Graduate school program (PhD, biological sciences) is HORRIBLE - Graduate Student Researcher UCLA Employee Review

1.0
6 Mar 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you likes sunny and dry weather and like the beach, UCLA is a good choice.

Cons

Lots of immature professor works at UCLA in biology and related field. Professors does not know how to manage students. No advices given for job searching and job opportunities. Very little teaching from professors to students. Long hours, low pay. 80 hours workweek is consider normal. Many professor yell at and insult students, call them "stupid, idiot, incompetent, etc." Many professor want to start a company and think they are big shot, but they are not. Student is expect to bow down to professor like they are President Trump.

Explore other reviews about UCLA

5.0
5 Jun 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good benefit, good pay, good location

Cons

bad work life balance, no promotion

2.0
5 May 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Decent benefits, but not really as great as everyone assumes. Some colleagues who really care and do great work. Impressive students.

Cons

Relatively poor pay and pay inequities. Extremely poor fiscal management - that CFO who was fired for outing it was spot on. Senior administrators and faculty are incentivized to spend a lot of money on things that serve few students and hoard resources to make themselves look good for performance reviews and tenure committees, but it means a lot of extra work gets dumped on a growing a number of mid-level administrators and support staff - who now face layoffs or added workloads. It's all strangling the university's ability to serve its students, but I know several faculty members simply don't care about students or teaching.

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