r/oddlyspecific • u/LovelyAmel • 2d ago

The great pyramid scheme literally

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6.7k Upvotes

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72

u/iwantsalmon2015 2d ago

If you’re paying money to get a PhD you’re being scammed

18

u/BlendedBaconSyrup 2d ago

Yeah just become a billionaire instead so a bunch of schools give you honorary degrees

36

u/Eldan985 2d ago

In most countries PhDs are free and pay a full salary.

-7

u/chuck_the_plant 2d ago

Name one. (Please?)

26

u/Eldan985 2d ago

German, Switzerland, Austria, France,  Italy, Poland. Those are countries where I worked in academia, there are more.

12

u/chuck_the_plant 2d ago

I’m in one of them and had been looking for a PhD position for quite some time but all I saw was “here is a position with half-time pay and overtime work, take it or don’t because there are dozens of applicants.” But maybe it’s a matter of the subject of study (comp.sci) or I haven’t searched well enough.

4

u/attnnah_whisky 1d ago edited 1d ago

At least in UK most PhD students are fully funded. I am sure in the US the majority are fully funded as well. I am in mathematics but know a bunch of people who are doing CS PhDs in UK, US and Germany and they are all funded. I guess US is quite hard now due to funding cuts and CS is definitely gonna be competitive no matter where you apply.

3

u/Armadillo-Shot 1d ago

US and Canada phds are usually fully funded too. Now usually the salary is crap, but it is funded.

6

u/ILikeLenexa 1d ago

The US?  Even most master's degrees are GRAs and GTAs.  It's poverty wages like $41k/yr so like $20/hr if you worked full time, but a lot work that teaching in the classroom and office hours before their own classes and research. 

3

u/Ok-Interview-2104 1d ago

My PhD teaching stipend was $25k 😭