Defaulting

I ran into one of my former GSIs today who told me that he was leaving UM in December, three and a half years into his doctorate program. He'll be teaching his last class this upcoming fall term, then leaving for a science-related job in New York. He told me that his labwork hasn't been making much progress, and that he'll be defaulting with a Masters.

A sad story.

He was a great GSI and I'm sure he would have been a excellent scientist; but with the roadblocks in his labwork, it might have taken him longer than his expected two years to finish the thesis. I'm glad he found a job he likes in New York; he'll be doing some science outreach stuff for another university.

The particular department I'm currently rotating in accepts about five or six Masters students each year, but a lot more students graduate with this degree because they default out of their PhD program. Research is a game, but it's also a test of how much you can take.

As Einstein once said "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called Research."