What do Stanford CS PhD students think of their PhD program? [pdf]

Re:What do Stanford CS PhD students think of their PhD progr... by metaphor on Monday July 09, 2018 @08:17PM (#17494471)

>> PhD is probably more fun, though.

These notes[1]--written by Prof. Comer of Purdue--and over a year of introspection ultimately led me to decide against the PhD path (EE, not CS). To be sure, the words fun, happy, and rich were used precisely zero times. It's a humbling quick read for anyone else out there considering.

[1] https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.phd.html

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Re:What do Stanford CS PhD students think of their PhD progr... by majos on Monday July 09, 2018 @08:31PM (#17494535)

As a PhD student, I'll lightly disagree and say that I'm happy in my PhD. I like doing research every day and having freedom to work when and where I want, on what I want. It's much better than the year I worked as a software developer working on things I found boring and repetitive. I would definitely say I've had fun. Of course, it's not always fun, and I know I've been lucky as far as advisor and project randomness. But the harshness of the link you posted seems unnecessarily severe.

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Re:What do Stanford CS PhD students think of their PhD progr... by notafraudster on Monday July 09, 2018 @08:28PM (#17494523)

The notes are very apt, but it's worth noting that a PhD is so fun that the people who finish do so in spite of all the misery described in that essay. It's the best and worst decision of your life.

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Re:What do Stanford CS PhD students think of their PhD progr... by Invictus0 on Monday July 09, 2018 @08:27PM (#17494513)

The word "joy" is used, to be fair.

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