I’m interested in finding articles/essays or books describing postgraduate academic life on Ivy League university campuses. I’m more interested in the day to day academic life of a PhD candidate. Perhaps the New York Times or New Yorker has an article like that. I haven’t been able to find any specific articles like that. I’d certainly be interested in anything that gives an insight into today’s (2014/2010-14) doctoral research strategies and interaction with other academics on campus.
I look forward to your feedback.
davidmich
I would expect there would be dozens to hundreds of blogs by postgraduate Ivy League students (since there seem to be millions altogether). Have you done some searching in
Daily life for grad students is going to vary quite a lot by discipline. It will also vary by country. An American Ph.D. student will spend quite a bit of time in classes, a British one won’t.
Thank you njtt. Can you elaborate on that a little please? I am not familiar with the routines in the US or the UK regarding the amount of time PhD students devote to their classes, research and tutoring duties(if any).
In my day, at any rate (possibly it has changed somewhat, since) a Ph.D. student in the U.K. took no classes at all. It was all research, and assessment was entirely on the thesis. As I was in the Humanities (History and Philosophy of Science) that meant I simply met for a chat with my supervisor every so often (if memory serves, which it may not, it was once a week in theory, but in practice meetings often got skipped or postponed), and otherwise I was left to my own devices. I did do some tutoring of groups of undergrads (which included grading their essays), but not during every term of my Ph.D. - and gave a handful of lectures towards the end.
A science student would probably spend most of their time in the lab, possibly under quite close supervision (this probably varies from supervisor to supervisor); I spent most of my time on my own, in the library, or at home, (reading or writing). (Home was a single-room, attic bedsit.)
American Ph.D. students have to pass a number of graduate classes (usually seminars) and probably normally do a lot more of T.A. level teaching than I did.
from a New York Times article 2007
New York Times 2007.I wonder how much has changed since then.
“But money is not the only reason Princeton does well. It has developed a culture where professors keep after students. Students talk of frequent meetings with advisers, not a semiannual review. For example, Ning Wu, 30, a father of two, works in Dr. Russel’s chemical engineering lab and said Dr. Russel comes by every Friday to discuss Mr. Wu’s work on polymer films used in computer chips. He aims to get his Ph.D. next year, his fifth.”
“Some universities have established what they call professional doctorates for students who plan careers more as practitioners than scholars. Since the 1970s, Yeshiva University has not only offered a Ph.D. in psychology but also a separate doctor of psychology degree, or Psy.D., for those more interested in clinical work than research; that program requires a more modest research paper.”
Well factor in fraternity/sorority meetings, keg parties, mixers, intramurals, with the traditional dissertation work and there’s not much time for much else.
When I was a PhD student (CS) you took classes for the first year or two, and then took only a few seminars, and nothing at all when you were really doing research. Teaching depended on your adviser - I taught when the project didn’t have money, and, in my second school, only when they decided to add a requirement. And then I wasn’t a TA, but a lecturer and officially faculty.
I saw mt adviser all the time, probably more than once a week and lots more when I was writing. It depends on how many students the adviser has and his or her other commitments.
Was that in the U.K., because that is what I was talking about? In my day (1970s-'80s) there was no taught component of a British Ph.D. (I am pretty sure that was true across all disciplines, and I have no particular reason to think it has changed today.)
As I said in my first post in the thread, it is different in different countries, and different for different disciplines (and, indeed, probably different in different universities, different with different supervisors, and, even with the same supervisor, it may be somewhat different for different individual students).
As far as classes go, in my program (biology PhD), we had one year-long class the first year to make sure all the new students were caught up on all the basics. After that, we had to take three elective courses of our choice - anything we thought would be useful to our work. No time limit - just get three courses done before graduation. And there’s a journal club requirement, where we meet every week or two in small groups to discuss current papers.
Beyond those (very light) requirements, everything else is down to doing research in the lab.
From your experience,( looking back or according to info you have) which PhD courses (be they in the Humanities, sciences or law) would you recommend most (and where/in which regard) and which ones fall flat/end up being a waste of time?
I’ve written about it, daily, as I’ve kept a diary since 1974. So It covers me in the 4th grade through to my current full time, pemanent position as a senior lecturer at a university.
However, I’m not sending you my diary as I name names
Course requirements vary widely. In Quebec, the province has decreed that a PhD requires a minimum of 48 credits. This is idiotic, but we give, I believe, 24 credits for the thesis. That still means they have to take 8 courses, which is much too much. The students mostly have to do TA work that will range from marking papers to actual teaching. This is in math. In lab sciences, being a grad student amounts to being a full-time, or nearly, lab technician doing their supervisor’s experiments. On the other hand, in math, one of my colleagues described a student’s thesis as a “paper by the supervisor written under adverse circumstances”.
Just one week ago I chaired the final exam committee of a woman (Belgium born, but from a Congolese family) asking–and answering–the question of when to start anti-retroviral treatments in HIV infected people. (Answer: as soon as you have the diagnosis.) Her research was a combination of study of published data and hands-on work with HIV positives. It seemed to me that the supervisor gave suggestions for the library research, but the rest was on her initiative.
Anyway, there is no typical answer, none whatever. I spent a lot of time in grad school playing bridge and go. The suggestion upthread that beer bashes and frat activities are part of the life of a grad student is absurd and has to be based on ignorance. That is true in many cases for undergrads, but grad school is different.
