Been a while since I done one of these...
The single best predictor of academic success; the most fascinating astronomical object you never knew; and so much more...
- "Home library size has a very substantial effect on educational attainment,...
This is a large effect, both absolutely and in comparison with other influences on education,"
"....survey participants (a total of more than 73,000 people) were asked to estimate the number of books in their parents' home when they were 14 years old. The scholars compared that figure with other factors influencing educational achievement, including the education levels of one's parents."
Hm, I do hope there is a followup longitudinal study that objectively counts the books on the shelves in middle schoolers' homes, 'cause it is just barely possible that more educated people would be more likely tolieexaggerate the number of books when they were growing up.... nah.
(h/t Jennifer Ouellette) - Good Riddance:
"What tradition or other general characteristic of academia would you like to see eliminated completely?"
via Female Science Professor
A momentary flash of self-preservation precludes me from answering this... - There's More to Science Than Evolution
Yes, yes there is.
Like Big Bang cosmology! - This is why my brain is now mostly stored in my laptop and outsourced to google...
- OJ287 for beginners
Hah, you expecting ε Aurigea? - Professor Astronomy: The state of the astronomy job market
A postdoc revisits an old problem.
Dood, it is worse than you think, and not getting better. - We do love our postdocs
- Scienceblogs Kick Ass
and, we are modest too.
Teh awesomezt.
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I'm pretty sure I reduced some VLA data on OJ287 once upon a time, but it has been so long, I don't remember for sure...
Anyway, just curious what everyone here thinks about Prof. Astronomy's assertion that astronomers transitioning out of academia have a hard time getting past HR departments for jobs?
I have witnessed the opposite result -- I tell people that *everyone* I know that has left the field at every level (e.g., just a bachelors didn't go to grad school, left grad school with a masters, got a PhD and left, got a PhD did one postdoc and left...) has found a satisfying, challenging position that pays pretty well to very, very well. Maybe it's a selection effect that I only keep in touch with the ones who are happy, but I'm pretty sure that's not true.
I'm pretty certain that the undergrad who worked with me for years and went right into industry negotiated a starting salary with a bachelors that it took me three years post-PhD to reach.
In this economy, I know that none of us can take the availability of jobs for granted, but I'm not as scared as I might be based on the experience of friends (and the knowledge that I can hit them up to circulate a resume, if needed).
I'm not going to dispute the central premise that stable jobs for PhDs primarily doing research are in high demand, but I think that the picture of outside opportunities being hard to come by is too pessimistic.
I don't think it's HR departments specially hating on PhDs, I think it's that when you are outside of academia, you still get rejected a lot, especially if you don't have any contacts or direct experience in a field. Someone inside academia has few contacts on the outside and this makes the transition hard. It is especially hard in bad economic times, because finding a job sucks then. I spent a couple of years between BA and grad school trying to find jobs in a recession and it sucked lots, and I wasn't being held back by a PhD.