Penn State Graduate Research Assistant (Engineering) reviews

You work long hours for not great pay.

- Your experience largely depends on your advisor, cohort, and your relationship with them. Some will thrive with hands-on mentorship, some will struggle with absentee advisors. - There is barely any recourse in cases of advisor neglect or abuse. The department will almost never reprimand a professor as long as their group is productive. - Overwork and under pay is the norm, not the exception. Whether explicitly or implicitly, the system is designed to get as much value as possible from the grad students and kick them to the curb when it's done. The career center was largely useless for PhD's and you are far from guaranteed from landing a job even with the degree. Proceed with caution.