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tomyum

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  1. Hello everyone! Thank you for your suggestions. I dropped out of my Phd program in May and since then I had not logged into grad cafe, so I just saw the posts. I left grad school and now I work as a computer programmer. I am so glad that I made the move. The work hours are manageable and I have time to pursue my other hobbies. The increase in salary has been drastic and my quality of life has been splendid. Going to grad school was the stupidest decision I have ever made in my life.
  2. Hello all, I was a PhD student in a highly ranked institution (top 5). Since i was in a such a prestigious program, it was very hard for me to quit despite hating every day of my life at grad school. But finally I have made my mind and want to take a masters and leave. The thing that discouraged me from getting a PhD in physical chemistry was that most people who were graduating from my lab and other labs at my school were doing post-docs after post-docs to support themselves or getting really shitty jobs in industry. It does not seem like getting a PhD will advance my career in any way. My friends who I did undergrad with are earning much more money and have better job options than those that are graduating with a PhD. Money is not super importnat to me, but after all that hard work and sacrifice, I feel that I deserve better. I did chemistry and math as an undergraduate. I regret that I did not continue with my math career and went into some job that paid better. Has anyone made a transition form a science career to business or consulting or any job that pays well? If so, can you please give me some tips.
  3. I am a second year graduate student. I got stuck with some problems in my research durin I don't have concrete results yet. A lot of my cohorts are going to conferences to present theier research and I feel like I am the only one who is not signing up for conferences. When do graduate students need to start attending conferences and do you need to publish before you can apply to attend a conference?
  4. Thanks everyone for your replies. A job that pays me about 80K is what I will be happy with after my PhD. I am a computational/theoretical chemist. Computational research is pretty big in pharmaceuticals , however my research is not related to drug design. It is more of quantum computation. Can I get a well paying non-academic job with a PhD. in quantum chemistry? What kind of companies can I take a look at?
  5. Most people in my lab go to either academia or finance but rarely industry. It is really strange how people can switch from chemistry to finance. How difficult is it to go into finance from chemistry? I really like my research group/ project but it is very academia oriented.
  6. I do quantum chemistry and a little bit of cheminformatics, so I am a bit scared that I might be stuck in academia. What kind of research in theoretical/computational chemistry has a good prospect in industry? It seems like pharmaceuticals is the easiest one to get a job in but my research group is not interested in that. I really like the research that I am doing right now but I don't want to waste my time doing research that won't be of much value to me later on.
  7. So what kind of positions in industry pay a decent amount? something like 80 K? Before I decide on my PhD project, I just want to make sure that I will get a decent job in industry. I don't want to go into academia but seems like most people from my lab go to academia. I want to design my PhD in such a way that I will have lots of good options outside academia.
  8. I was talking with a friend who is finishing up her PhD and her post doc position only pays about 40 K, which is just a little more than the regular graduate student stipend which has really surprised me. I heard that is typical salary for a post doc. Is that true? After more than five years of graduate school, does your earning potential only increase by 10 K. That is really disappointing. How much do people typically earn in industry or other jobs immediately after graduating?
  9. I go to Harvard. However, I don't want to give a wrong impression of the graduate program here. It is really nice, the people in my lab are also really nice. I do think it is a wonderful place to be for graduate school. The problem is mainly because of my poor academic background. When I see the amount of work that the undergrads do here or talk with my friends about their undergrad, I do feel that my undergrad was very easy and because of that my academic background is not so good. Also I am not used to working a lot of hours while most people seems to be comfortable doing so because their undergrad was equally stressful. I think all the problem that I am having is because of me and not because of how the program is structured here. It really sucks to be a stupid person among all the smart people. I think I am not good enough to be here and just got in by luck.
  10. The class I am taking is tough, so I have to study hard enough to get a passing grade i.e. B. I wish I could spend less time on my homework, which is such a time sucker, but I am afraid that if I don't do well in the homework, I might perform really badly in my exams. I had a really tough time with my course last semester and I studied like crazy to pass them. My background in chemistry is not that strong, which is making my classes really tough for me. I feel really underprepared for graduate school. My research requires a lot of programming and my programming skills are not that good either. So learning programming is taking a lot of time too. Juggling all these things, on top of teaching, leaves very few time for actual research.
  11. Thanks Eigen. I work about 35 hours in lab each week, and study and prepare for the class I am teaching during the evening. I am at a R1 school and most of my peers spend a ridiculous amount of time in lab. I work about 14 hours during workdays because of labwork, homework and teaching but take Saturdays and half of Sunday off. I think I will go insane if I start working on weekends as well. I don't know how other people in my cohort can work like 80-100 hours per week . I think I will slowly get used to it.
  12. Hello, I am a first year grad student in chemistry. We had rotations during the first semester, so we were not expected to do research seriously. Now that I have joined a lab, I am having a hard time figuring out how much research should I do. I am taking a class and teaching as well, which takes most of my time and I have only little time left during the week for research. I feel like I am not being productive enough in terms of research. The only way I can fit in some serious research work is if I work crazy number of hours each week. How much progress in research do people in chemistry PhD make during their first year?
  13. It's okay waddle! Things will eventually work out! We just have to stay strong and hang in there. I heard first year is about survival and keeping one's sanity intact and things get a lot better after that. We are already near the end of this semester! Good luck. We can make it through the first year
  14. tomyum

    Harvard

    It is nice to see a Harvard thread here! i am also living in the graduate dorms but the grad dorms are not as social and fun as I had expected it to be. My floor sucks even more. It is so quiet and I am starting to get very lonely in grad school. How has living in the dorms been for you guys? How are you guys socializing at Harvard? I meet some people at dudley house/dudley events sometimes but I really haven't been able to form a stable, nice group to hang out with. I went to a small school for undergrad where everyone knew each other, and people were very friendly so I had no problem making friends. You just saw the same people and you did not have to formally ask them to hang out, things just happened spontaneously. Things are so much formal here. I have to constantly ask people to come and hang out and I just feel like I am being needy and I wait for them make a plan but that doesn't happen. I tried hanging out with my classmates but their interest and mine are so different that I have not really been able to connect well with them. Moreover, we talk a lot about our discipline and sometimes there is a sense of competition. I really want to make good friends outside my department. Do you guys have any tips for socializing at Harvard? How do people in a big schools like Harvard make good friends?
  15. Thanks you guys for taking the time to write such long nice post for a complete stranger! I feel so much better. You guys can't even imagine how much your posts have made my life better. I really feel motivated now and I am trying to reach out to people and make friends. I asked a couple of acquaintances if they were interested in going out for dinner tonight and most of them were trying to make friends like me. I also talked with my academic counselor about my course work, academic probation and other things like that. It was really helpful. I can't thank you guys enough. I was already at the point of giving up but now I really want to try and make my grad school experience and social situation better
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