The Reality of Academia

[MVAR]

I've got a 14 YO kid that would fit in the physicist realm pretty well, he has all the skills. Problem is, he will not make any money unless he goes to work for a defense contractor, Musk or a Cali McDonalds. We're broke as a country and moving more to socialism each day, "government" would rather spend their money on "mixed use" housing than fusion reactors.
So, I think I'll steer him toward selling pics of his feet on OF.

Have a 15yr old son. Wants to be a commercial airline pilot. Having him get an engineering degree to fall back on just in case.

My grappling coach has a physics degree from UCD. He gave up on the traditional career nearly 10yrs ago when he was consistently earning more being a grappling coach & doing private lessons than working with limited upward mobility options.

 

[97prizm]

Have a 15yr old son. Wants to be a commercial airline pilot. Having him get an engineering degree to fall back on just in case.

My grappling coach has a physics degree from UCD. He gave up on the traditional career nearly 10yrs ago when he was consistently earning more being a grappling coach & doing private lessons than working with limited upward mobility options.

If your kid wants to be a commercial pilot it's way more expensive than in the past but. Many low cost carriers are offering to cover a percentage of flight school costs vs years ago. Business Jet pilots back in the day weren't paid well from the sound of many of my college classmates. Now though from talking with a couple of people within my eaa group several of the larger companies are starting with decent salaries. Firewall security is starting to become a big payoff with so many companies that have data and haven't figured out how to secure any of it.

 

[MVAR]

If your kid wants to be a commercial pilot it's way more expensive than in the past but. Many low cost carriers are offering to cover a percentage of flight school costs vs years ago. Business Jet pilots back in the day weren't paid well from the sound of many of my college classmates. Now though from talking with a couple of people within my eaa group several of the larger companies are starting with decent salaries. Firewall security is starting to become a big payoff with so many companies that have data and haven't figured out how to secure any of it.

Yeah I have a friend who’s a current pilot. He’s the one who lead us to the current group my son is doing discovery flights with over the last year or so. They have a school that he can begin at 16 so he’s just accumulating hours now. The schedule isn’t as good as the big name schools but all the instructors are current or newly retired pilots & airline managers that volunteer their time to the school. The networking & experience level of the instructors was my friends reason for the recommendation.

My son will be concentrating on his basic education until finishing college. Luckily, there should still be some funds available to assist him with flight school afterwards as his current high school program will have him graduate with 60-65 transferable units so college, hopefully, will only be 2-3yrs instead of 4-5.

He’s very strong in math & science. Enjoys those classes the most(along with some programming classes & debate team). Engineering was his original goal of what he wanted to do. Once we took him up in a Cessna 172 he was hooked on flying. Last time he was on a 737, the pilot let him sit in the 1st officer chair, went over the controls & chatted with him for about 15min(gave him a pair of wings too ). That sealed the deal for him on aviation.

Sorry if that was a bit of an incoherent rant. Finishing up a 12hr night shift & on the phone typing.

 

[Eddie]

I feel my education (masters in physics, minor in psychology) not only provided me with knowledge of my chosen field but, added very much to my appreciation of art and the world around me. Ed

 

[PWMDMD]

I've got a 14 YO kid that would fit in the physicist realm pretty well, he has all the skills. Problem is, he will not make any money unless he goes to work for a defense contractor, Musk or a Cali McDonalds. We're broke as a country and moving more to socialism each day, "government" would rather spend their money on "mixed use" housing than fusion reactors.
So, I think I'll steer him toward selling pics of his feet on OF.

Wall Street has been one of the largest employers of freshly minted physics PhDs for two decades now. Their skill set means they are good at applying mathematics to real-world problems.

 

[PWMDMD]

All I can comment on is what I know based on where I've gone to school and I have several close friends with PhDs who work at many of the Universities in a nearby city.

I spent a lot of time at UConn doing research and got to know a lot of the politics. I have a good friend who is department head of science-based department at a local university and again I know a lot of the politics. Both institutions essentially have teaching faculty and research faculty. At UConn, "teaching faculty" were often professors whose research didn't go anywhere and they couldn't get grants. Most (not all) of the professors who were successful researchers didn't like teaching. So those who weren't good at research kept their jobs with high teaching loads and those who were good at research kept their jobs by getting research grants. These weren't official designations 20 years ago, but those were the two main tracks. Very few were great teachers and researchers but they did exist.

Where my friend is a department head, they have two completely different tenure tracks for teaching and research faculty. This is relatively new, as research faculty used to be the only tenure track positions, and all teaching faculty were considered quasi-adjunct positions even though these people were FT and there for decades. I will also say my friend is female and her next step would be dean of the college of engineering somewhere or she's even applied to for provost/dean. She is the ideal renaissance faculty - great at teaching, great at research, and great at administration - she is a rarity.

 

[PWMDMD]

There was a recent article published by a professor of a private university. I didn't recognize the University but he mentioned that when he started teaching 30ish years ago there was a roughly one student per faculty member but is now one student per four faculty members causing tuition to skyrocket. CU Boulder is paying Dion Sanders an astronomical paycheck to be a football coach. His kid drives a $300,000 Maybach to classes. Couple this with when I looked at a Journalism degree they were very specific. Now many outlets want you to be an expert photographer, reporter, newscaster, editor etc for less money. I was able to get an interview with one of the Denver new anchors years ago after an article mentioned she and her husband race Porsche 911 gt3's. Her response was all of the new people coming in are making far less than she will.

Daniel Hurrley, Geno Auriemma, and Kevin Ollie were the three highest-paid CT state employees in 2022 at $3.1M, $3.8M, and $11.1M, respectively.

 

[PWMDMD]

I had Prof Heisenberg the son of the famous one for physics. I got 50-60s on his exams blowing the class average of 28 . I got a nice A and also weeded out all the wanna be engineers.

Sounds like organic chemistry for me. I'd get in the 70s or 80s and the class average was in the 40s or 50s. I liked orgo and I didn't find it all that hard but many students had a really difficult time with it.

 

[PandaBear]

In the end everything is a business. Academia is not a handout even if it is free government money. It has to generate result or curiosity to bet on what if it is right.

Like people said the only reason we haven't found a cure to HIV is because there's more money made selling maintenance drug than to cure something once and for all.

 

[Method]

If your kid wants to be a commercial pilot it's way more expensive than in the past but. Many low cost carriers are offering to cover a percentage of flight school costs vs years ago. Business Jet pilots back in the day weren't paid well from the sound of many of my college classmates. Now though from talking with a couple of people within my eaa group several of the larger companies are starting with decent salaries. Firewall security is starting to become a big payoff with so many companies that have data and haven't figured out how to secure any of it.

In 2022 and 2023, yeah. Hiring has dropped off recently. What carriers are offering to cover a portion of flight school costs now?

 

[Allaneddie]

D

You don't act like a scientist ... You're more like a game show host."​

Dana Barrett speaking to Dr. Venkman in Ghostbusters

 

[97prizm]

In 2022 and 2023, yeah. Hiring has dropped off recently. What carriers are offering to cover a portion of flight school costs now?

Frontier, southwest, and I think JetBlue or Spirit now that the merger is off.

 

[Method]

Frontier, southwest, and I think JetBlue or Spirit now that the merger is off.

Not sure about the others, but Southwest isn't offering to pay a portion of flight school costs. They aren't even hiring. Where are you getting this info? Trying to determine if my industry sources are wrong....

 

[97prizm]

Yeah I have a friend who’s a current pilot. He’s the one who lead us to the current group my son is doing discovery flights with over the last year or so. They have a school that he can begin at 16 so he’s just accumulating hours now. The schedule isn’t as good as the big name schools but all the instructors are current or newly retired pilots & airline managers that volunteer their time to the school. The networking & experience level of the instructors was my friends reason for the recommendation.

My son will be concentrating on his basic education until finishing college. Luckily, there should still be some funds available to assist him with flight school afterwards as his current high school program will have him graduate with 60-65 transferable units so college, hopefully, will only be 2-3yrs instead of 4-5.

He’s very strong in math & science. Enjoys those classes the most(along with some programming classes & debate team). Engineering was his original goal of what he wanted to do. Once we took him up in a Cessna 172 he was hooked on flying. Last time he was on a 737, the pilot let him sit in the 1st officer chair, went over the controls & chatted with him for about 15min(gave him a pair of wings too ). That sealed the deal for him on aviation.

Sorry if that was a bit of an incoherent rant. Finishing up a 12hr night shift & on the phone typing.

I'm hoping to go back and finish up for my private pilot license. I have my night flight, cross country, a few hours to knock off the rust, and my written Test. ALL of those scare me.

 

[97prizm]

Not sure about the others, but Southwest isn't offering to pay a portion of flight school costs. They aren't even hiring. Where are you getting this info? Trying to determine if my industry sources are wrong....

A little over a year ago a handful of Low cost carriers were offering to Assist with the cost of flight school. Not sure if it was rescinded. Here is a great article from simple. ( I tried to write for them but they wanted an immediate article during Thanksgiving from me. ) Simple Flying article
I know that The pandemic caused a shortage of biz jets. If you had a type rating you could start tomorrow. I'm seeing Alot of places needing Dassault Falcon 900/EX 8/9X offering immediate employment.

 

[Method]

Yeah, the hiring market is a bit different than it was in late 2022. What we still have is a shortage of Captains at some regionals. The 'we'll pay for your training' piece is pretty much gone now. The article (from "simple flying" which seems to be an AI piece) is a bit strange, claiming 'loans' as a way to reduce flight training costs....that part was rather interesting. It also leaned on programs in place in Europe and elsewhere (under the gov't assistance section) which was a little strange. Military training also isn't something I would personally count as 'getting your flight training paid for given the 8+ year commitment which the article leaves out) Thanks for including it anyway.

 

[bbhero]

Daniel Hurrley, Geno Auriemma, and Kevin Ollie were the three highest-paid CT state employees in 2022 at $3.1M, $3.8M, and $11.1M, respectively.

So what ….


We should bring in that lovely video where a moron looney “ reporter “ said this same garbage to the former UCON men’s basketball coach Calhoun..

 

[PWMDMD]

So what ….


We should bring in that lovely video where a moron looney “ reporter “ said this same garbage to the former UCON men’s basketball coach Calhoun..

Ok...it was just a factual observation. I leave it to you to decide if that's a good use of public funds.

 

[Astro14]

I don't know this person...but...ummm, the size of the hands would seem to indicate you know something.

Well, I am sure I don't know what you’re trying to imply - but since she has borne two children, I think her gender is quite clear.

I do enjoy her channel, her explanations are clear.

The ability to make the complex and subtle accessible to the non-technical person is a gift.

And she has it.

 

[Astro14]

That would explain quite a bit. Wife and I were discussing it this morning (spurred by the other thread) and we couldn't figure out how it could rise so much. But if there really was that much more faculty...

Thing is, my wife said that it seemed like there was more adjunct professors now. They can get paid less and get less benefits. Might this 4:1 ratio be not quite 4;1 if some large portion is adjunct and not as straightforward as we'd think?

It’s the explosion of the administration, not faculty involved in teaching, that is the crux of the problem.

The number of Deans/student is several times what it once was.