I’ve never gotten into a PhD program for either (I’ve never entered a PhD program period, for that matter,) but I don’t share this impression and am curious as to how you formed it.
It’s not based on very much, I admit, beyond talking to some physics and math people I know about graduate school. It is a selection procedure, and it does take some significant work and talent to get in (as well as some luck), but it doesn’t strike me as unreasonably difficult. All the physics and math PhD’s I know seem genuinely (but not off the charts) talented. Many of them have problems finishing their work on time and writing well. Once you’re in the program, getting out the door with a PhD isn’t that hard, since literally everyone making the decision to graduate you wants you to graduate.
What I’m trying to say is that getting a PhD is hard in the way building a nine foot brick wall is hard. There are some basic skills involved, and then it’s mostly just a lot of time and work. It’s not hard like discovering a new proof in geometry is hard. And if you can do the latter kind of work, people are pretty inclined to cut you some slack on the former. My school recently hired a mathematician who earned her PhD at 24, six months after her BA.
Even getting into a PhD program in things that we’re inclined to regard as “soft” subjects, such as English, can be quite difficult,
I’d say these are much, much more difficult to get into. Firstly because there are way more candidates (the negative selection pressures are a lot lower in these fields) and secondly, because it’s not at all clear what talent in these fields looks like, so things are a lot more random.
It’s not based on very much, I admit, beyond talking to some physics and math people I know about graduate school. It is a selection procedure, and it does take some significant work and talent to get in (as well as some luck), but it doesn’t strike me as unreasonably difficult. All the physics and math PhD’s I know seem genuinely (but not off the charts) talented. Many of them have problems finishing their work on time and writing well. Once you’re in the program, getting out the door with a PhD isn’t that hard, since literally everyone making the decision to graduate you wants you to graduate.
What I’m trying to say is that getting a PhD is hard in the way building a nine foot brick wall is hard. There are some basic skills involved, and then it’s mostly just a lot of time and work. It’s not hard like discovering a new proof in geometry is hard. And if you can do the latter kind of work, people are pretty inclined to cut you some slack on the former. My school recently hired a mathematician who earned her PhD at 24, six months after her BA.
I’d say these are much, much more difficult to get into. Firstly because there are way more candidates (the negative selection pressures are a lot lower in these fields) and secondly, because it’s not at all clear what talent in these fields looks like, so things are a lot more random.