How many hours a week do you spend in grad school?

[Pyrrhus]

I drink every day.

I couldn't help myself today... I drank a Stella Artois hehe.

 

[Cyrus]

I couldn't help myself today... I drank a Stella Artois hehe.

There ok, but not my preferred type of beer. They are a bit on the bitter side, specially for a lager. I need to try a Duvel soon.

 

[Pyrrhus]

There ok, but not my preferred type of beer. They are a bit on the bitter side, specially for a lager. I need to try a Duvel soon.

I haven't tried a Duvel before. I'll try it next time.

 

[mbuchove]

Hmm, so far I've got two extremes and no in between. It seems like people either have a very reasonable amount of work comparable to a normal 9-5 job, or they do almost nothing but work. Should I think it's just going to be chance, or is there some way I can get an idea of what a prospective program would involve?

 

[arunma]

Hmm, so far I've got two extremes and no in between. It seems like people either have a very reasonable amount of work comparable to a normal 9-5 job, or they do almost nothing but work. Should I think it's just going to be chance, or is there some way I can get an idea of what a prospective program would involve?

Really it's up to you how much time you want/need to spend. The TA work we get in my department usually takes 15 hours per week (once you learn not to spend too much time on grading). And then you've got three graduate level classes, each with about one assigment every two weeks. So I guess that averages out to effectively 1.5 homework assignments each week. For most normal people one assignment takes about 8 hours of work to finish. So I suppose you're up to 27 hours per week at minimum. Beyond that, it's up to you to decide how much more work you want to put in.

As for the poll results...let's just say that you might not have enough statistics.

 

[cristo]

As for the poll results...let's just say that you might not have enough statistics.

It will also depend on where in the world you are. For example, I don't count teaching as being "necessary to my degree," since any money I get for teaching is over and above my student stipend. Though, I know that in the US, for example, teaching is necessary in order to obtain your stipend.

 

[Topher925]

I give props to anyone that puts in 80 hours a week. That's at least 11.5 hours a day, every day, including weekends. I get burnt out enough with just my typical 40 hours or so of work a week.

 

[arunma]

It will also depend on where in the world you are. For example, I don't count teaching as being "necessary to my degree," since any money I get for teaching is over and above my student stipend. Though, I know that in the US, for example, teaching is necessary in order to obtain your stipend.

I'm not sure how it is overseas, but at my department all graduate students are required to teach one year of physics or astronomy recitations as a PhD graduation requirement. Most of the condensed matter people are also required to do an additional year or two of teaching due to funding issues. My group (particle astrophysics) is well-funded, so I only had to teach for the one year, after which my advisor took me on as a research assistant. That's one of the reasons I can get away with 40 hours. I don't have to teach, and my advisor never let's me take more than one class a semester. And for the most part my research just involves sitting in front of a computer for 6 hours a day.

 

[Office_Shredder]

I would also consider the fact that when people answer these kinds of questions they're possibly remembering the weeks where they had more work.

 

[Cyrus]

I think the teaching/grading requirement varies between schools and even departments because I've never taught nor graded any class work before (thank god). I have been invited to come in an give a lecture to my advisors class on my research for one day next semester though.

 

[JasonRox]

I think the teaching/grading requirement varies between schools and even departments because I've never taught nor graded any class work before (thank god). I have been invited to come in an give a lecture to my advisors class on my research for one day next semester though.

I don't mind it considering my wages are going to be $30/hour next term. I get enough in scholarships. I don't mind working 10 hours week to get an extra $300 in my pocket every week.

Seriously, you have to be dumb to not want to do it.

 

[Cyrus]

I don't mind it considering my wages are going to be $30/hour next term. I get enough in scholarships. I don't mind working 10 hours week to get an extra $300 in my pocket every week.

Seriously, you have to be dumb to not want to do it.

Do you ever stop to think before you type? Students here don't get $30/hr to grade papers. I get paid the same amount as people do grading papers, to do my research. Why would I want to waste my time grading papers on top of my research?

 

[JasonRox]

Do you ever stop to think before you type? Students here don't get $30/hr to grade papers. I get paid the same amount as people do grading papers, to do my research. Why would I want to waste my time grading papers on top of my research?

Exactly. Did you ever take the time to think that people here DON'T get paid the same grading papers and doing research...

 

[cristo]

Now, now.. let's all get along!

 

[ExactlySolved]

If you want to play the homework game, it can easily consume every waking hour. I used to think of it like boot camp, except where you have to be your own drill seargant. During this time I also learned to become more efficient at cooking, eating, waking up, and going to bed, all while mentally working on homework problems.

Your clearly not a grad student if your 'free time' is devoted to physics.

That's not necessarily true, even before passing the quals I gave up on the HW game and forced myself to only start each set the day before the deadline because that way I would not spend undue time on them. Keep in mind that HW problems are, to me, meaningless busy work intended to perpetuate the sham of industrial education (some people say they derive benefit from 'practice', which is as strange to me as 'practicing' multiplication tables, something which puzzled me in grade school). Anyway, once I dedicated all the ex-HW time to reading physics articles in my new found 'free time' I quickly moved from teaching to doing research, so at least in my case it was the right thing to do. Therefore I think that, for some graduate students, it is healthy and normal to eschew HW in favor of having 'free time' that one then spends learning new, interesting physics.

 

[Cyrus]

Exactly. Did you ever take the time to think that people here DON'T get paid the same grading papers and doing research...

What part of my post:

I think the teaching/grading requirement varies between schools and even departments because I've never taught nor graded any class work before (thank god).

Did you not understand?

 

[Topher925]

I don't mind it considering my wages are going to be $30/hour next term. I get enough in scholarships. I don't mind working 10 hours week to get an extra $300 in my pocket every week.

That is freaken nutz! Is that $30 American? I didn't even make that when I was an entry level engineer. What school do you go to Jason? I think I'm going to transfer there.

Around here, everyone gets paid just about the same, whether they are an RA or not. This summer I'm an RA, TA, an unofficial TA for another class, and I'm covering two weeks of lectures for a 400 level class and yet I still make less than third of what you do. So yeah, I might put in 30 hours a week in pure TA/RA stuff and get paid the same as someone who only puts in 5 hours a week.

 

[Pyrrhus]

The same for me... If I TA or RA, I get paid the same!. I rather RA, because I don't have to deal with angry undergrads!

 

[Cyrus]

Basically, I'm in grad school to do research. Not teach. We are a top 10 research school.

There are those who do, and those who teach. Both are necessary, but are worlds apart. That's why I loved my class last semester that was taught out of NASA. Our teacher is a PhD, but not a professor. So all his homework problems were actual flight test data. There were no textbook, waste my time homeworks. It was all actual problems he worked on before. Also, he didn't teach the class by deriving a single equation. He just gave concepts and discussed them. The learning was on your own time, which is what a good class should be like. I don't need someone rederiving for me what's already in the book as I mindlessly take notes. No one took notebooks to that class, we just sat there and listened. It was great.

 

[arunma]

Hmm, I must be the exception here. I actually enjoyed TAing for the one year that I did it. I wouldn't mind TAing again at some point in the future.

 

[jackhamm]

Well, I am "part time" in an MS program doing physics. I work full time as an engineer at a software company and my breakdown is something like this:

Fr,S,Su - I work from 8 to 4 then do studying for 4 to 5 hours at night.
M,W I am on campus from 9 to 6 (class 3:00 to 5:00) with another 2hrs of study at home.
T,Th I work 8 to 4 with class from 6p to 10p

About 30 to 36 hours of school related stuff each week. I am lucky that my day job is really shift work even though it is a "professional" job - I don't have meetings or things to bring home with me which really helps.

 

[cronxeh]

Yes.. let's have grad student fight with calipers.. First one to forfeit wins a week's supply of cup Ramen Noodles!