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Comment by gattilorenz | Hacker News Reader

Well, it seems that everyone describes the PhD as a tragic experience... for me it wasn't.

I don't know exactly why that was, probably a mixture of how it is organized/work culture (Italy is clearly not the US), the extremely caring and human supervisor, and a not particularly competitive field. I would argue that also my fellow PhD candidates were not as stressed as I read here (antidepressants on every doorknob? No way.)

Now that I'm done and I moved to another university in the northern part of the EU, I'm still not convinced, by looking at candidates here, that the PhD is such a tragic experience,but maybe I just know lucky people.

Did anyone here have a positive PhD?

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Yes, I did. My supervisor was quite old-school idealistic in that he believed that good work would rise to the top without playing political games. We were both a bit naive in that respect I think... and we've both had modest careers as a result. But I really enjoyed my PhD and greatly respected his integrity.

Other people in our department rose quickly and now have international reputations. But I couldn't treat people like they did and look myself in the mirror every day.

One other thing that greatly helped me in my PhD was the mutual support of fellow candidates. On my own I would probably have had a breakdown in my final year as the intensity of writing up alone must be intolerable. That is why I was shocked to read the comment above where a supervisor pitted candidates against each other: that is criminal in my view.

> On my own I would probably have had a breakdown in my final year as the intensity of writing up alone must be intolerable.

I think I agree on this one. Writing your thesis is indeed a stressful thing, but there was always a supportive atmosphere from the other PhDs in my department. Maybe because everyone is in the same boat :)

Currently in the second year of a happy PhD in France.

Looking at other PhD-students around me I would say that those that have few results so far are indeed stressed, but clearly not to those levels, and that the main criteria for their well-being is the quality of their relation with their advisor (if you intend to do a PhD, pick your advisor carefully, you will work with him for the next three+ years of your life).

A factor might be that our PhD tend to be shorter (three years) and that students are paid and have no debts (at least for a PhD in science in France, those don't hold for other fields such as literature).

I did, too. And although, much like other replies to your post say, it was not in the US, I know many "happy graduates" from there.

My impression is that the amount of PhD stress is different in different fields, with higher-competition fields resulting in more tragic overall experience. For example, my own subject was relatively un-populated and even a bit out of fashion, so I was able to publish papers on openly available data taken almost 10 years ago, and even open source some of my code.

That being said, I also got very lucky to have a flexible and supporting supervisor, and to have a proper working contract with my institute with all the social benefits included (yay, Germany!).

Edit: just realized that the above looks too rosy - I had also burned out in the middle of my PhD from overworking, got increasingly cynical attitude towards science and have left science altogether after graduating due to lack of career prospects. However, challenging as it was, I still consider it a great experience.

I'm a fairly recent PhD, but on the whole I had a very positive time. It took some time to figure out what I wanted my research to be, and that was the most stressful part (first two years/in conjunction with a Masters). After that, it became pretty fun, with a very flexible schedule, very talented, driven and supportive people around me, and the ability to work on what I want with a lot of academic freedom.

One thing I emphasize to all the new graduate students/people thinking of grad school is that, of course, pursue research that is interesting, but also to make sure to pick a good adviser, one who's PhD students can vouch for in private. That was key for me and many of the people I know to having a good versus bad PhD.

I think it's a US vs Europe thing. Basically everybody I know in Europe who got a PhD (including my wife) had an experience much more similar to yours than what the article describes.

Hey dude, Italian here as well currently enrolled in a Masters. I am thinking over the possibility of going forward with a PhD rather than looking for a job, could I ask you some questions? It is quite hard for me to find actual information on PhD life here in IT and unfortunately I don't know anyone who has done one.

sure, shoot me an email, my username @ gmail

For me, it's always seemed a primarily American problem. Many of my close friends have done PhD's across Northern Europe also, and they say that while it's hard, they also say that they have a good support system around them.

Saying that though, I also know people in the UK doing PhD's, and they're having a horrible time. I think it's possibly a consequence heavily privatising education, and focus more on monetary profit over learning and inovation.

Net positive experience in my case, in the US. Emphasis on net because there were certainly hard times. It took longer than I'd like to admit and I took a year off to work, and a summer offfor just writing. But I highly value the experience and I had subsidized student loans from undergrad so that was ~10 years of no interest.

I have come across quite a few people across top universities in central Europe who quit academia and/or were burnt out after their PhD. In my own experience in Austria support networks are non-existent, and students working under top professors in competitive fields are under an immense amount of stress.

I just finished a PhD in the US and loved it. Sure there were some stressful times, but I don't blame the system for that, and my advisor was very supportive. I'm sure it helped that my PhD was reasonable well funded and I lived in a relatively cheap city.

It seems to be a primarily US problem. Most people I know in Germany and elsewhere in the EU doing their PhD are doing fine. Stressed at times maybe, but not on the edge of emotional/psychological breakdowns or chugging antidepressants.

It depends on the field. I have a fairly large network of contacts who are phds or postdocs in German and Switzerland. The experiences range from fairly uneventful to US levels of stress.

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