Surviving your PhD

[@JoelRosenfeld]

To try everything Brilliant has to offer-free-for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/ThatMathThing/ . The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant’s annual premium subscription. (This video was sponsored by Brilliant)

[@Annihillation]

When I started to face arXiv as an daily newspaper and proved 1 simple lemma everyday, things really improved. And it doesn't mean only around the thesis problems, but also possibly new work with your colleagues (some of them will be your collaborators)

[@JohnH777]

This is one of the most useful and relatable videos! I've actually started my 4th year now in the Math Ph.D. program, and your advice for 3rd/4th years is very helpful! Now, to make my teaching and research statement...

[@JoelRosenfeld]

I’m glad you liked it! Best of luck to you!

[@hamzasyed6515]

Always enjoy your videos !!!! I was thinking if u could make a video where you talk about every book you've read from undergrad to PhD ....I mean would be cool to see how your journey as a mathematician has been ...

[@JoelRosenfeld]

I’m glad you liked it! I’ve been thinking about a video like that. I might make it at some point. I appreciate the suggestion!

[@HIMANSHUSINGHvnm]

one of the important advice that perhaps I can share is this: try to do Latex/overleaf right from starting of your research work. In this way, you can wrap up a lot early at your last moment.

[@JoelRosenfeld]

That’s good advice. Type everything up as you go. Whether it’s for a paper or a dissertation. Saves tons of time later. Lately, I work almost exclusively in latex.

[@angelogalimba133]

Not only for research but also for assignments and homeworks. This helps you navigate the ins and outs of latex.

[@drticktock4011]

See also videos by Margot Gerritsen, Em Prof from Stanford and my former advisor, has some nice grad videos. She's a computational math person. Worked along side Gene Golub, Father of Numerical Lin Alg.

[@surajpowar4915]

Hello, I am very happy for you on your first sponsorship. I have been watching your videos since a long time now. All the best!!

[@JoelRosenfeld]

Thanks! I really appreciate it!

[@lemonflavouredtnt6969]

Well done on the sponsorship. Great and informative content as always!

[@JoelRosenfeld]

I'm glad it went over well! First time putting this together. Honestly, had me a bit nervous.

[@theve3114]

Hi! Just wanna thank you for your content! It gives so much chill vibes idk) I am an undergrad yet, but I do consider going into grad school in my lifetime, so thanks for the advices. Congrats for your first sponsorship!

[@JoelRosenfeld]

Thanks! And I’m glad you like the video! Do you have anything you are wondering about for grad school?

[@eetwidomayloh007]

I appreciate the content and agree with what you have stated, but I might have made an additional comment regarding internships. I personally would say 2 or 3 internships: End of 1st year, end of 2nd year, and end of 4th year. These are especially important for those going into more applied areas and those interested in non-academic careers.

[@JoelRosenfeld]

Yes definitely. I plan on making a job video in the future to talk about that. I push my students to apply for internships in year 3 and 4, and it’s really worked out for some.

[@andymoral]

One thing that is different for me is that the research and "supervisor dating" had started from day one. I think this is case for most phds.

[@drticktock4011]

You need to publish along the way...well before you feel ready. It also... 1. Takes pressure off you to write a bunch of chapters of your dissertation. 2. Gets your name into the community 3. Provides motivation along the way. Don't just rely on the PhD thesis to be end all be all. 4. Papers published have been peer-reviewed by other experts. So, your defense will be a slam dunk.

[@JoelRosenfeld]

Absolutely. What makes or breaks job applications in academics is the number of pubs. A decent dissertation should result in at least 3 publications, but I have known students that had as many as 26 publications when they graduated.

[@drticktock4011]

@@JoelRosenfeld 26! How? Even fast-tracking a manuscript is on the (short) order of months. I had 3. One of the PhD superstars in our Dept had 5.

[@coreyevans5734]

definitely keeping this video saved.

[@JoelRosenfeld]

I'm glad you like it!

[@stephenford3060]

Yes.

[@JoelRosenfeld]

Yes, indeed!

[@gustavoholo1007]

Please make a video about functional analysis I want to get into it, I have Rudin three books but I am only studying the first one

[@JoelRosenfeld]

Functional Analysis is pretty big. I have a few videos that go into some of it. The first half of my control theory course on here is all about functional analysis and distribution theory. And I have older longer form lectures on here for Tomography, which goes into the Schwartz space and Fourier transforms. My plan is to get to functional analysis with my current analysis series, but I want to build up to it. Is there a particular topic you'd like me to cover? I could do a one off video here and there, just to spice things up.

[@gustavoholo1007]

@@JoelRosenfeld There's no particular topic I'd like in particular, I like how operator theory sounds and how spectral theory might be related to quantum physics. It's just that I like how everything about functional analysis sounds. If I could pursue higher education I would definitely double down on analysis like you. In general I like analysis, I'm kind of interested in signal processing too. There aren't professors in my current undergrad university that seem to have the same affinity so I'm kind of on my own exploring these topics. Here probability and statistics has the most focus.

[@gustavoholo1007]

@@JoelRosenfeld I'm really looking up to more of your videos, I'll watch the older videos you mentioned

[@sergoordzonikidze6359]

I'm a bit confused, in my country (eastern europe) it's 3 years of bachelors, 2 years of masters and then 4 years of phd, we are required to write a thesis at the end of each of those. so in the US it's 3 years of undergrad and then it's 5 years of masters merged with phd, right?

[@JoelRosenfeld]

A bachelors degree takes 4 years in the US. And then, yes, the masters and PhD are frequently merged together into 5 years (depending on the program). So looks like it's 9 years total in each case.

[@Heyu7her3]

I'd say "no" because 1) many students enter with a master's degree & it has no bearing on how quickly they finish, & 2) at many schools, finishing the first 2 years is not equivalent to the required courseload for a master's degree.

[@kevinmoore00]

I did 4 years of bachelor's in Russia, 2 years of master's in the U.S. and starting my 5-year PhD in the U.S. But I will try to finish it in 8-9 semesters.

[@ryanpersson8977]

Is it possible to do a PHd while also working, possibly by not working as a TA during the PDd? I also work as a remote software contractor but want to keep pursuing mathematics as it is my passion.

[@JoelRosenfeld]

Technically, it is possible. You don’t need to have an assistantship to be a graduate student. However, most of the people I have seen go this route dropped out before too long.

[@mmariokart231]

That sounds like an absolute nightmare

[@JoelRosenfeld]

That last year really was.

[@brandonmanuel2842]

Sha baby. Poor thing. Hope everything is going well for you.

[@Itzak15]

The first 4 years does not sound too bad

[@JoelRosenfeld]

The challenge in the first couple of years is the qualifiers. These wash out a big number of students. If you get through those, you are home free until the defense, more or less.

[@BsktImp]

Almost likely all my own fault, but completing my PhD felt like a huge anticlimax. Anyone else?

[@JoelRosenfeld]

That’s pretty normal. When you start it seems like an insurmountable task, but by the time you finish, you have a much more grounded view of academia.

[@sv-xi6oq]

Care to elaborate?

[@the_infinite_lagrangian]

man this video is for like 4.23% of the population. I came here to see something interesting and is only misleading information specifically tailored for us study system.

[@JoelRosenfeld]

How do you find it misleading? That isn’t my intention. I said in the first sentence that we are talking about US PhD programs, and if you look at the last three years of a PhD in the US, it isn’t all that different from the three years of a European PhD program. Really, the US system rolls the masters and PhD into one. I plan on collaborating with colleagues overseas to give the European system.

[@the_infinite_lagrangian]

@@JoelRosenfeld ok, great then, looking forward, the title is misleading. it is quite different, in the EU we don't have to teach usually, also we don't have exams that are make it or break it. it is quite different. moreover, when we start a PhD we know exactly what we will research each year and what is the outcome of it, or at least to start a PhD you have to submit a plan a priori

[@JoelRosenfeld]

@@the_infinite_lagrangian depending on the program, it’s really not that different. The make or break exams are usually done at the end of the masters. Right before the PhD begins in earnest As for the PhD portion, the last three years, many programs have an oral exam too. This is where you present your plan for a dissertation, and if approved, you go on to do it. This changes from program to program. Also in the third year, you get your advisor. So from the third year on, it’s pretty similar. Teaching can linger on, but many students can also be funded to only do research. Again, this is depending on the program. More common in STEM. Pure math less so, but I try to fund all my students after their second year

[@the_infinite_lagrangian]

this is not true at all. you get your supervisor before you start your PhD. check Humboldt (Berlin), Stockholm, Barcelona, you name it, the system is very different. it varies from place to place but compared to USA it is very different. Also you usually end in 3 years the PhD and can get to a maximum of 5 years after which they kick you out. This being said, all plans on top uni are for 3 years, at least in theoretical physics.@@JoelRosenfeld

[@mickeykozzi]

wrong. Phds do NOT have to teach, they do NOT have to take classes. The US PhD method is very different to international.

[@JoelRosenfeld]

Teaching classes is just for funding. But plenty of students get through completely funded to do only research. There's a lot of different universities here and different departments. The experience is rather varied. Personally, my own students don't do a lot of teaching. I do my best to fund them for their last three years, so they can focus solely on research. But if research funding runs dry, there is the backup of teaching as a source of funding. In engineering, TAs are fairly rare, but it's more common in fields like Math. I presented more or less what my own experience was in this video. But there are lots of different experiences out there.

[@mickeykozzi]

@@JoelRosenfeld You only talk in American terms. You need to think more broadly. Often, PhDs in America are seen as 'light' Phds. For example in my Phd, I did no courses or taught. Instead, I had to do the following before I was able to submit my thesis for review: present at 5 (national) conferences, submit 4 peer review papers and have them accepted and published, and produce a 100,000 word thesis. I had to complete all of those tasks before my thesis would be accepted for international review. This is far beyond the expectation of a US Phd student, who will often submit a 50,000 thesis only. You should seen the look at my US peers (University) that saw the length and complexity of my thesis compared to what they did.

[@JoelRosenfeld]

@@mickeykozzi most of my audience is American, so this video is catering to that audience and also the European audience that wants insight into us academics. I am working on a series of videos comparing the different systems with a European KZbinr. Hopefully that will show up in the next couple of months

[@JoelRosenfeld]

@@mickeykozzi there is no word count for a Ph.D. At least not typically. In the U.S. it’s judged on contribution, not by length. Good academic writing is concise. And many programs here also insist on peer reviewed publications prior to graduation. What you describe really isn’t atypical here. Some Ph.D. Programs require what you describe and more. There are hundreds of universities in the U.S., so it’s hard to make an apples to apples comparison.

[@mickeykozzi]

@@JoelRosenfeld wrong actually, if you look at your KZbin stats, they are mostly international. But I understand where you are coming from. The University of Florida has a QS 2024 ranking of 124. I graduated from a top 5 University (globally). As such, there is a major difference in the quality of PhD programs which is very evident in our conversation. For example, I could apply and work at University of Florida with little issue. You, however, could not apply and work at the University for which I graduated as your PhD came from (no offence) a poorly ranked institution. This is just how the world works.

[@endostatica1405]

Is there a way to get around being a TA?

[@JoelRosenfeld]

Yes. I try to fund all of my students as RAs. That requires external funding, which is much more common for applied math than pure math. Engineering and lab sciences often have many RAs. You’ll likely have to do some TA work for your PhD but there are ways to minimize it. You can also seek out NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.

[@endostatica1405]

@@JoelRosenfeld thank you so much

[@Heyu7her3]

Many programs, esp. in the arts & sciences, do not allow that because teaching IS the funding... the PhD students teach/ assist with undergrad courses.