ERU PhD program?

bflynn said:
Safety and risk research, maybe some operational algorithms. I enjoy data and numbers and I think there are opportunities to improve safety reporting and risk management.

I've got maybe 20 years left, this is probably a pipe dream.
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Interesting. Any ideas on who you would want to be employed by, or what the position may be?
 
jordane93 said:
You can tell people you’re a doctor and a pilot!
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That might work after 20yrs of flying. But for the first couple of years she'll see your car, your apartment and wonder why you are working a 2nd job doing snow removal...especially with that PhD that was financed.

Heck, take it a step further. If you are in ERU debt to be a pilot you are what $180K and maybe into the $200K's. Then finance a PhD and you are probably in debt another $100K or more. At that point you should have just went to medical school instead.
 
I thought it was that hot tub picture thing!
 
dmspilot said:
Except you were arguing with someone who said not to pay for one. Where did you get the idea that he was promoting the idea of "giving" PhD's to people that didn't earn them? Your follow up is equally idiotic as your previous comment, and a straw man fallacy.
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I was making an ad lib response to someone that said "A PhD that you have to pay for is a truly useless thing."
Is that what you believe too? How many people on this board that paid for their degrees do you think you just offended?
 
JOhnH said:
I was making an ad lib response to someone that said "A PhD that you have to pay for is a truly useless thing."
Is that what you believe too? How many people on this board that paid for their degrees do you think you just offended?
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You said something wildly ignorant. Try learning a bit. Most STEM PHD's are "paid for" in service. The idea is you're training specialized academics, eventually they're going to become expert to the level that they can perform the kind of scholarship that will advance their mentor's scholastic program, at least that's the hope. The kind of technical training needed is best done hands on, which is why extensive laboratory experience is a must in many disciplines. In STEM fields it nearly always comes true, I can't say much for non-STEM fields. I take it back, the last PhD defense I sat in on (not a STEM discipline) the lady obviously was paying tuition. My question at the defense is always "what comes next". Usually it's a job or research position, but in this case my query was met with silence. Surprisingly, her research topic was quite topical.
 
steingar said:
You said something wildly ignorant. Try learning a bit. Most STEM PHD's are "paid for" in service. The idea is you're training specialized academics, eventually they're going to become expert to the level that they can perform the kind of scholarship that will advance their mentor's scholastic program, at least that's the hope. The kind of technical training needed is best done hands on, which is why extensive laboratory experience is a must in many disciplines. In STEM fields it nearly always comes true, I can't say much for non-STEM fields. I take it back, the last PhD defense I sat in on (not a STEM discipline) the lady obviously was paying tuition. My question at the defense is always "what comes next". Usually it's a job or research position, but in this case my query was met with silence. Surprisingly, her research topic was quite topical.
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Well, at least being called ignorant is better than idiot, so I thank you for that.
Perhaps I did post in haste without being fully knowledgeable of the process, or at least without thinking it through.

But let me ask you a yes or no question: Do you stand by the statement that any PhD that you have to pay for is a truly useless thing? I know a few PhDs that would be sad to hear that.
 
You don't need an aerospace engineering degree to work in aerospace engineering. It's basically a focused ME degree. I say go for ME and keep your options open.
 
JOhnH said:
Well, at least being called ignorant is better than idiot, so I thank you for that.
Perhaps I did post in haste without being fully knowledgeable of the process, or at least without thinking it through.

But let me ask you a yes or no question: Do you stand by the statement that any PhD that you have to pay for is a truly useless thing? I know a few PhDs that would be sad to hear that.
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If you actually pay for a PhD, it means that no one valued either your instructional or scholarly activities. That means you weren't among the most high calibre students, and were perhaps not at the finest institution. As such, a doctorate is a useless piece of paper. A PhD from a program of which no one has ever heard does one little good.

I do want too emphasize that I am speaking primarily of STEM disciplines. It probably operates similarly in non STEM disciplines, but I do not feel myself sufficiently well-versed to make such a claim.
 
Sac Arrow said:
You don't need an aerospace engineering degree to work in aerospace engineering. It's basically a focused ME degree. I say go for ME and keep your options open.
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Well if you aren't certain you want an aero degree I wouldn't recommend getting one. As for mechanical instead of aero, it depends very much what specialty you're interested in. You may not even need an engineering degree to work in aerospace engineering. If you know where you want to focus and a different degree more suited, go for that. It might be mechE, chemE, EE, or maybe even non-engineering, like physics. In my case, once I was done with the core curriculum I had no overlap with anything but occasionally the EE and applied math departments.

Nauga,
gain stabilized
 
nauga said:
I see nothing related to aerodynamics in the PhD program description or curriculum. Safety, Human Factors, and Operations are the specific areas of focus they list.
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Engineering is their main doctoral focus.
ElPaso Pilot said:
Interesting. Any ideas on who you would want to be employed by, or what the position may be?
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Research teaching. But I suppose the opportunities are limited.
 
bflynn said:
Engineering is their main doctoral focus.
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I see you are correct - unfortunately using their own tools on their 'worldwide' site does not turn up any engineering PhD programs.

Nauga,
live by the browser,...
 
Rumor is you must have scored greater than 93 on your instrument written to be able to apply.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
I hear Starbucks hires a fair amount of PhD’s.... ;)
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Reminds me of this joke:

A PhD professor of mathematics noticed that his kitchen sink at his home leaked. He called a plumber. The plumber came the next day and sealed a few screws, and everything was working as before.

The professor was delighted. However, when the plumber gave him the bill a minute later, he was shocked.

"This is one-third of my monthly salary!" he yelled.

Well, all the same he paid it and then the plumber said to him, "I understand your position as a professor with a PhD. Why don't you come to our company and apply for a plumber position? You will earn three times as much as a professor. But remember, when you apply, tell them that you completed only seven elementary classes. They don't like highly educated people."

So it happened. The professor got a job as a plumber and his life significantly improved. He just had to seal a screw or two occasionally, and his salary went up significantly.

One day, the board of the plumbing company decided that every plumber had to go to evening classes to complete the eighth grade. So, our professor had to go there too. It just happened that the first class was math. The evening teacher, to check students' knowledge, asked for a formula for the area of a circle. The person asked was the professor. He jumped to the board, and then he realized that he had forgotten the formula. He started to reason it, and he filled the white board with integrals, differentials, and other advanced formulas to conclude the result he forgot. As a result, he got "minus pi times r squared."

He didn't like the minus, so he started all over again. He got the minus again. No matter how many times he tried, he always got a minus. He was frustrated. He gave the class a frightened look and saw all the plumbers whisper: "Switch the limits of the integral!!"​
 
Gerhardt said:
How the hell did you get three likes on that joke? :)
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It’s a STEM thing. ;)

My son, the aspiring math/physics PhD and potential future plumber thought it was hilarious.
 
ElPaso Pilot said:
It’s a STEM thing. ;)

My son, the aspiring math/physics PhD and potential future plumber thought it was hilarious.
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So I emailed it to my son, the math major, and he thought it was funny. huh.
 
Gerhardt said:
So I emailed it to my son, the math major, and he thought it was funny. huh.
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Have him explain it to you over dinner sometime! :p

And you owe me a posting like from him... ;)
 
Lot's of **** flinging in this thread. In my experience if you want an advanced degree, Masters or PhD you should really get under the wing of a professor. That's what I did, not only did it pay off, but I learned so much more being heavily involved in research vs my classmates who just took the classes and paid out of their asses for it.

I found a few professors doing research I admired, emailed them, met with them and got a couple offers. I started as a student assistant making $10/hr working in their lab. I proved myself the first semester and by the second I got hired on as a Graduate Research Assistant, all my tuition was paid, full benefits and $50k/yr salary. This afforded me endless research opportunities, many mentors (10 RAs in our group) and many industry contacts. I cannot imagine grad school without this type of arrangement. Not only is the financial commitment huge, you miss out on the most important part (the research) by doing course only. It's very easy to go down the rabbit hole of collecting (and paying for) degrees with very little direction. Graduate school will be infinitely more useful if you have some guidance from a professor rather than just chugging through a program.

I had multiple job offers from companies we collaborated with before I graduated.
 
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