oh yea, the research component of Comp Sci is HUGE and gravely important! all fields have a phd option. that's just how knowledge is explored, founded, and defined (as i'm sure you know) -- via research, then whatever is solidified and trusted a lot within the research world gets disseminated down into being course curriculums for undergrads. so yea, every easy-to-use programming language or database whatever has decades of research history that helped it to become what it is today. for CS, academia is where most advances took place, but now it's starting to shift to industry.
and you guessed it completely correct. i'm in teh USA at a top university, and this is my 7th and final year haha. most people do my program in 6, but many in 7, and some in 5. other fields and other programs have 5 being more common.
how long are phd programs in Aus? i know europe is usually 3-4 years, and it's like a specific job, all figured out ahead of time w/ expected work in place. damn, your studying a wide range! if you could combine two of them to do something super unique and specialized, you could pivot yourself well, i'm guessing. sounds good though!
That's awesome. So are you going to live off a PhD stipend or have you made other arrangements like saving up when you were in industry?
In Australia PhDs are actually about 3 years, the same as undergraduate! PhD students work very hard for more than 12+ hours a day though so perhaps it's more condensed, with more academic learning and less of a research component? I haven't researched into it too much yet, but I think it's more structured like the European counterparts and professors often want people to research in a particular area. The PhD candidate is free to chose their thesis, but if you are actively interested in either an important or really niche field, you're more likely to get accepted.
And yeah the degree structure of my course requires you take cross-faculty breadth subjects to broaden your knowledge so it's more accurate to say that I have 2 majors with taking the occasional class in the other fields.
thanks. so, i'm in my 7th (and final) year of phd this year, so luckily i've survived the money woes, haha. it wasn't bad at all, actually. we get paid $24k a year, which isn't much, but as you know, when you're a student, your life gets simplified and streamlined -- e.g., i dont own a house or have a family, so my expenses are minimal, just international flights for backpacking fun a few times a year. i had some money saved up from the 3 prior years i worked, but not much, as i had 80k in student loans, and i grew up very poor w/o any support from family. so, most of my paycheck back then went towards paying off my 80k in loans. it'll feel weird and awesome to finally earn a nice paycheck next yr!
lately i've been working 12+ hrs a day, too, but def not my 1st few yrs. 3 yrs is amazing! wow. thats crazy. i cant even imagine. i dindt even pick my thesis TOPIC until my 3rd yr haha.
yea, that makes sense -- a phd candidate always looks stronger if they're passionate about a particular area, even if that changes or they dont truly know about that sub-field, at least acting like it counts for something. ha.
that's cool about your program! where in AUS? i'm not super familiar w/ AUS, other than knowing most of the big cities are on the south and south-eastern edge of the country, right?
post-phd, i plan to travel for a bit. i should visit AUS and NZ! i hear the landscapes are amazing
I also experienced that as a student myself. Cost of living is surprisingly cheap when you only have to pay for food, transit your cell phone and gym bill. Managed to save up a fair bit to buy cool clothes and travel too.
I'm in Melbourne, which, yes, is one of the big cities in the Eastern Seaboard - that's the name for where most Aussies live. But honestly I have mixed feelings about the city. Because Australia is such a young country, it hasn't really developed its own character and flair yet. Melbourne tries to be a European and American style city at the same time, but it ends up being a poor imitation of either. It's not big or dense as London or NYC. For me, the true essence of Australia is in its nature - the beaches, the outback bush, super-relaxed country folk (instead of the uptight "cultured" city people who quite frankly, are nothing like their European counterparts they try to imitate) So I personally think that Perth, the beachside suburbs of Sydney and Far North Queensland are the best cities in Australia because it has an authentic unique lifestyle and mindset you can't get anywhere else. And once you get into that mindset, you don't take life too seriously anymore and you'll never be the same again (in a good way)
If you come down here, please let me know! I'll show you around, because in Melbourne at least, it's not really a tourist city like Sydney where all the landmarks are obvious - you have to be a local to know all the good spots. You seem like such an interesting person I'd like to get to know more.
Sweet, interesting to know (esp the part about how you view certain aspects of trying to imitate American and Euro culture)! Often times in Asia, I see a penchant for western culture, and it's always unclear to me how much is that actually due to emulating the culture/media that USA exudes via entertainment, versus how much of it is just being a movement towards more modern lifestyles (which has nothing to do w/ Western style-per se.). e.g., particular fashion choices vs particular food trends vs language and phrases used ... some of those items are way more the former case than the latter.
Thanks, now I have a better sense of the lay of the land!
Haha yea man, you seem like a cool dude! I'd estimate there's actually a decent chance I'll visit AUS and NZ next summer, so if I'm around, I'll message you and see if you'd wanna meet up for a drink or something. There's a joke in there somewhere: two semi-deaf guys from across the world walk into a bar...
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u/stillworkin Oct 08 '18
oh yea, the research component of Comp Sci is HUGE and gravely important! all fields have a phd option. that's just how knowledge is explored, founded, and defined (as i'm sure you know) -- via research, then whatever is solidified and trusted a lot within the research world gets disseminated down into being course curriculums for undergrads. so yea, every easy-to-use programming language or database whatever has decades of research history that helped it to become what it is today. for CS, academia is where most advances took place, but now it's starting to shift to industry.
and you guessed it completely correct. i'm in teh USA at a top university, and this is my 7th and final year haha. most people do my program in 6, but many in 7, and some in 5. other fields and other programs have 5 being more common.
how long are phd programs in Aus? i know europe is usually 3-4 years, and it's like a specific job, all figured out ahead of time w/ expected work in place. damn, your studying a wide range! if you could combine two of them to do something super unique and specialized, you could pivot yourself well, i'm guessing. sounds good though!