OK, assuming that those criteria are satisfied, then you can start the PhD and drop out with an MA -- which is paid for, unlike most MA's.
Where I got my PhD, you could drop out after one year, simply having completed the courses of that year, and you'd get the MA.
If you're in a top program in physics or similar hard sciences, you can use this approach as a stepping stone to finance jobs.
Where I got my PhD, you could drop out after one year, simply having completed the courses of that year, and you'd get the MA.
This is true for my program too, although one year wasn't enough time for me to figure out other things I wanted to do.
you can use this approach as a stepping stone to finance jobs.
I hear this regularly, but I still don't understand how it works. Does this come from networking that happens at top schools, or are there finance companies actively recruiting PhDs? What qualifies as a "top program"? A department well...
There was some support for the idea of starting an advice repository for grad students much in the same tradition as the Boring Advice Repository and the Solved Problems Repository started earlier by Qiaochu_Yuan. So here goes.
Please share any advice, boring or otherwise, for succeeding at grad school. I realize that succeeding might mean different things to different people, but I believe most people largely agree with what it means in this context. Feel free to elaborate on what you believe it should mean, if you have views on the subject.
I am a theoretical physics grad student, so I'm personally more interested in advice for mathy disciplines (i.e. physics, math, CS), and I also suspect that there are many grad students from these disciplines on LessWrong; but advice for any discipline is welcome as well.
Advice is welcome from anyone, but please do mention your background for providing the advice so that people can weight the advice accordingly. For example, I would be more be open to listening to advice from someone who has completed a very successful PhD, than from someone who has simply interacted with a lot of grad students but has never been to grad school.
Also, feel free to link to advice from other sources, and maybe quote the most useful parts in what you read. Remember, this is meant to be a repository, so that people can come and find the advice, so don't worry if it seems to be something most people would've already read or known.
Thanks!