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Comment by throwawaygh | Hacker News Reader

It's an important reality to understand.

I did my PhD in an in-demand field at a top uni.

My partner did their PhD in a less in-demand field at a not so top uni.

The difference in our experiences -- and how those experiences were directly impacted by the financial motivations of the department/university -- was beyond staggering. My partner was cheap teaching labor. I was a source of fellowship+grant money and potentially valuable patents/prestige. I could leave and 10x my salary with a single email (ultimately did). My partner would've been lucky to teach high school. In literally every interaction with the university, you could tell.

Universities are just another org with budget and headcount and metrics to optimize. Academia is no longer sheltered from the shitty labor politics of finance capitalism. NEVER let anyone tell you otherwise.

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"I could leave and 10x my salary with a single email (ultimately did). My partner would've been lucky to teach high school."

That has more to do with the field than the school. A CS grad student at a third-tier school can leave and take a well-compensated corporate job whenever they want. A history grad student at a top-tier school will find that more difficult.

> Academia is no longer sheltered from the shitty labor politics of finance capitalism.

It never was. And politics in general, not just labor.

I think prior to the 2000s academia was much less MBAified than it is now.

What does one do if we've been deemed not good enough for top schools or institutions?

Can you get a great advisor at a mid-tier place and a strong guarantee that you won't have to TA a ton? If not, opt out of academia.

I had a half dozen tenure-track offers and decided on industry. Honestly, academia is not what it used to be. Lots of professors come close to killing their under-paid grad students so that they can spend 20% of their time on blue sky research ideas. I get that time and then some without throwing poor kids under the bus. Without even asking, really. And make 3x what I would've made as a slave driver to boot.

Academia sucks, especially if you want to do good research. Seriously, outside of tippy-top elite institutions that can get the very best and brightest phd students, colleges and universities are some of the absolute worst places to do research these days.

And if you want to teach CS, don't bother with a PhD. Just ad junct a bit on the side of an industry gig, do not-insanely-bad, and you'll be full time within a year or two. If you want. Which you very likely wont, because teaching one class on the side while engineering is a lot more fun than teaching full time. Teaching is exhausting, even for people who love teaching.

We try to make “not attending top schools” not as important. We most often fail in doing that, of course, but the thought at least should be there.

Having started at a lower ranked school and ended at a higher ranked school, I can give you the following advice (which mostly applies to technical fields). First, do not fall into the trap of thinking that where you get your PhD, or whether you get your PhD, is some kind of indication of your worth. What matters is the quality of your work. People at top schools can do mediocre research, and people at low-ranked schools can change an entire field. Do the best research work you can do; nobody is going to care where the work was done.

Second, set expectations with your advisor -- you are not there to further your advisor's career, you are pursuing your own career goals and are not just cheap labor. If you start doing random tasks that your advisor needs done, tasks that are not related to your own research, you will find yourself doing those tasks all the time. It is like any other job, you need to make it clear that you are not going to work outside of your role.

Finally, and most important of all, keep your dignity and remember that you can always take a more satisfying job (for better pay). Make sure you pick up a master's degree ~2 years into the PhD program, it helps if you want to leave. You should never feel like you are trapped; years spent in a PhD program will count as years of relevant employment at most tech companies (at least those I am familiar with). The only reason you need a PhD is if you want a tenure track position, and you should know that junior faculty face a new lineup of BS as they work towards tenure.

It's over for you. Cry yourself to sleep.

Really? What should I do?

Would you keep crying all your life on this "prestige" thing ? If you think you're better then prove it

Are you saying I'm inferior?

You said multiple times "others are perceived better". Don't go into semantics now. Admit it, you have. Brand NCSU < Brand Harvard, no matter how much you cry on HN.

That's rough dude. Why do you think I'm such a failure?

I'm not actually sure what semantics you're referring to, btw. AFAIK you went to CMU ECE (not SCS) and not Harvard so I'm not so sure you can make that comparison anyway. How exactly do you think I should prove it?

Have fun trolling or crying. Don't know which one is worse.

What part of what I said is trolling?

What would you say to a CS student in Africa or South America ? You won a huge lottery being born in the US and going to a US school. Imagine them trying to break into Silicon Valley. We should strive towards a more equitable society but we can't let our day to day being defined by it. My comments stand regardless of my major, school etc. You're at Amazon and probably earning more than most people here. So you either did it due to your school or despite your school. Both scenarios seem favorable for your future.

> We should strive towards a more equitable society but we can't let our day to day being defined by it.

Didn't you say "its over for you" previously

> You're at Amazon and probably earning more than most people here

I find that unlikely

> Both scenarios seem favorable for your future

Is it?

What would you tell the students from 3rd world countries then ? "Whine and cry" all your lives ?

Don't know, not caring is an American birthright.

"Not caring is an Ivy League birthright"

Also used Harvard because you mention Boston in your comments.

> What should I do?

Don't feed the trolls and instead read both of the replies to your original comment that focused on constructive advice.

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