Quantified Burnout...

It's title is above the graph; I pull it from the web site for Antioch University - New England's Psychology Department, ironically an apropos source: "Stressors We Experience in Graduate School."

We use humor to get through the experience of being humans at any cultural/socioeconomic level. I can easily imagine this rainbow graph with it's parabolic arc from Dilbert or PhD Comics. We tend to tolerate the red; rarely celebrating or appreciating the blue (optimal).

I don't mean to be a "downer" (Debbie or otherwise), and still think that pursuit of science in the sake of understanding the world around us and how it actually works is still a viable ambition. An understanding of science informs our thinking and decision processes governing the larger world around us. How/What we understand affects us - positively or negatively - in the societal long run.

Our hierarchical society dictates however, that only a few persons will make it to the apogee of the "Eye of Horus" (ref: dollar bill).

When confronted with data, I prefer to examine it, mull it over then plot strategies for how I will address its impact in my own life. I'd suggest for all that read the following to do the same:

For most graduate students in physics, a research focused career ranks more attractive than teaching, government work, or science outreach and writing. Most PhD physicists, however, will never attain a tenure-track position at a university. Upon entering graduate school, many students realize that the odds are against them, but they push forward regardless.

Students may not realize how their career perceptions will evolve throughout graduate school, however. A study published earlier this month has revealed that research careers become less attractive to graduate students as they progress through school.

Physics Buzz: Graduate School Burnout Quantified