn tortillas. Corn tortillas > flour tortillas, ainec. I have a lot of criminal friends, some of them good people, who will back me on this.
Might as well add that there is presently corn in my belly, along with a ribeye and a russet.