Timeline for How important are my grades to the rest of my PhD career?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 26, 2013 at 23:40 | comment | added | Irwin | I am getting the impression that this frustration is directed less at "grades vs. research" and is more a reflection about "What did I hope to gain out of doing a Ph.D?" | |
| Jun 26, 2013 at 22:18 | comment | added | wsc | Assuming the situation there is as you perceive it, perhaps your department's choice to hire faculty on the basis of grades is not uncorrelated with its low research output. This is not a choice that is made universally. | |
| Jun 26, 2013 at 19:14 | comment | added | JeffE | It sounds like you should move to a stronger department. The experience you describe is fairly typical for very strong students in weak departments. The only reason to emphasize grades over research in a research degree program is to avoid being embarrassed by its research record. Get a glowing recommendation letter from your advisor if you can, get strong recommendation letters from external colleagues (like the ones who gave you the best student paper award), and move up. | |
| Jun 26, 2013 at 7:31 | comment | added | user102 | @Shion: Some parts of this answer might be a rant, but the answer itself is not offensive or of low quality, and therefore does not require moderation. Please feel free to downvote the answer (that's the purpose of the voting mechanism), or to edit it as you see fit. | |
| Jun 26, 2013 at 6:26 | comment | added | Nobody | @Shion In my own experience, industry seems to care more about grades than research papers. I kind of believe what ramgorur said. Many employees in industry with only BS degree don't know how to perform matrix multiplication. The companies would have to hire PhD students to do it when they need to. | |
| Jun 26, 2013 at 4:49 | comment | added | ramgorur | @JeffE that's what I've heard from the supervisor, during a lunch, if my memory serves well. | |
| Jun 26, 2013 at 4:39 | comment | added | JeffE | How do you know what your professor's grades were? I have no idea what grades my colleagues got, except that they were higher than mine. | |
| Jun 26, 2013 at 1:34 | comment | added | Shion | I flagged your question because at first glance, your answer seems like an answer but then presents itself more as a rant. Some more coherence would be appreciated. | |
| Jun 25, 2013 at 23:12 | comment | added | ramgorur | I guess my point is clear. Do not always believe what your professors say (after seeing the fact that the professor has a 4.0/4.0 GPA in his PhD course load) -- like "grades don't matter, so do your work". I am pretty much convinced that it matters the most (at least if you are doing PhD in US) -- and lets hope that other countries have better situation. So, ditch your research and start practicing matrix multiplication problem from your linear algebra text book. | |
| Jun 25, 2013 at 22:04 | comment | added | Suresh | But it's not an either/or thing. The good grades and lack of papers are unrelated facts (except to the extent that focusing on good grades leaves you LESS time for research). While I see that you're frustrated in your current position, I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. | |
| Jun 25, 2013 at 21:17 | history | edited | ramgorur | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| S Jun 25, 2013 at 21:14 | review | Late answers | |||
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| S Jun 25, 2013 at 21:14 | review | First posts | |||
| Jun 25, 2013 at 21:18 | |||||
| Jun 25, 2013 at 20:55 | history | answered | ramgorur | CC BY-SA 3.0 |