<p>Is this common? If I am very interested in a program area in my major and am sure I want to get my Ph.D, should I apply for Ph.D straight after college? Does applying for direct Ph.D decrease my chances? How does funding work?
I am a civil engineering major (my school CE is ranked top 10 so I think I am qualified).</p>
<p>Thank you for help!</p>
<p>What might qualify you is not the name of the school you attend, but your academic work and research experience. Have you participated in REUs and similar programs?</p>
<p>Why do you want a Ph.D? Do you want to teach and research as a career? What specific area of civil engineering are you interested in? Those are the questions you need to answer, both to yourself and the admissions committee.</p>
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<p>I guarantee you I can walk into every single one of the top 10 programs and find CE students not qualified for graduate studies. In fact, probably 1/3 to 1/2 aren’t qualified.</p>
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<p>Yes. BS -> PhD is very common, as common as BS -> MS -> PhD. In the first year of your PhD program, you’ll take MS-level classes (whereas someone who already has an MS will skip those classes). You’ll probably get an MS after the first two years of the PhD program, anyway.</p>
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<p>No. In fact, it might increase your chances in a department with a research MS. PhD students are going to be around 5-7 year and produce several papers and conference presentations for the school, so faculty prefer them over an MS student who will be around 2 years and may or many not publish a paper.</p>
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<p>You get free tuition and are paid a stipend. Usually the first year is guaranteed (and you TA classes), and after that you have to find a lab and a professor to “sponsor” you (for research, to TA, or both), so you spend your first year meeting with people to see what research is currently active that interests you.</p>
<p>So MS students in the sciences (something Bio related) get funding?</p>
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Not necessarily. Students admitted into PhD programs are usually funded (even in the initial coursework stage) but students in terminal Master’s programs are often not.</p>
<p>I do have undergraduate research experiences but no REUs and will continue research untill I graduate. I think my GPA is enough to apply.
What if my intention is not to teach? The academia is tough recently. What if my intention is to simply want to learn more and be the expert in my field? Would it hurt me a lot if I am not sure if I want to be a professor yet?
Thank you!</p>
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<p>Yes and no. Coursework-only MS degrees are never funded (unless you get a scholarship, similar to undergraduate). Research MS degrees are sometimes funded and sometimes not from the first day, but if you get into a lab you should be funded. PhD’s are almost always funded from the first day (as someone said in another post, if it’s not funded that’s a polite rejection from the school). </p>
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<p>When you have a PhD, you’re not “the expert” in a large area (like “Civil Engineering”). You’re the expert in an incredibly small, minute area that probably you’re the only one to ever study, something like “Use of Laser Doppler Anemometer Measurements near Model Buildings to Determine Wind Loading on Building Attachments”. When you graduate, you either go into academia to further study that topic or you find a company interested in using laser Doppler anemometers to determine wind loading on building attachments. You don’t get hired into to be a “Super Civil Engineer”. </p>
<p>PhD’s aren’t just really advanced bachelor degrees, they’re specializations. When you get a civil engineering bachelor’s degree, you identify yourself as someone educated in civil engineering. This means that you’re no longer considered for other engineering jobs (say, a chemical engineering job). When you get an MS in Structural Engineering, you identify yourself as highly educated in structural engineering and no longer interested in other types of civil engineering (say, transportation). When you get a PhD in “Use of Laser Doppler Anemometer Measurements near Model Buildings to Determine Wind Loading on Building Attachments” you identify yourself as an expert in “Use of Laser Doppler Anemometer Measurements near Model Buildings to Determine Wind Loading on Building Attachments” and not interested in anything else, like the vast majority of jobs in the world.</p>
<p>Why would you limit yourself that much if you’re not sure it’s exactly what you want to do for the rest of your life? Many people figure this out too late and drop out of PhD programs because of it (there’s probably a 50% graduation rate in most programs).</p>
<p>How does one go about differentiating between research and coursework MS programs? On some of the websites I’ve been to,there’s not much said about which is which. I want to so lab work, not teach, so I’m still having a hard time deciding which route to take.</p>
<p>Look at the requirements for the degrees. Some will require 30-36 hours of courses, some will require 24-30 hours of courses + 6 hours of thesis. </p>
<p>For example, GT’s Chemical Engineering department offers:
Research based MS: [Chemical</a> & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech](<a href=“http://www.chbe.gatech.edu/grads/degrees/ms_che.php]Chemical”>http://www.chbe.gatech.edu/grads/degrees/ms_che.php)
Coursework based MS: [Chemical</a> & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech](<a href=“http://www.chbe.gatech.edu/grads/degrees/ms_nonthesis.php]Chemical”>http://www.chbe.gatech.edu/grads/degrees/ms_nonthesis.php)</p>
<p>Note that both award the Master of Science in Chemical Engineering and you’d never known the difference unless you pulled a transcript. Some schools separate them into Master of Science (research) and Master of Engineering (coursework). </p>
<p>If your goal is to work in an R&D lab, you’ll want to pursue a research-based MS. Companies will want lab experience, and that’s the best way to get it.</p>
<p>Is it true some school do not offer Direct Ph.D? Because some professors I talked to said they do not like students to apply Ph.D straight from undergrad.</p>
<p>true. some will admit direct phds, but expect you to earn (/complete) an MS before continuing onto a phd. stanford a good example.</p>
<p>That’s the old school way of doing it. Everyone (MS and PhD) are admitted as “graduate students”. After coursework you take the Qualification Exams. If you fail the quals (or refuse to take them), you earn an MS and sent on your way. If you pass you earn an MS and become a “PhD Student” and start your research. When your research is far enough you propose your dissertation. If you pass the proposal you become a “PhD Candidate”. You then finish your research and defend. If you pass the defense you are granted a PhD.</p>
<p>CFB53B, I think you’ve touched an important point. Getting a job after graduation, maturing, exploring options, reduces dropout rates. Older, more mature grad students, tend to be focused and know exactly what they’re gettiing into…</p>
<p>* This means that you’re no longer considered for other engineering jobs (say, a chemical engineering job). When you get an MS in Structural Engineering, you identify yourself as highly educated in structural engineering and no longer interested in other types of civil engineering (say, transportation). When you get a PhD in “Use of Laser Doppler Anemometer Measurements near Model Buildings to Determine Wind Loading on Building Attachments” you identify yourself as an expert in “Use of Laser Doppler Anemometer Measurements near Model Buildings to Determine Wind Loading on Building Attachments” and not interested in anything else, like the vast majority of jobs in the world.*</p>
<p>This is not 100% true; it depends on the employer and your field, but PhD holders are definitely not limited to whatever they studied in graduate school. In addition to being qualified as a civil engineer, getting a PhD means you are qualified to do independent study and research - meaning that you are quite capable of grasping other careers, as well. It’s also patently untrue that when you get a PhD, you mark yourself as only interested in your dissertation field and not anything else. Most scholars’ careers evolve over the course of 30-40 years, and I think it’s unusual to find a PhD holder that’s doing exactly the same work as they were when they graduated from graduate school.</p>
<p>Most industry jobs hire PhD-level scientists to be specialists in a broad field. So maybe they won’t necessarily get hired specifically for that dissertation you mentioned - but maybe they get hired to investigate the use of laser doppler measurements more broadly, or wind loading more broadly. It’d be insane to hire someone only for their dissertation research because, well, the dissertation is done.</p>
<p>I agree that no one should get a PhD unless they want to do research of some kind - and even then, it’s about directing and planning independent research (since in the STEM fields one can do research with an MS, as a research associate). I also think that taking time off and figuring out what you really want is essential to getting the PhD, and I think that 90% of students considering a PhD should take a few years to work first. But getting a PhD doesn’t put you in a box that limited.</p>
<p>It’s also not true that if you have an MS, you get to skip coursework. Some programs will allow you to transfer in 1-2 semesters of coursework from a previous degree, but you usually will have to take at least one year of coursework in a PhD program even if you have an MS.</p>
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<p>You will skip the MS courses that are part of the PhD program, which is exactly what the post said. Obviously you’ll still have your seminars and other doctoral courses.</p>
<p>To echo juillet, my company has a number of engineering PhD’s who are working in areas only peripherally related to their theses. The company values the type of people who can graduate with a PhD even if it is not 100% applicable, and in many areas customers like to see a stack of PhD’s working on a program (and customers do NOT compare thesis titles to the work request). We also do a lot of internal research, and PhD’s know how to do research!</p>