<p>Does one have to go into academia or can one go into industry to do research. Would it be better to just get a masters? Thanks!</p>
<p>That depends on what your ultimate goal is. A masters will open new doors for you beyond a bachelors without really closing any, but a ph.d. will open doors for you beyond a masters while closing quite a few doors as well, so you really have to think about what you want to do. You can do research in industry with a masters, but it most likely will not be as autonomous, and will not be as heavy as if you had a ph.d. With a ph.d. you can work in academia, for the government (national labs, NASA, etc) or for the R&D or advanced development portions of many companies and other niche positions within the entire companies. Personally, I am getting a Ph.D., but I know for a fact that I want to do heavy research, so it just makes sense.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot Bone!</p>
<p>Bump…</p>
<p>What doors would a PhD close?</p>
<p>anybody? i really want to know the answer.</p>
<p>Yes, you definitely can go into industry with a PhD in Aerospace Engineering - or any engineering for that matter. It is not like the pure sciences where most (I think) go into academia, a lot of PhD engineers go to industry.</p>
<p>Ph.D. closes a lot of the “entry-level” doors because you are essentially overqualified or too specialized. You basically have to either have a fairly broad Ph.D. topic (oxymoron?) or you have to find a company who is looking to fill a position that uses your specific niche expertise. All but gone are the days of looking for a position that spans a broad spectrum of your original engineering skills. Those are the kind of doors it closes. With a M.S., you are still not overqualified for those jobs, but have a leg up for promotions and such on a B.S. holder. With a Ph.D., you aren’t even competing for the same jobs with that B.S. holder, and mostly not even with the M.S. holder anymore.</p>
<p>I actually met someone with a PhD who got a job doing stuff in his major but unrelated to his research. Is it common? I’m not sure.</p>
<p>It happens, but it isn’t very common, and my suspicion (though I have no concrete proof, admittedly) is that he probably gets pay more on par with a slightly above average M.S. rather than the average Ph.D.</p>