... to marvel at the fact that, under the time pressure of "need to start a new job tomorrow," a labmate of mine is graduating! I wish that the 10 years it took was an exception, but it seems to be more of a rule around grad school lab. Still, there's yet hope for the rest of us!
I am updating my profile to reflect that I am starting my 6th year, although it is tempting to just say that I am an nth year grad student, where n is arbitrarily large, as this is getting quite depressing even before I hit the double digits a couple more not-yet-graduating labmates are already in.
The perverse incentives of academia
6 years ago
10 comments:
It took me seven years to make it through. So don't feel bad about being a sixth-year grad student!
The fact that you are "working" at a great place now I wouldn't worry much about how long it takes you to finish. Just enjoy the process and know the day will come eventually.
Yes, the "I have to start a job in X months" has also gotten a few people I know speedier graduations. I wonder whether that works reliably? Perhaps something to try? :-)
A graduate introduced himself recently as in his "senior year." Of course, now I really want to know how long he's been at it.
I have the same feelings about year 5 (I still need to change my blog to reflect this). I keep getting told by faculty that one day I'll look back on all this and wish I was still here. I'm doubting that one, though.
Amanda,
I can assure that is absolutely false. I love having graduated. If I had known how much it would be to be a post-doc, I would have graduated years ago :-)
Rebecca - I know I still easily fall within the "norm," but there's something depressing about watching a backlog of students that started half a decade before me still not moving along...
Jennie - it has actually been really helpful to be in a productive environment where people don't agonize about not having any control over their lives. I am definitely happier here, and as a result, more productive.
MadHatter - I have been pondering that for some time; I think it is definitely helpful in terms of graduating by a specified short-term deadline, while it would be tough to go on the job market and get said job without the approval from the powers that be in that year to begin with.
Makita - I have noticed that the younger grad students are "proud" as their number of years increases, while the older ones don't want to tell anyone how long they have been there. I also think some advisors may not be very good at tracking time, so whenever I have to introduce myself in front of my advisor, I always say the number of years I have been in grad school. Advisor inevitably seems surprised. Every. Time.
Amanda - I think the faculty may be romanticizing their grad school years a bit!
Makita - now that sounds a bit more down to earth!
What worked remarkably well where I went to Grad school was to end tuition support after 6 years. A looming $30,000+ tuition bill is a strong motivator to get done now. Although you could get an extension of a year under some circumstances, but this was rare.
MOD - that frequently seems to be counteracted by faculty unwilling to give up cheap (and fully trained!) labor.
True, I suspect it had something to do with the PI needing to get permission from the powers that be to keep paying for a student past the 6th year and the PTB really didn't give that up easily. (In my time there was only 1 student in my program who was in their 7th year.) Coupled with some accounting changes related to overhead vs direct costs, also enforced by the PTB, that made the grad student more expensive than a postdoc, that motivated the PIs to get us done. Either that or it was all a big bluff to motivate the students to get done :) Just keep waving the big stick and we'll work night and day to beat that deadline.
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