Annual Salary?

[reveal]

Everone else,
Sorry about this OT post.

How dare you post an OT post in the OT forum! Let the flogging commence!

 

[Endur]

Tarchon -- Happily, that rule does not apply to me. CS has an unpublished exception to that rule.

Not sure how many other schools follow that same sort of policy, where the general rule requires residence, but exceptions are readily made when necessary.

And, as I said before, I really think a rule like that does not matter in the greater scheme of things. When the average full time Ph.D. program takes 4+ years, a 1 or 2 year full-time requirement is relatively minimal in the greater scheme of things. Especially since there is nothing to stop you from working full time while taking classes full time for that one or two years residency requirement.

 

[tarchon]

And, as I said before, I really think a rule like that does not matter in the greater scheme of things. When the average full time Ph.D. program takes 4+ years, a 1 or 2 year full-time requirement is relatively minimal in the greater scheme of things. Especially since there is nothing to stop you from working full time while taking classes full time for that one or two years residency requirement.

Aside from (drumroll) reality. Really, you're not doing yourself any service by drastically underestimating how big of an effort that is. I've seen dozens of people do exactly what you're doing (oh, but if I do this and this, and get this exception, and work 100 hours a week for two years, and I heard some friend of a cousin of mine did it while working as a circus juggler...), and 9 times out of 10 they really mess themselves up. Ask anyone else who really has finshed a PhD (there are a lot more "PhD students" around than PhDs, you'll find) and they'll tell you exactly what I'm telling you. It's not a part-time gig that you can do on weekends and between 6 and 10 in the evening. An MS, sure, it's just a fluffed up bachelors degree, but most schools look at PhD programs like Jedi training, and whatever rosy picture the catalog paints takes a back seat to whatever the faculty, and especially your advisor (a.k.a. Yoda), deems to be an appropriate level of committment.

 

[Voadam]

I find there to be a diminishing return on salary. Like, the jump from say, $30k a year to $50k a year is probably huge, the jump from $50k a year to $70k is probaby hardly noticable at all. Anyone else feel this to be true?

No. I would say it would have to be significantly higher for a difference to be "hardly noticeable." Going from 100+K to 65-70K is a noticeable drop. Depends on cost of living where you are at, expenses, lifestyle, family situation (single, married, childless, kids) and housing and health expenses as well as comfort level for savings, etc.

 

[Tatsukun]

Tatsu,
If you don't mind me asking, which one?

I was a student in Tokyo for six months as part of my doctorate.

Everyone else,
Sorry about this OT post.

I teach English at Waseda University.
(For people who don't know Japan)

The school usually considered best is "Tokyo University" (like Harvard I guess)
The second best is "Kyoto University" (Like Yale maybe?)
Third to fifth are a matter of great debate. Waseda is in that group somewhere. Personally, I consider it fourth best.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled off topic forum...

-Tatsu

 

[Tatsukun]

Double your pleasure, double your post!

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Are we supposed to include the cost of benefits? My employer has to add in 51% of our salary to the budget for benefits. So people making 10,000 here actually get 15,100 if you count all the benefits (vacation, sick leave, paid holidays, health insurance, life insurance, employee assistance programs, dental insurance, etc.)

 

[tarchon]

Are we supposed to include the cost of benefits? My employer has to add in 51% of our salary to the budget for benefits. So people making 10,000 here actually get 15,100 if you count all the benefits (vacation, sick leave, paid holidays, health insurance, life insurance, employee assistance programs, dental insurance, etc.)

We get free tea and pop too.

 

[Dingleberry]

Are we supposed to include the cost of benefits?

Nope - that's the difference between "salary" and "compensation" - at least in my corporate doublespeak.

 

[DaveStebbins]

My guess is that he also had a very nice committee chair and an unusually laissez-faire department.

I wouldn't know. It's a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, so it's not an easy degree from a no-name college. Make whatever assumptions or judgements you want.

It's not a part-time gig that you can do on weekends and between 6 and 10 in the evening.

Sorry, this is exactly what my friend did. It destroyed his time with friends, family, wife and kids, but he did it. And, given that CWRU is 90+ minutes away, he also did a fair amount of traveling, too. Granted, his superiors at his full-time engineering job helped by not signing him up for projects that would have required tons of overtime during the last couple of years he was working on it, but they didn't let him slack off or do school-related work on the job either. We work at the same company, in the same building, so I'm very sure about this part.

I agree that it's not something to be undertaken lightly, and it WILL take a toll on you, your family and your life, but every time you say it can't be done part-time, I'm gonna disagree.

-Dave