How does failing a class affect your chances of getting a PhD?

[QuantumTheory]

I'm 17, and plan to get a PhD in something. Don't know what yet, japanese lingquistics (I'm pretty good at japanese), philopsy, mathematics, dunno.

Well, how long does your thesis have to be? 20 pages?

And is anyone here a surgery or neutroscientist? Anything in the medical field?

Thanks. Just wnat some pointers

 

[Pengwuino]

uhhh...any humanities-type doctorate is probably hundreds of pages long...

Lets just put it this way, whether your thesis is 20 pages or as much as 2000 pages, you're going to spend 4-8 years on it no matter what field it is... unless its artsy crap.

 

[kant]

Well, you can always check out the academic literatures/journals.

 

[Monique]

I'm 17, and plan to get a PhD in something. Don't know what yet, japanese lingquistics (I'm pretty good at japanese), philopsy, mathematics, dunno.
Well, how long does your thesis have to be? 20 pages?
And is anyone here a surgery or neutroscientist? Anything in the medical field?
Thanks. Just wnat some pointers

20?? that's the average master essay length. I've got a booklet here that is 120 pages long (the reference list is already 14 pages though )

How is it that you plan to get a PhD in something, why?

 

[kant]

I'm 17, and plan to get a PhD in something. Don't know what yet, japanese lingquistics (I'm pretty good at japanese), philopsy, mathematics, dunno.
Well, how long does your thesis have to be? 20 pages?
And is anyone here a surgery or neutroscientist? Anything in the medical field?
Thanks. Just wnat some pointers

Why do you want to get a ph.d?

 

[___]

looking at the responses here and those i have talke to i think Mr. Zappy zappy man Zed, selfadjoint(my 6th sense tells me), pervert (i guess it is not that but it has something to do with it.), astronuc (being a guru), adlrino (being reffered as a guru in the sig of astronuc), brewong(same as adlrino), fredgarvin(same), marlon(too complex posts), space tiger(very knowledgeable posts altough not that complex), zoobyshoe(sixth sense), danger(seeing that s/he has loads of un-understandable by any 13 yr old posts and also being a matured man(atleast by age)).
i guess i am not being that offensive here
my mums phd has about 35,000 words (needs to be 80,000)

 

[Pengwuino]

I think half of those people you named don't have phd's yet the ones you did name compose like, 10% of the doctorates on this forum lol

 

[honestrosewater]

japanese lingquistics (I'm pretty good at japanese)

Perhaps you could be a linguist who is also an expert in the Japanese language, but there is no such field as Japanese Linguistics as far as I know; if there was, it wouldn't make sense for Japanese to refer to the Japanese language but perhaps to some particular school of thought, philosophy, theory, approach, or such. Linguistics is the scientific study of (human) language. It isn't about learning specific languages, though that usually does come with the territory. If you think you might be interested in studying linguistics, you can check out the Linguistic Society of America's http://www.lsadc.org/info/ling-faqs-whymajor.cfm is another great place to start.

 

[Astronuc]

It is possible that one could do a PhD dissertation in 20 pages, e.g. with a dense mathematical proof. However, I believe most disseratations are at least several times that length - and probably 80+ pages, especially if one does experimental work.

The PhD dissertation has a section on the background of the problem one is studying in order to demonstrate one's understanding of the field and state-of-the-art, one's problem, then one's research and solution/experiment, then recommendations for additional research, and finally conclusions.

Here is a good summary - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhD

and for more details on a dissertation -

http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.dissertation.html
http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/vb/phd_dis.html

PhD Dissertation

A bunny rabbit is sitting in a clearing in the woods, typing away on his laptop computer. A fox comes along, and asks the bunny rabbit what he is doing. The rabbit replies, "I'm writing my PhD dissertation."

"What are you writing about?" asks the fox. "The title of the thesis is: 'Predation by Bunny Rabbits on Foxes and Wolves'," said the rabbit.

"Predation by rabbits on foxes and wolves?" exclaimed the fox, "But rabbits don't prey on foxes and wolves--that's counterintuitive!"

"Well" said the rabbit "perhaps you would like to come down into my burrow, and see my data!" The fox follows the rabbit down the rabbit hole, and a few minutes later the rabbit emerges brushing fox fur from his arm and picking bits of fox out of his teeth. He returns to his typing.

A few minutes later, a wolf comes by, and asks the rabbit what he is doing. "I'm writing my PhD dissertation; it's titled: 'Predation by Bunny Rabbits on Foxes and Wolves'," said the rabbit.

"Predation by rabbits on foxes and wolves?" exclaimed the wolf, "But rabbits don't prey on foxes and wolves--that's counterintuitive!"

"Well," said the rabbit, "Perhaps you would like to come down into my burrow, and see my data!" The wolf follows the rabbit down the rabbit hole, and a few minutes later the rabbit emerges brushing wolf fur from his arm and picking bits of wolf out of his teeth. He returns to his typing.

A few minutes later, a grizzly bear emerges from the rabbit hole, turns to the bunny rabbit, and says, "The second chapter looks fine. I'll read the third chapter next week."

And so, the moral of the story is that it does not matter if your research is counterintuitive, as long as you have the right supervisor.

http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/education/dissertation.html

An example of a disseration - http://www.marietta.edu/~mcshaffd/phd/funcmore.html

First get a baccalaureate, then a Master's degree, then worry about a PhD.

Finally, while I started and qualified for a PhD, but I left to get a job and support a family.

 

[JasonRox]

20 pages?

You can maybe get a Bachelor's doing that, but I'm sure you'll have to do that several times, which adds up.

It's all hard work. That's all I know.

 

[The_Professional]

And is anyone here a surgery or neutroscientist? Anything in the medical field?
Thanks. Just wnat some pointers

Moonbear's in the neuroscientist field if I'm correct.

Why would you want a Phd, because it sounds good? speaking of Phd my former marketing professor who has a Phd ONLY uses his title whenever a company/retail store pissed him off or when he'd write the state attorney general to complain. He'd talk to them and call himself Dr. B and "I want to talk to the president, etc..."

 

[JasonRox]

Moonbear's in the neuroscientist field if I'm correct.

Why would you want a Phd, because it sounds good? speaking of Phd my former marketing professor who has a Phd ONLY uses his title whenever a company/retail store pissed him off or when he'd write the state attorney general to complain. He'd talk to them and call himself Dr. B and "I want to talk to the president, etc..."

It only use?

So, um... how did he get his job?

Oh yeah, his PhD got him his job.

Getting a PhD has its uses. Also, he's a Marketing Professor.

 

[The_Professional]

It only use?
So, um... how did he get his job?
Oh yeah, his PhD got him his job.
Getting a PhD has its uses. Also, he's a Marketing Professor.

Bottomline: He's a very smart guy

And the topic is about who has a Phd, this isn't about "marketing professor". So unless you've taken his class you can't make blanket statements like that.

Now back to our regular programming

 

[cronxeh]

http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/education/dissertation.html

I don't have a PhD and hopefully won't need one

(im hoping to get an MD oneday and have enough math and engineering background to sneak into biomedical engineering )

 

[QuantumTheory]

Isn't it obvious why you get a PhD? To get a better job? Heh

 

[Evo]

Isn't it obvious why you get a PhD? To get a better job? Heh

I think most people get a PHD because of an interest for that particular field. Sadly, a PHD is no guarantee of a job in this day and age. Again, it depends on the field, who you know and who wants/needs you.

Why don't you check out some of the discussions in Academic and Career guidance that discuss this?

 

[Averagesupernova]

Well if EVERYONE got a PhD then they wouldn't mean much would they? This is why what you actually know and are capable of doing are as important as any piece of paper.

 

[Smurf]

Isn't it obvious why you get a PhD? To get a better job? Heh

Dude, It's not worth it.

 

[Astronuc]

I think most people get a PHD because of an interest for that particular field. Sadly, a PHD is no guarantee of a job in this day and age. Again, it depends on the field, who you know and who wants/needs you.

Why don't you check out some of the discussions in Academic and Career guidance that discuss this?

Exactly!

A lot depends on the field, but also on the person. If one wants to get a job in research or perhaps teach at a university, then one's chances are better with a PhD. Out in industry, the fact that one has a PhD might be a slight impediment, since a PhD might be viewed as expecting a higher salary.

It also depends upon the person. Just being one of the top people in one's field is perhaps just as good and may be even better than just having a PhD.

 

[moose]

"philopsy"

that sounds funny when you pronounce it\
fyyy lop sieBeing good in your field>just having a Ph.D

I know this to be definitely true in engineering.

 

[Maxwell]

Isn't it obvious why you get a PhD? To get a better job? Heh

Absolutely not. I had a professor tell me that nobody gets a PhD for money or job perspectives -- you do it for the love of the subject. Otherwise, you will NEVER make it through.

However, plenty of people get a Master's degree to get a better job or an increase in pay. Some jobs even require it.

 

[Tide]

John Nash did his dissertation in about 30 pages. But then he went on to get a Nobel Prize.

 

[arildno]

adlrino (being reffered as a guru in the sig of astronuc),

Nope. I've got a master's degree (hovedfag), that's it.

 

[marlon]

marlon(too complex posts)

Auww, that's not really a complement since my main attempt is to "simplify" some aspects of theoretical physics.

Anyhow, i am a PhD student so i do not yet have a PhD. One of the most difficult aspects is trying to convince some institute or university to fund you for 4 years. I was able to do that after i passed one year of predoctoral research at IMEC in Belgium. The chances of getting of full 4 year scholarship are about 20 to 30 percent here in Belgium. So, apart from "good" college grades you must also defend your project for a jury. Preparing for this is a very stressy time, trust me...But if it works, then all is fine. Ofcourse the minority of candidates is able to say this.

Having a PhD is certainly not always an advantage to acquire a better job. It really depends on what institute or university you are working for and in what field you are doing this PhD. For example, for western Europe, people that are able to do a PhD at a European institute like IMEC for micro electronics, do have better prospects to work for the European Union. These jobs have a very good pay, bit it is very difficult (as you might expect) to acquire them.

regards
marlon

 

[moose]

John Nash did his dissertation in about 30 pages. But then he went on to get a Nobel Prize.

I was just reading a beautiful mind today O.O

"In his slender twenty-seven-page doctoral thesis, written when he was twenty-one, Nash created a theory for games in which there was a possibility of mutual gain, inventing a concept that let one cut through the endless chain of reasoning" blah blah blah

 

[Aether]

John Nash did his dissertation in about 30 pages. But then he went on to get a Nobel Prize.

He also went on to be the planet Saturn for awhile too...true story...I read that a few years ago on his personal website (I think that it was here http://www.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/ but it's not there now).

 

[quantumdude]

Off the top of my head, here are the people I can recall who have openly professed having a PhD.

ZapperZ: Physics
DocAl: Physics
ahrkron: Physics
vanesch: Physics
reilly: Physics
Dr Transport: Physics
matt grime: Mathematics
mathwonk: Mathematics
HallsofIvy: Mathematics
Moonbear: Biology

 

[Evo]

Let's not forget there is a long list of members that are in the process of getting their PHD's.

 

[quantumdude]

And there is also the "strongly suspicious" list. Hurkyl, Janus, and Nereid have all been slient on the issue, yet I suspect that they are all Piled High and Deep.

 

[Pengwuino]

I thought moonbear was just a guinea pig jk