Alexander the Great was the son of Philip the 2nd of Makedon, one of the most powerful and feared rulers of his day and age, backed by an incredible array of leaders and advisors. His mother was Olympia (sp?), a queen who was so formidable she scared even those hardened leaders. If that wasn’t enough, he was tutored for a large part of his life by Aristotle, among other notable thinkers. You’d be hard pressed to find a single figure in the ancient world better primed for greatness.
He definitely had a very rich upbringing. What little I do know about him, other than being born into the British aristocracy, was that he formed a closer attachment to his wet nurse than his parents, as alluded to by @EmilyQ. Definitely a poor example to choose here, although the point still remains that Winston Churchill wouldn’t be Winston Churchill if he was born at any other place and time.
As a newly minted college grad, you’re expected to have no competitive advantage when compared to the people who’ve been in the chosen field for decades.
That’s the point of entry-level jobs.
You can build competitive advantage relative to your peers (newly minted college grads) by taking on internships, work-study programs, etc. In fact, based on what I saw from my little brother (He majored in one of the many, many, engineering fields out there), engineering degrees specifically have courses and programs designed to get you these experiences. From what I understand, a well-designed college curriculum will give you plenty of opportunities like this, especially once you reach your junior and senior years.
I’m curious what country you are from, because this is not at all how US Universities think about undergraduate education. This would be more in line with a criteria a top-tier Graduate Program may consider, but not for their undergraduate admissions. In fact, things like admittance into medical school is much more compelling to undergraduates and their parents. For reference, I am a professor at a pretty strong University, have been department chair, and am now working in the Provost’s office in addition to running my research group and teaching. I am in a STEM discipline. I have never once had a student or parent approach me about the odds of landing a tenure-track position should they come to this undergraduate institution. In fact, having been on countless tenure track committees and chairing multiple ones, candidates are judged by their PhD and post-doctoral work and not their undergraduate work.
Lastly, from reading through this thread, it seems there is confusion of working with a Nobel Prize winner as a some kind of criteria for choosing a school. Not to sound braggy, but I have coauthored two papers and have a patent with a Nobel Prize winner from my postdoc. But guess what? Undergraduates don’t work in these labs/groups. Graduate students and postd-docs do. The top performing professors at strong R1 schools don’t have the time to involve undergraduates meaningfully in their research programs.
In reality, you are best served by attending a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI) or even a strong liberal arts college (the name is misleading, it just means that it is small in size and has less than 50 graduate degrees given/year) as an undergraduate. Then, you get to actually work closely with a talented professor and put yourself in a good position for graduate admittance. Then, choose a school with top tier scholars in your field of interest who you can actually be mentored by.
It could depend on the school too. What you said is definitely true for some of my friends who ended up regretting their school choice.
I went into uni (I go to an R1 school) with the expectation that I’d have minimal contact with my professors, especially the top performing ones.
Turns out, I was quite wrong. I got lucky and one of them happened to be looking for RA’s. I am good at my job and did well in his class, so he has a positive impression of me and I’m co-author on a paper if it gets published not because I am exceptional, but because I got lucky and was good at spamming ppl on reddit. Hopefully that will translate into a rec letter in 2 years
My other professors have been similarly open, and a few encourage their undergrad students to attend grad student seminars and department lab meetings.
That’s great! While it does happen, it is difficult to plan for. For example, in my discipline, most professors at R1 schools don’t even teach lower division classes so would not even come into contact with promising young students. They must consider put their productivity first, and use their team of graduate students, visiting scholars, and postdocs to put out grants, publish, and present at conferences. So even if an undergraduate gets a chance to be an “RA”, it is often spent shadowing a graduate student and cleaning glassware. But, that student will see how a world-class research group is run and would be exposed to higher level science than a student at a less competitive institution.
Also, most students do not go on to get PhD’s (as you know). And even if you get a PhD, many fields require at least 2-3 years as a post-doctoral scholar to be competitive for a tenure track, assistant professor job. Then, you are low paid and have to work like crazy to get tenure and promoted to associate professor. You have to really, really want to be a tenured professor to go that route.
I fully expect to “not have a life” and struggle financially for a VERY long time (at least 20 years). However, I love research and my alternative is finance or consulting, which is equally sucky in terms of workload and would require me to stay up late, wear high heels, travel, follow a rigourous social schedule, possibly drink alcohol and pay for my own gym membership
Of course, things could change and I need to learn how to function on less sleep
FYI - many PhD programs in Econ have tuition covered and students receive a stipend. That is also true in the “hard” sciences, where students get tuition paid for and receive a stipend of ~$30K per year.
Also, tenure track position salaries vary by discipline. They are not bad, really. I have been an academic my whole life in a discipline that would make less than an Econ professor and my salary is quite good, with excellent retirement, benefits, and even had help with purchasing a house. Also, I teach 2 courses at a time (6 teaching hours a week) and do research/service the rest of the time. Often, it’s two sections of the same course making it even easier.
You certainly have more years of experience than I do, and while I feel there is a bit of a woosh effect here, I concede I may have miscommunicated on more than one occasion.
Yes, I am well aware. I live in the United States. I don’t recall saying that this attitude is common or normal. I am thankful it is not. That does not mean I cannot be concerned. Anna’s log is filled with comments from people genuinely worried about a girl whose behavior is anything but normal or common.
For reference, I am a PhD candidate in STEM also at a well-regarded school. I attended a highly-respected place for undergrad.
I probably grasp only a morsel of what it is truly like to be a professor who teaches and directs one’s own research group, and I have never served on an admissions committee. I had zero family members who could even try helping me with post-high school plans. My applications for undergraduate and graduate studies were mediocre at best.
Those all could suggest I know nothing, but you probably know that navigating academia is not the easiest task (if you feel otherwise, lucky you). I would not be in my current position had I not understood these processes.
I never said that wasn’t the case.
I was also confused by this. That’s why I replied in the first place.
Great, we don’t disagree here either. Chiding a talented high school student for choosing one top university over another is unsettling enough but is even more so for wanting said student to finagle their way into working with a Nobel Prize “dynasty” (not my language) in a niche field. It’s absurd. That is the point I have been trying to make the entire time.
I appreciate you pointing out the practical challenges. My responses neglected them and were dramatic because I feel that this approach is dangerous for more than merely pragmatic reasons. You may not notice, but Anna already views virtually her entire life through the lens of game theory (or so it seems). I see no reason to perpetuate this.
This is exactly why I mentioned “colleges” here: “there are many other private and even public universities and colleges whose qualities easily rival those of Ivy League schools.”
I admit I should have preceded it with “liberal arts” because many use “university” and “college” synonymously (even I do sometimes), and because that specificity would have helped.
I don’t want to take up her training log, but if you’re interested in a career in academia in a STEM field I’d be happy to take it to another forum or off-line. For reference, I went straight from undergrad to PhD to Postdoc to tenure track professor. I’ve been at two Universities in my own academic career, and have mentored ~100 research students.
I sadly ended up clogging Anna’s log when I never intended to make this about me. Right now I’m confident in my current mentors, but I’ll definitely keep your kind offer in mind should that change.
really easy, no rest between rounds, cut rest a bit btw sets too
There’s something on my mind: I’ve been reading training logs and noticed that a quite a few members are dieting on what seems like very low calories for their size despite having significant muscle mass. The main culprit seems to be low activity levels.
Right now, I’m eating quite a bit for my size (literally more than some ppl with much more muscle mass) because of my high activity level. However, there’s a 99.99999999% chance that life will get in the way at some point => less activity => “lower metabolism “
Idk if I could sustain lower calorie levels
Also, on the bright side, I looked in the mirror and didn’t think I looked crap for the first time in a very long time. I’m still not at @aldebaran ’s level of hype, but at least I feel somewhat better about myself
This is good to hear. You should appreciate yourself and your efforts.
It’s good that you’re eating more! Even if you move more to compensate, it means more micro and macro for your body to use.
If you’re talking about me among others, well sunday for instance I ate a 2000+ cals meal. My eating has been quite random these fese last few weeks. It happened also that I started tracking cals to check when I’m currently depressed and desiring to get shredded.
Yeah I got a bit excited there. Don’t worry, a good deal of self-doubt came back when I came back to the loneliness of my home, and I still can’t fall asleep right now (2 hours past my bedtime) and can’t stop thinking about someone that just hurt me so I guess I hate my braaaiiiin
yeah, therapy has helped with anxiety a lot. Anxiety tends to trigger a very negative feedback loop that ends up spiraling into worsening self esteem
… and that we ran out of smoked salmon and salted duck eggs
