An Aspiring Scientist’s Frustration with Modern-Day Academia: A Resignation

Pascal Junod ^ | 9/9/2013 | Pascal Junod

[rktman]

Here is a mind-blowing text that was sent to all EPFL researchers (presumably) by a doctoral student during the week-end. It expresses feelings that are worth to think about.

Just to be crystal-clear:

I am not the author of this text. I don’t publish the name of his/her author, since I have no proof that his/her e-mail address was not spoofed. I don’t think that the exposed facts are a problematic unique to EPFL, nor to any other Swiss university: to the contrary, this is probably a worldwide phenomenon. Finally, I would like to make very clear that I did not experience the same feelings at all during my (very happy) PhD times at EPFL. So, don’t try to make any parallel with my own experience. Like the author, I don’t have any good idea how to change the system towards a better one.

Still, if you are or have been in the academic world, I think it is worth to invest 10 minutes to read this text.

[rktman]

The author is not able to confirm this post but if it is real, the person posting it may have seen the light. Lengthy but interesting aspect to modern academia.

[x]

The writer makes some excellent points.

The Internet may open the research world up and make things more fluid, if scientists and scholars are smart enough to make use of it to get around entrenched institutions.

[rbg81]

Academia is a business? I’m shocked! [/s]4

Much of what the author says is true. However, it has probably always been this way to some degree. Furthermore, the author will find that just about everything is a “business”. As a result, he will find many of the same issues in other professions. Bottom line: the world is an imperfect place, but there are reasons why things are the way they are.

Lastly, I suspect the author might have quit because his work was wanting. Just because much of the article is true does not mean the author’s motives were pure.

[RangerM]

Dear EPFL,
I am writing to state that, after four years of hard but enjoyable PhD work at this school, I am planning to quit my thesis in January, just a few months shy of completion.

Unwise. The proper thing to do is finish the Ph.D. which (when earned) can never be taken away.

[x]

Just because much of the article is true does not mean the author’s motives were pure.

True.

Lastly, I suspect the author might have quit because his work was wanting.

He (or she) may have gotten stuck somewhere in the middle, and spun off into writing this screed rather than a thesis. We don't know -- don't even know if this is legit or not -- but my intuition is that the article would be different if the anger were more focused at an actual rejection by a professor.

[rbg81]

I would at least finish, get the PhD, then go my own way. As I said, he will find that each profession has its own quirks—some of which are better/worse than academia. No place is perfect.

[Rodamala]

I am slightly relieved in reading this young person's "IRL Opus", that I learned his (or her) lessons AS AN UNDERGRAD.

I managed to put myself through Engineering School... was active as an ACTUAL CONTRIBUTOR to the REAL work of multiple student chapters of Professional Engineering Societies... and through this close proximity these groups to multiple Engineering Department heads (all PhDs, of course), I witnessed exactly the sort of backbiting snobbery and thieving going on for the Almighty Grant Dollar.

I protested, quite publicly... confrontational actually, regarding one of the American Engineering Professional Societies' hard promotion of a "Masters or Equivalent" degree as a new minimum for being able to sit for the Professional Engineering examination. It was straight up collusion... mutual fellatio.

I vowed to never want to be a part of any of it, and upon being awarded my BSME, I have vowed to never EVER consider returning to academia. They can all, quite bluntly, go suck each other's dicks all they want... I desire NO PART OF SUCH ACADEMIC FAGGOTRY.

At this point, with nearly every single state Professional Engineering Board demanding yearly "Continuing Educational Credits" to maintain profession licensure, I have serious reservations about sitting for the P.E. exam. It's all a SCAM, a big rip off of taxpayers with entitlements and handouts in a world where motivation of profit in the private sector, would could and should fund itself.

[rktman]

Rodamala. Don’t hold back. It’s not good for your blood pressure. LOL! I’ve known a lot of PhD’s during my years working in aerospace and there are only a few that are worth spitting on if they are on fire. For the most part they missed real world experience and were so wrapped up in their “status” they couldn’t posit a simple solution to just about anything.

[x]

I would at least finish, get the PhD, then go my own way.

From a practical point of view, certainly, but given that writing strongly-worded critiques tends to substitute for action in academia, he's learned his lessons well ...

As I said, he will find that each profession has its own quirks—some of which are better/worse than academia. No place is perfect.

True, but young people may approach academia with greater expectations than they do the working world. Hence the disappointment is greater.

[doorgunner69]

I hear you on the idiotic emphasis on a Masters. Had not thought of it as being pushed by academia for more $$ as just snobbery.

Went through an interview with a young(er than me by a good ways) manager at TRW that concluded the interview by pronouncing that they would expect me to immediately seek my Masters if employed.

Felt like telling him: "When you have amassed a few decades of job experience, come back and tell me how valuable those two extra years of school were".