Programs At what age did you complete your undergrad and grad degrees and phD?

[xavier_r]

and at what age did you complete your undergrad and grad degrees and phD if you did it?

I have a feeling that after one reaches thirty one cannot progress further... since most famous researchers were still young while making their greatest discoveries...

anyways, my feelings aside...
I want to know about yours?

Chow
xaviers

 

[BobG]

31 might be a bit low. I completed my undergrad at 34 - provided you're not overly stuck on that boring base 10 numbering system. Otherwise: 52.

It probably depends on whether the person really enjoyed what they were doing. I think quite a few people build up tenure, build up their reputation, build up their income and can't afford to take off some new path just because the current path got boring (not just research, but any career a person might follow).

Quite a few people are really looking forward to the day they don't have to go into work anymore. After too many years doing the same thing, they can't stand the idea of going back in there day after day.

Some people have to be pried out of their jobs with a crowbar. They won't retire in spite of being in their 70's or maybe even their 80's and in spite of having so many health problems they can barely get out of their car and make it in the door.

I imagine the latter group is a little more likely to make new discoveries even after they've hit that old and decrepit age of 31.

 

[f95toli]

I was 24 when I got my MSc and 29 when I completed my PhD.

Anyway, you can't compare modern science to the situation in the early 20th century. Back then a lot of people completed their PhD when they were 21-22. One reason for this is simply that most of the physics you study as an undergraduate nowadays simply did not exist in 1920 (obvious example being quantum mechanics and subatomic physics but also most solid state physics etc).
Another reason is that there are so many physicists around today meaning it is much more difficult to do something truly original. The experiments also tend to be very complicated and takes a lot of time (PhD students in my field often spend 3-4 years just learning the basics and setting ut their experiment).
My point is that some of the famous researchers you are referring to would probably have been just "average" researchers if they were active today.

 

[Mike H]

I have a feeling that after one reaches thirty one cannot progress further... since most famous researchers were still young while making their greatest discoveries...

I have the feeling that this is one of those things that is said but is becoming less and less true as time progresses. I also think it's even less true in particular areas (for instance, I know Roger Kornberg, who won the chemistry Nobel for his structural studies of transcription, mentioned that his prize recognized decades of research, not just one point). At least here in the US, we hear a lot about an increasing time to independence for young scientists, especially with respect to their first RO1 grant. But anyway...

B.S. at 23 (after changing majors and transferring universities), Ph.D. at ~ 30 (defended about 7 weeks before my birthday, deposited about a week after my 30th birthday). I also worked for about a year before starting my Ph.D. program at 24, just to be clear.

 

[berkeman]

31 might be a bit low. I completed my undergrad at 34 - provided you're not overly stuck on that boring base 10 numbering system. Otherwise: 52.

LOL "There are 10 kinds of people in the world..."

 

[scarecrow]

B.S. Chemistry at 23, PhD Chemical Physics at 28. I'm 25 now. ;)

 

[chasely]

I will be getting my BS when I'm 25, thanks to changing majors a few time. I could have easily of graduated in four years and got a job, but my reason for going to college is to learn the skills required to perform a job that I can actually enjoy for the next forty years of my life. That's the idea anyway...

 

[cristo]

I got my undergrad masters at 22 (yea, I know, an oxymoron to you folks) and plan to obtain my PhD by 25.

 

[jtbell]

LOL "There are 10 kinds of people in the world..."

"Why should Halloween and Christmas really be on the same day?"

Back to the original question: B.A. at 21, M.S. at 23, Ph.D. at 28. (all in physics)

 

[Topher925]

BS at in ME at 22, starting my MS and will finish hopefully by 25, going to try to get my PhD by 28.

I got my undergrad masters at 22 (yea, I know, an oxymoron to you folks)

How does this work?

 

[mgb_phys]

How does this work?

An ugrad masters (MSci in the UK) is a 4year undergrad degree - equivalent to the old 3year Honours degree rather than to an MSc.
It's also common to do a PhD in 3years (officially = 4 years realistically) since the ugrad is so much more specialised/concentrated and PhDs do not normally involve lectures or teaching.

 

[mgb_phys]

- provided you're not overly stuck on that boring base 10 numbering system.

That's my wife's technique - she is always 21 but the number base increases!

 

[stewartcs]

First BS at 22, second BS at 27.

CS

 

[Dr Transport]

BS at 21, MA at 23, then a two year break, MS at 27, PhD at 34. All the time I worked nearly full-time in industry after my BS.

 

[Norman]

BS at 23 and PhD at 28. Really wanted to finish my PhD in 4 years, but my school would not waive some credits so I had to stick around for another year.

 

[Vanadium 50]

and at what age did you complete your undergrad and grad degrees and phD if you did it?

20 and 27.

I have a feeling that after one reaches thirty one cannot progress further... since most famous researchers were still young while making their greatest discoveries...

I don't believe this is the case. John Bardeen was 50 when he came up with BCS theory. Carlo Rubbia was in his late 40's when UA1 ran. Marty Perl was 50 when the tau was discovered. Karl Mueller was in his late 50's when he discovered high Tc superconductors.

It's probably true that there are no productive old physicists who showed little promise when young - but that's because you don't get to be an old physicist if you show no promise when young.

 

[ks_physicist]

BA in physics at 22, MS in physics at 31. Various things caused the delay. If I do a Ph.D. I will probably not start until I am in my late 30s or early 40s, so look at mid 40s to early 50s to complete it.

 

[Redbelly98]

BS physics at 23.
Worked for a while.
PhD physics at 35 (took 7 years).

 

[will.c]

BS physics at 21, hoping to complete my Ph.D. at 26.

 

[Andy Resnick]

BS in physics at 22, Ph.D. at 29, also Physics.

 

[Topher925]

Does anyone have their PhD in Engineering? And does a physics PhD generally take longer than a engineering PhD?

 

[las3rjock]

• B.S.E. in engineering just before I turned 23. M.S.E. in engineering just after I turned 25. Planning to receive my Ph.D. in engineering right around the time that I turn 30. My Ph.D. is taking a bit longer than usual because I had to change topics when my previous thesis advisor died.
• A physics Ph.D. does usually take longer than an engineering Ph.D.

 

[mal4mac]

Kant did all his best work in his fifties. He started in physics. So you can always do philosophy when you're older :-)

 

[Cexy]

Undergraduate degree at 21, Masters at 22, PhD at 25 (hopefully...) all in maths.

 

[mathwonk]

BA in math at 22, MA in math at about 24, stayed in school fruitlessly under distraction of vietnam war until 28, then taught until 32, re entered school and received phd in math at 35. postdoc at 37.

it is better to start younger because then you have longer before you get old and sick and tired. but it is better to start now than not to start now. i.e. interestingly you cannot change the past, only the future.

And if you look at my vita you will see papers I am proud of appearing starting at age 39 and on into my sixties. But the work was usually done a few years before the papers appeared, and my coworkers were all much younger and very essential to the work.

 

[Defennder]

Kant did all his best work in his fifties. He started in physics. So you can always do philosophy when you're older :-)

It's a a little misleading to say that Kant did physics when younger and turned to philosophy when older. During his time there wasn't that much a distinction between physics and philosophy and mathematics. Physics was known as natural philosophy then.

 

[Defennder]

BA in math at 22, MA in math at about 24, stayed in school fruitlessly under distraction of vietnam war until 28, then taught until 32, re entered school and received phd in math at 35. postdoc at 37.

What do you mean by "stayed in school"? As a student or some college tutor?

 

[Moonbear]

and at what age did you complete your undergrad and grad degrees and phD if you did it?

Undergrad at 21, Ph.D. at 2 days shy of 27...after years of not being able to enjoy a birthday because I was busy with experiments, I insisted on defending BEFORE my birthday so I could celeberate ON my birthday. .

I have a feeling that after one reaches thirty one cannot progress further... since most famous researchers were still young while making their greatest discoveries...[/QUOTE]

I don't think that's true. Some people may stumble into something great while still young, but I think most of us have a lot of false starts before really finding something substantial we can build a career off of. I'm in my *cough* late 30s, and only within the past year or two have really found something truly novel enough to build a career off of (and, ironically, have in the same time realized I'm more interested in teaching than research and pushed the research off as a side project while pursuing a career in education).

 

[Choppy]

B.Sc. at 23
M.Sc. at 25
Ph.D. at 30

 

[leon1127]

BS at 20, MS at 21, second MS at 22, PhD n+4... where n \in [22, \infty + 1)

 

[fizziks]

BS at 23 (I entered college at 18 in August, so it took a while)
MS most likely before my 25 birthday.

 

[marcusl]

BS at 21, worked in industry a year, then PhD at 27. No masters--it didn't seem worth the time it would take to fill out the form! It's a little hard to explain now...

As for not having done Nobel-prize worthy work by age 30, Nobel's are probably overrated anyway :)

 

[vanesch]

M Sc in engineering at 23, M Sc in physics at 26, PhD at 30. Dang. Too late

 

[cjwalle]

How on Earth are you managing to get a B.Sc at 20-21? B.Sc is a four-year degree, right? So if you start at 18, which is normal, you'd be done at 22. Now me, I'll be done at 23, since Norwegians aren't done with High School until they are 19.

 

[cristo]

How on Earth are you managing to get a B.Sc at 20-21? B.Sc is a four-year degree, right? So if you start at 18, which is normal, you'd be done at 22. Now me, I'll be done at 23, since Norwegians aren't done with High School until they are 19.

It depends what country: BSc degrees in the UK are 3 year degrees.

 

[cjwalle]

It depends what country: BSc degrees in the UK are 3 year degrees.

Ah yes, I actually didn't think of that. Here in Norway, it's also a 3 year degree. But we're stuck in school 'till we're 19 to compensate for it.

 

[fluidistic]

I'll be done with my B.Sc. when 26 years old. Here in Argentina this lasts 5 years (as a minimum because the last year is dedicated to a specialty which end in a work similar to a thesis. So it can lasts 5 years as 8 years. The "good" thing of this is that one can directly apply for a doctorate without passing by a master.). I started at 19 (almost 20) years old but didn't do well in my first year so now I'm 21 finishing the first year.
But I don't want to apply for a doctorate here so I don't know exactly what my B.Sc. is worth in Canada. I'll certainly have to apply for a master (but don't know if I have to start it from the first year...) and then a doctorate. Say I'll be done around 34 or 35 years old. I'm not scared for the studies (I love it) but a bit worried about how I will make money.

 

[mathwonk]

defender, i "stayed in school" for that period as a student in name only, not really working at it, hence going nowhere.

 

[Necross]

Quick question for you guys. During the time you were doing your PhD did you have a family to support? How did you get by in terms of expenses and all?

 

[Norman]

Quick question for you guys. During the time you were doing your PhD did you have a family to support? How did you get by in terms of expenses and all?

I got married my first year in grad school and then had a son my last year in grad school. My wife worked and I had a fellowship the last 3 years that paid me ok (20k take home, 12 month support). My wife worked at a good job and really supported us. For my last 3 years of grad school, she actually worked for the University I attended and we lived close to the school so we would walk to work together in the mornings, go home for lunch, etc. This saved money on food and gas. A big bonus.

I had a lot of friends who were married in grad school and even had a few who had kids. It is not uncommon. If you come right from undergrad, the shock of being poor isn't that big of a deal. But if you come from industry and are not working in industry during grad school, you may feel very poor and this might affect your grad school mentality.

Anyways, plenty of people from all walks of life, all financial situations, all anything you can think of go to grad school. If you want to be there and make it work, you can. Grad school can be filled with adversity and hardship, but there is always your fellow grad students going through most of the same stuff so don't worry too much.

 

[Necross]

If you don't mind me asking, how hard is it to obtain a fellowship? Is there any statistical data on grad school earning etc? Also the thing is that I don't plan on having a family until I finish school but I would need to support my aging parents and my younger siblings. Herein lies the real problem.

 

[Norman]

If you don't mind me asking, how hard is it to obtain a fellowship?

Depends on the type of fellowship. The 4 different fellowships I had through grad school were:
1. A very nominal award that was given to almost all grad students every year (like $500 for the year). They used this make sure you lived up to expectations teaching.

2. A fairly competitive award from the grad school based on academic performance, teaching evaluations, department recommendation and research progress. (was like $2000 or so)

3. An award for summer research support through a state agency. Had to write a fairly nominal research proposal. Was like $3-4k I think.
Fairly competitive. About 20% of the proposals received were funded.

4. A nationally competitive research fellowship from NASA that fully funded my final 3 years of grad school. You had deliverables that had to be met by a deadline that you created in your proposal. The proposal was fairly involved- not quite as involved as research grant proposals once you graduate, but still pretty involved.

I cannot really comment on how hard it is to get a certain fellowship and how different departments handle their funding. But I do know I was in the minority of my friends. They tended to just TA to pay the bills until they passed the Qualifying Exams then get an RA for full-time support if their advisor had money. If their advisor didn't have funding for them they could either TA and do research unpaid or hunt down fellowships.

Is there any statistical data on grad school earning etc?

The AIP probably has some statistics on that kind of stuff for physics grad schools. For other fields, I have no idea where you would find it. That is something to ask your advisor, though I think.

Also the thing is that I don't plan on having a family until I finish school but I would need to support my aging parents and my younger siblings. Herein lies the real problem.

This is going to be tough I think. Even with a well paying job it would be tough. The thing is, you typically only get paid enough to live in grad school. Doesn't much matter if you teach or get a Research Assistant position or have a fellowship. Your money will be used to cover your basic living expenses. But this is all very subjective and I know there is a huge variance in how much grad students are paid and your cost of living is also a huge issue. Having to live in a big city vs a small town for grad school will factor in.