<p>Hi everyone, </p>
<p>Just wanted some opinions from people on this thread about my situation. I am a masters student in engineering, an undergrad in engineering and graduating from the masters program this May. My plan was to take a year off and apply to law school to pursue a career in patent law. </p>
<p>During the year I stumbled on an opportunity to become involved in an international research project in a medical school related to my field. I used this project and the professor's reference to apply for funding through a one-year international fellowship. It is the most prestigious one in my field and I found out that I got it. </p>
<p>Couple of days ago, one of my mentors for the project said that it would be possible to turn the research for the fellowship into a PhD thesis at the medical school. I wasn't planning on doing a PhD, but I can't decide whether to throw this opportunity away since its literally once in a lifetime to get this chance to enter a program with a professor's direct reference. </p>
<p>What makes the decision difficult is that from reading about law school admissions, the fellowship experience and the publication which may result may have little value for admissions, so its sort of a waste...</p>
<p>But down the line, I'm 100% sure I want to go to law school and do patent law, just not sure about doing the PhD. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>Though it sounds like it is indeed a rare and great opportunity, if you’re at all unsure about whether you want to pursue a PhD, and you’re “100%” sure you want to go into law: Don’t do it.</p>
<p>Are you interested in doing the fellowship? You can do the fellowship - and the research experience - without getting the PhD. There are a lot of people who love and are interested in doing research but who have no interest in getting a PhD; a lot of them do research tasks in industry or government with an MS. And not everything you do has to be to help you get into law school. You can do this project/program even if you are simply interested in it, and for no other reason besides just being interested.</p>
<p>It’s not really an “opportunity” if you have no interest in doing a PhD. Professors will often try to talk their top students into doing a PhD because that’s what they did - don’t let anyone talk you into it if you aren’t interested.</p>
<p>Thanks for the helpful advice, its a difficult choice because I’m interested in both. I can see myself trying to do the PhD as well as going to law school, but career-wise I prefer a law career because I don’t prefer a research or engineering career.</p>
<p>From what I understand, a PhD is not required for a career in patent law, but many people in the biological engineering arena do have PhDs. Another thing to consider is that graduate schools rarely accept people with the intent of not goings to academia or research.</p>
<p>The main issue is that, I have the chance of getting into a top 5 engineering school, which I would have never had the chance to be accepted otherwise without this opportunity. The professor is also world-renown in his field, so this is literally a once in a lifetime chance.</p>
<p>Is your engineering background in bio-engineering or anything like that, and is that the field of patent law you’re interested in? If so, most lawyers at firms involved in bio-related patent work have PhDs. You’ll have a hard time getting a patent attorney job without it. This only applies to biology/life sciences patent work though.</p>
<p>My degree is in biomedical engineering, I’ll have a masters in biomedical engineering after this year as well.</p>
<p>I’m interested in medical devices, biomaterials, surgical materials, etc…not necessarily pharma, life sciences, or biology-related work. </p>
<p>I’ve heard mixed results about BME for patent law since people tend to combine it with biology, but it’s more of an engineering field. Maybe the PhD could actually supplement my interests for patent law if I chose to pursue it after.</p>
<p>Look up what the requirements are for doing patent prosecution work in bio-fields. I’m not sure they distinguish between biomedical engineering and biology/life sciences stuff. I know I have seen PhD required for some, and I’ve heard if you don’t have a PhD you will be hard pressed to find a job. If you want to do patent litigation, then I believe the technical requirements are less stringent. Anyway, it may be the case that a PhD would be required for your career goals.</p>