I am currently doing my second post-doc and still have 1 year to go. This probably would be my last academic pursue in the field of science unless I get a professorship position. However, I have been always tempted to go and do an MA in math since I like the subject so much and because I always wished I would pursue an abstract field rather than my current slow-pace experimental topic.

But no matter how I calculate the time and the money, I can not (logically) convince myself that this is doable (this is for a 2 years MA taught program not a PhD). My university of choice do not admit students on scholarship bases from other fields to MA program if they already have PhDs. If I have to pay for it then a 2 years MA program costs like:

2 years of tuition (international fees) + 2 years of no income from myside + cost of apartment rentals in a different city in a different country + paying mortgage for our current home + 2 years of no income for the family if the hubby cannot find a job in our new city + 2 years worth of additional child-care cost as we are getting away from grandparents + taking 8 to 10 courses which translate to 16 to 20 exams (mid and final) + 8 to 10 projects + possibly a 100 plus page thesis (if I take a thesis route) + 2 stressful years (as it is never easy to have young kids around and study for exams, let alone pure math) + 2 years having no time for anything but completing class projects and studying for exams + opportunity cost of not being in job market for another 2 years (right into my 40s) + more....

When I tell this to my friends they tell me that if I choose to go for the MA, my new MA is a fast slope into poverty and debt with little gain (the only gain is mostly for selfish reasons)... No one can argue with that!

A great news, finally a female Fields medal winner!

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28739373

I had a very similar experience as Keenbean and Mak. I did not choose my external and the first external that my supervisor picked became unavailable just few weeks before my viva so my supervisor had to pick one random from where she graduated (which is technically ranked no. 1 in the world) just few weeks before my viva. My sup picked a young examiner, a lecturer, and she was graduated only 2 years before me but worked under people whom I used a lot of references from. During the viva, the external was extremely rude and self-righteous to a point that my sup had to tell her about our lab limitations and several other issues but she was extremely demanding on the techniques (mostly hi-tech analytical methods) which were not available to me or even any of the unis in the country (only one or two unis in the world would have those). I passed my viva but the external examiner made a dent in my thesis (and my confidence) which I had to spend about 4 months to do corrections (she read word by word of my thesis and pretty much all pages were revised at the end). After I submitted my final version to her to review she mentioned that I did a good job initially but she wanted to make my thesis better, and she offered that if I was planning to do some additional tests on my subject, she would love to collaborate! But by then the damages was done and I was so upset and bitter at the whole academia that I did not attend my convocation and picked up my PhD diploma next day!

3 years has passed now and I have published few journal papers from my PhD work and some of it came from the suggestions that external examiner made. So I always wonder whether I should be thankful to her for that 4 months that she made my life like hell or whatever :)... Many told me that senior profs make much better external examiners!

You are welcome!

Here is the official link to the PhD movie, which you should be able to watch it for free for this month:

Depends on your budget but you can buy a high milage or 10 or 12 year old Toyota Corrola or Hyundai accent as low as $1500 to $2000 or even cheaper but the killer is not the price of car is the insurance as you guessed. Also when you buy a car you need to get registry for the year and etc etc... You can drive with an international driving licence for sometimes but depends on each state's law you have to apply for your state driving licence. State to state, and province to province the laws are different...

if your aim is to stay for over a year, it is a good idea to have a car, for a shorter period, it really does not worth it. Also, when you decide to go back you will lose a lot on selling back the car.

For buying cars check autotrader.com or .ca.

It is quite easy to find a room to rent in summer in US/Canada... upon your arrival go to the student hall or food courts and there are always lots of adds on announcement boards from people who want to rent a room to students or postdocs. Internationals are usually preferred because they tend to be less problematic than locals who can party and have lots of people over....most of these houses do not need credit and they take cash and a bit of downpayment (usually one month rent)...All you need is a call and a visit, if they have the room available, you can be sure that you can have it... this is much easier to rent in summer.... Most of the houses near universities in the US and Canada have developed basements for students.. Craig list is perfect for smaller cities but can be less effective for bigger cities like LA or NY.

My 2 year old had a blast watch a cartoon video that I played (and replayed it again and again)for him before he went to bed tonight and wanted me to stay with him. He held my hand until he went to sleep which took almost an hour. Meanwhile, I had to work on reviewing a journal paper with a closing deadline... Frankly speaking, I enjoyed every second being with him and the fact that I did not rush to put him into sleep so I can work on a paper...

I know it sounds corny, but after being in under and grad schools for over 16 years now (one BSc, one MSc, one PhD and two postdocs), I have come to this realization that nothing can replace, family, happiness, physical and mental health, friends and being a part of human society and live for now and not putting all of my hopes for getting a tuner track career (if that ever happen)... We live only once and nothing should stop us being happy and healthy human beings... not even spending your life in hope of winning a Nobel prize or a Field medal...

more spams for today! Is the admin awake?

Just my honest or maybe my a bit biased opinion: you may not want glorify your yet to be decided action by thinking about it as "madness"... I might be wrong (but certainly not jealous of your decision) but I feel you enjoy referring to your decision as "The Madness"... It is what it is, the outcome will tell you if it was a/the madness or a rational decision or overall too much ado for nothing in your life ...Sometimes we admire ourself for taking unusual steps or fall in love with swimming against the flow so much that we might lose our rationality and feel our life would not be completed if we would not do this or that thing... I would prioritize my life differently... for me there is more to life than just getting diplomas after another diplomas (which I have done in my life so far stopped in one PhD and two postdocs).. I do not regret what I have done but now when I am getting towards the finish line of my academic "studentship" and soon I need to join to work force (or teaching force), I think I could have done more with the best years of my life than what I have done so far... late 20s to end of 30s are the best years of your life to know about yourself, your friends and family, your other talents, the world around you and so on than just simply being spent in desperation and departmental policies for finishing another PhD (again this is just my opinion about my own life and may not apply to yours)... after all a PhD was supposed to be an indicator of one's ability to do research on uncharted territories and ability to reach to measurable and repeatable scholarly conclusions and not just a level of education one can have and the more you have the better and smarter you are... but again best of luck.

First of all, good luck on your new PhD (if decided to take it), secondly, it seems that you liked to work a lot along side of your first PhD, what makes you believe that this time you would not get bored and seek a part time job here and there... and thirdly, you must know by now that the duration of a PhD is not necessarily correlated only and directly to the student's willingness to work on the subject, but also depends heavily on 1) the supervisor, 2) proper design of experiment (or data collection) 3) progress to do meaningful research and re-research and re-re-... n times ... re-research, 4) progress in getting or reaching to meaningful resuts or conclusions, 5)progress to make sense in writing and availability of your advisor to read, comment etc etc... I personally think that you will only have a partial control on the time duration of your thesis, the rest shall be considered with uncertainty... As the author of Black Swan says... the success in outcome of your decision is more impacted with what you do not know and have no control over them than what you know and have control over them.

I hope some of those profs whom securing their own jobs by abusing PhDs and Postdocs read this thread...

Very interesting read... comments are also fun to read!

No you are not alone! Welcome to the club of highly educated but unemployed! I am doing a postdoc now but I know there is nothing after and it is done for me! So I am looking for jobs outside of the ivory tower!

I posted this thread 2 days ago, if you get the chance read the links in the post, it gives you some perspectives on PhD job market:

http://www.postgraduateforum.com/thread-34165/