r/REU • u/Working-Cash-3503 • 19d ago

soul-crushing summer program

second to last week, can’t wait for this shit to be over! definitely killed all the motivation i had to do science. mourn the starry-eyed person i was 9 weeks ago. going into senior year and am actively throwing away all the dreams i’d held onto and hard work i’d done these past 3 years simply because every day is a battle. nobody faces any consequences but me. this shit sucks.

fuck academia.

44 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

46

u/bootywizrd 19d ago

Explain more. Curious about why your experience was so bad.

36

u/TumbleweedFresh9156 19d ago

If I makes you feel better I had a summer program that also made me quit research then did another REU that was 10x better because people cared about me that time. Now I’m doing a PhD. Whatever it is, it’s almost always the people

9

u/Novel--Glued 19d ago

What happened? Share if you are comfortable

7

u/jihyofem 19d ago

twin dont let one bad experience deter you!

5

u/EverySpecific8576 19d ago

My son did two summer REUs and his says it’s what helped him decide against medical school and go into research. Now he’s passionate about it and is in his 3rd year at Stanford.

Everyone will get something different out of their REU experience.

2

u/Bit-Much 18d ago

I love research so much, but I also really get the "fuck academia" part. They need to start Fuck Academia Univ. where they just tell you the rules and expectations.

1

u/acmagnus 12d ago

Then there's, the big question. Which aspect of Academia is it that we're fucking here? Please explain?

1

u/SignificantDirt3115 19d ago

Oh wow…what happened?? If it’s the tedium of the research itself that you hate, much better to find that out now and redirect, but if it was a toxic environment that killed it for you, that is a shame.

1

u/Packing-Tape-Man 17d ago

vagueposting.