Learning to do independent research without a PhD program
Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2023 6:58 pm
Hi all,
I know there are a bunch of research scientists on the forums, so I thought I might get insight here.
I'm very interested in learning to do independent research. My goals are:
I can obviously do this all of this via a PhD program. However, I want to explore whether there are alternatives that can be done without enrollment in an educational institution. I recognize the final answer might be that you can't or it's extremely unlikely, but let's not start there. I get that it's unlikely and unusual. Still, how can I approach this?
Here are a few questions to start things off.
I know there are a bunch of research scientists on the forums, so I thought I might get insight here.
I'm very interested in learning to do independent research. My goals are:
- to be the first to discover something interesting,
- to make it up the CCCCCC ladder to become an expert in some topic,
- to enhance my abstract thinking skills,
- and to do something where I can have a lot of personal growth in general.
I can obviously do this all of this via a PhD program. However, I want to explore whether there are alternatives that can be done without enrollment in an educational institution. I recognize the final answer might be that you can't or it's extremely unlikely, but let's not start there. I get that it's unlikely and unusual. Still, how can I approach this?
Here are a few questions to start things off.
- To enroll in a PhD program, one often needs to pass quals, is the ability to pass quals necessary beyond institutional hazing? Basically, I'm wondering to what extent it's really necessary to learn a broad subsection of the field in such a way that one is fluent in the types of problems on qualification exams if you aren't in a PhD program that requires them?
- To what extent can someone learn up to the point of unknown problems outside of a PhD program? How do I know what to learn? I know one thing I could do is to learn a grad school curriculum given by some school, but to some extent that curriculum is aimed at getting students to pass quals rather than aiming to get them to do independent research, so I'd appreciate any insights to this question beyond that.
- What do you expect the largest challenges to doing independent research at home?
- To what extent is being a part of a research group or research collaboration necessary?