Mediocre in science

[DrNeos]

Professors in our university are discouraging students, most of the time actually. they always tell to students that only top students deserve to have science career. Does mediocre has no place in science?

[Klaynos]

In academia that's probably true. There just aren't the jobs or funding. 

In general it's not true though. I know people who work as scientists who were certainly not the top students. Some are better at the science than others. 

A science degree also gives you some great transferable skills. Many of my contemporaries are doing some interesting things which are often tangentially technical (e.g. finance director for the technical wing of a company, patent lawyer etc...)

 

In academia that's probably true. There just aren't the jobs or funding. 

In general it's not true though. I know people who work as scientists who were certainly not the top students. Some are better at the science than others. 

A science degree also gives you some great transferable skills. Many of my contemporaries are doing some interesting things which are often tangentially technical (e.g. finance director for the technical wing of a company, patent lawyer etc...)

 

[DrP]

10 hours ago, DrNeos said:

only top students deserve to have science career

Also depends on the job. Quality Control positions are usually open to people with A-Levels or lower - no degree needed even. Health and Safety officers don't seem to need a science degree from the ones I've seen in my career (although I always thought it would be useful if they did) - they get training on the job.  As Klaynos suggests, maybe the man was talking about academic positions or top research posts  -  in which case - of course they go to the highest fliers.

 

....  and if you want to work at NASA, ITER or JET or for a Formula 1 racing science team, for example then yea, it's 1st class degrees only I think (or it used to be) and helpful to have a relevant research postgrad degree.  It depends on the position you want. 

Edited November 21, 2018 by DrP

[CharonY]

7 minutes ago, Klaynos said:

In academia that's probably true. There just aren't the jobs or funding. 

In general it's not true though. I know people who work as scientists who were certainly not the top students. Some are better at the science than others. 

A science degree also gives you some great transferable skills. Many of my contemporaries are doing some interesting things which are often tangentially technical (e.g. finance director for the technical wing of a company, patent lawyer etc...)

 

In academia that's probably true. There just aren't the jobs or funding. 

In general it's not true though. I know people who work as scientists who were certainly not the top students. Some are better at the science than others. 

A science degree also gives you some great transferable skills. Many of my contemporaries are doing some interesting things which are often tangentially technical (e.g. finance director for the technical wing of a company, patent lawyer etc...)

 

I will add the rather important caveat that it also depends on what is considered a top student. In that context it is important to note that most see getting good grades as the low bar of entry. However, there are folks who have perhaps decent but not top grades, but excel more in a lab environment. So there is that.  Also, neither of these are predictive of an actual career in science.  Once you try to get an actual career (i.e. beyond postdoc) the competition requires you to have completely different skill sets than just being a good student (e.g. great networking  and leadership skills).

[mistermack]

On 11/21/2018 at 5:52 AM, DrNeos said:

Professors in our university are discouraging students, most of the time actually. they always tell to students that only top students deserve to have science career. Does mediocre has no place in science?

Of course it does. Climate science is ready and waiting.   

It can even get you a Nobel Prize.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore   

[CharonY]

Yeah, stop being silly.

[LaurieAG]

What about the public service?

Just over 20 years ago Australian politicians decided that managers don't have to know anything about what they manage, all they need to know is how to manage. Now all the technical people are contractors because the public servant bureaucrats won't employ anyone who knows just how little they actually do know because it's bad for team morale.