If you get in next year, how old will you be when you start your PhD?

[ScreamingHairyArmadillo]

I'll be 22. From what I can tell it's standard in my field to go for the MS first and then continue on to the PhD, often at a different school. I wonder if I'll be working on apps again 2-3 years from now.

[gremot]

I'm in the 26 club

[Pamphilia]

25, and 26 very shortly thereafter.

[Dr._Robotnik's_Shadow]

I'll be 26. I already have my masters. I wanted to go straight from my masters into a PhD (I would have started at 24 that way) but it never worked out so I'm hoping this year will be my year.

[prolixity]

I'll be starting at 28. Yeah, I'm old, but whatever - I don't ever want to work for a corporation again. In Germany, most of the PhD students I met were in their late twenties.. granted, they had to earn their diplom (more or less equivalent to a thesis-based masters) before they could proceed to full doctoral apprenticeship.

[LifeIsGood]

I'll finish my MA next year and, if accepted, will be 39 when I start the Ph.D. I've worked in several fields, owned two business, have three kids and a great spouse. It's a good time for me to start because my professional life has taught me a lot about myself and how I work best, I won't have to be a broke grad student, and my kids are getting to be old enough that they can be more self-sufficient. The hard parts are that my kids and spouse still do deserve attention from me so I can't just bury myself in the library for days on end. Picking up and moving across the country is a bigger deal when I'm selling a house, selling a business, taking the kids out of school, and forcing my spouse to rearrange his worklife completely. It's different for everyone, I guess. I wouldn't have been ready when I was 21, probably not even when I was 31.

[margaretlouise]

I am surprised to learn that many of my fellow applicants are applying straight out of undergrads. That means some people are starting their PhDs at the age of 21/22. That seems so young to me!

Well, if I get in next year I'll be starting my PhD at the age of 26. To me it's the perfect timing. How about you guys?

I turned 26 in my first year of my PhD, and almost everyone else in my cohort had taken a couple of years off (if not 5-6) after undergrad as well. At school visits (in the decision-re:-where-to-go process), I found this to be the general trend as well. But straight-through folks seem happy, too! I think it just depends on the person. (For those of you going straight through, be sure to take care of yourselves; burnout is a lot more common, understandably!)

[peppermint.beatnik]

I will be 28 when I start a PhD. I think early twenties is too young to do a PhD in the humanities/social sciences (I have several reasons for feeling that way, which I won't get into).

If you're in sciences, early twenties is fine.

[rising_star]

I will be 28 when I start a PhD. I think early twenties is too young to do a PhD in the humanities/social sciences (I have several reasons for feeling that way, which I won't get into).

If you're in sciences, early twenties is fine.

Awww, come on, go into the reasons!

[zilch]

Awww, come on, go into the reasons!

because experience in the sciences generally means familiarity with experimental methodology, specific equipment types, etc. All of which can be gained in either grad school or industry.

Also, for most of the applied sciences, it's beginning to shift towards the M.S. being the professional degree.

[ScreamingHairyArmadillo]

Awww, come on, go into the reasons!

I have a feeling this could explode into a firestorm...

[peppermint.beatnik]

I have a feeling this could explode into a firestorm...

Yeah, that's why I don't like to get into it.

In humanities/social sciences, it essentially boils down to life experience/emotional maturity. I have a lot of thoughts about this, but I refrain from commenting.

[rising_star]

Yeah, that's why I don't like to get into it.

In humanities/social sciences, it essentially boils down to life experience/emotional maturity. I have a lot of thoughts about this, but I refrain from commenting.

Totally not cool to say that and then say nothing else. What do life experience and emotional maturity have to do with doing research in the humanities and social sciences?

[ColorlessGreen]

Totally not cool to say that and then say nothing else. What do life experience and emotional maturity have to do with doing research in the humanities and social sciences?

Gotta agree here. Emotional maturity is something that's useful in any field, and one's life experiences shape the choices one makes of school or program, but I don't see how either of these things is especially relevant in the humanities and social sciences. Maybe for philosophers or moralists starting at an older age might be a blessing, due to the importance of a deep understanding of human nature in those fields, but it seems to me like most research in other fields can be undertaken at any age, given the proper training and motivation.

[mlle]

Eh, I would say that understanding human nature is a (or the) major component in any of the social sciences and humanities. I took peppermint's comment to be referring to the fact that the social sciences and humanities are reflexive fields, they are concerned with human nature as much as with "pure" research. I started my MA in the social sciences at 24, graduated right before turning 26, and then fled into a professional program instead of a PhD because social science academia was too overwhelming for me. I sometimes wonder whether things would have panned out differently if I had waited out the turmoil of the first half of my twenties and started grad school in the field that interested me a few years later. Obviously, I was not one of the precocious grad students....I think a majority of people start their PhDs early in this field and maturity is not an issue. But for many it is. I guess it's a self selection process. At any rate, I think it's silly to get all roiled up over the issue.

Edited December 16, 2009 by mlle

[melusine]

I'll be 23 if I get in and from where I come from (Europe) that's considered old.

I graduated high school in France in 2005 and most of my high school friends are either Masters' graduates with jobs or going into their Phds, although most are definitly more into joining the work force in their respective fields.. Anyway, my point being that "maturity" as such 1)- has little to do with a person's actual age, and more with the invornment they're in, 2)- plays a much smaller part in a scholar's or specialist's research activities or employability than the skills and motivation acquired as part of their previous studies.

To give you an example, one of my good friends is 22, has a degree in media studies and is a junior attachée communication with one of the biggest press agencies in France. Or, better yet, another friend who, at 23, has just opened her osteopathology practice adjascent to her dance studio. She's also already divorced, which although hardly an accomplishment, often intimates that she possesses that elusive "maturity" people keep harping on about...

[coyabean]

I'll be 23 if I get in and from where I come from (Europe) that's considered old.

I graduated high school in France in 2005 and most of my high school friends are either Masters' graduates with jobs or going into their Phds, although most are definitly more into joining the work force in their respective fields.. Anyway, my point being that "maturity" as such 1)- has little to do with a person's actual age, and more with the invornment they're in, 2)- plays a much smaller part in a scholar's or specialist's research activities or employability than the skills and motivation acquired as part of their previous studies.

To give you an example, one of my good friends is 22, has a degree in media studies and is a junior attachée communication with one of the biggest press agencies in France. Or, better yet, another friend who, at 23, has just opened her osteopathology practice adjascent to her dance studio. She's also already divorced, which although hardly an accomplishment, often intimates that she possesses that elusive "maturity" people keep harping on about...

What an interesting cultural commentary. I cannot imagine being 22 with that level of accomplishment, but I was a loser.

Also as one who has been divorced let me just say that it is the most expensive maturation you can get.

[swisnieski]

24, on the cusp of 25. I'll be applying straight out of undergrad is the sad thing -- I started primary education a year late and it took me six years to get my BA.

[hubris]

I'll be starting at 28. Yeah, I'm old, but whatever - I don't ever want to work for a corporation again. In Germany, most of the PhD students I met were in their late twenties.. granted, they had to earn their diplom (more or less equivalent to a thesis-based masters) before they could proceed to full doctoral apprenticeship.

Same. Corp life has been good to me, but...

[NEPA]

I am surprised to learn that many of my fellow applicants are applying straight out of undergrads. That means some people are starting their PhDs at the age of 21/22. That seems so young to me!

Well, if I get in next year I'll be starting my PhD at the age of 26. To me it's the perfect timing. How about you guys?

If I'm accepted, I'll be one of the right-out-of-undergrad crowd: 22.

[johndiligent]

If I get accepted this year, I'll be starting a 2-year MA, and if I get accepted on time the next round, I'll be starting my PhD in Fall 2012. I'll be 27.

[UnlikelyGrad]

because experience in the sciences generally means familiarity with experimental methodology, specific equipment types, etc. All of which can be gained in either grad school or industry.

It's a little simplistic to say that that's all you need in the sciences. What about the ability to think outside of the box--to do things without being told exactly what to do by your advisor--to see something going wrong and figure out that it means that your original hypothesis is wrong, but the phenomenon could be explained by______?

FWIW, I started at 37. No experience in industry, and only one year as a post-bac (age 36) taking classes and doing research. My PI was really impressed by my performance--I picked up the skills I needed faster than the other two in lab (having had to teach myself so much for so long, learning new things was a piece of cake), and I was always thinking about the research from interesting angles. Whenever I had free time, like when I was waiting for a simulation to finish, I'd mess around, trying to apply different principles to the same situation.

I *never* would have done this if I'd gone to grad school straight out of undergrad.

I'm not old, just aged to perfection.

[luar de ouro]

I'll be 23 if I get accepted next fall.

Took a year off after I graduated to take some non-credit classes, though now I wish I applied for an MA for this year so I have a better chance of getting into a Ph.D program

[Timothy Vallier]

24.

[intextrovert]

I'd be 25. That's one of my "scary ages": an age at which, when it still seemed distant, I imagined I'd have my life together. I really hope I get in for so many reasons, but hitting my 25th birthday with a real direction is definitely one of them!

Edited December 30, 2009 by intextrovert