<p>I'm currently an undergraduate student at FSU. I'm a student in their TEACH program, based on UTEACH from the University of Texas. In 3 years, I will graduate with a BS in Pure Mathematics and a double major in math teaching. I've planned on being a college professor in mathematics, so obviously, I need my PhD. However, the draw of this program is that if after graduation, I complete 4 years of teaching within 8 years of graduation, I will be virtually debt free. But as I want to be a professor, I need graduate school. I plan to complete an advanced program, which will allow me to gather 12 hours of dual counted credit towards a master's degree, meaning it won't take me long to complete it. </p>
<p>My question is, should I complete my master's, and then do the 4 years of teaching, then go back for my PhD? Or wait, going straight to the PhD program? Or could I potentially complete both within those 4 years? </p>
<p>You’re going to have to go into teaching first if you plan to take advantage of that program.</p>
<p>The average time-to-degree for mathematics doctorates in the US is 8 years. Even in a best-case scenario, it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to be able to complete a math Ph.D in four years.</p>
<p>Depending on your goals and how much of a problem debt is going to be, I would try to avoid doing the program. One of my friends did the program at Texas, and he had a hard time getting into grad school in party because he wasn’t able to take the classes he should have.</p>
<p>I agree with polarscribe. It will be nigh on impossible for you to complete 4 years of teaching and a PhD in an 8-year time period; I would expect your pure math PhD to take about 5-7 years (I think the average is skewed upwards by a few who take a really long time to finish). Your options are either to complete your master’s and then do the 4 years of teaching, or do the 4 years of teaching and then go straight into a PhD program in mathematics. Either one of these options is feasible, with the difference being that you’ll get paid more as a teacher if you get the MA in mathematics first before going into teaching.</p>
<p>Also, I’m not sure why the program may make it difficult for you to take the classes you need to in order to enter graduate school, unless that’s a systemic problem characteristic of the UT system.</p>
<p>The ‘typical’ time to a math PhD is 5-6 years. A few of the top PhD programs (like Princeton and MIT) expect their students to graduate in 4 years; however, they recruit students who are absolutely certain about their research interests and have already taken 2+ years’ worth of graduate courses in college.</p>
<p>May I ask you a few questions?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Why do you want a Master’s degree? Most universities accept math majors straight into the PhD program. No need to pay for a Master’s degree. (Some universities will give you a Master’s degree en route to the PhD, but you shouldn’t go out of your way to get a Master’s degree before applying to PhD programs.)</p></li>
<li><p>What kind of college professor do you want to become? Do you want to be a teaching professor or do you care about a research career? </p></li>
</ol>
<p>If you wanted to become a research professor, getting that double major in math teaching is going to be career suicide. Here’s why. During graduate admissions, you’ll be competing with students who put all of their effort into pure math in college. PhD programs will normally pick from the most advanced applicants. Ergo, more math teaching means less pure math means attending a less selective graduate program.</p>
<p>Now, which graduate program you attend will largely determine your research career prospects. The resources you have available to you will largely depend on the department you are in. (For example, Stanford is flying in several accomplished mathematicians each week. An average university might have two accomplished visitors each year. HUGE difference networking-wise.) The department you are in will also determine the topics you will work on for your PhD. “Cutting-edge” work is done in a surprisingly small number of departments. The average PhD student in math will work on a problem of no interest to the wider mathematical community. </p>
<p>Of course a motivated individual can overcome all of these obstacles, but the odds would be stacked against you.</p>
<p>P.S. I have no agenda here. I am a PhD student in math myself who learned the hard way that pure math is not very forgiving of anything less than 100% commitment.</p>
<p>For the record, at this point, I am unsure if I will pursue applied or pure math in grad school. I’m in my second semester of PDE right now, and enjoy it a lot. I am hopefully taking numerical analysis in the fall to see if that’s the correct route for me, or if I’ll stay with pure math.
I don’t think I’ll have those problems; with my major, and because of extra math classes I’m taking just for the heck of it, I’ll fulfill all the requirements for both the pure math and applied math majors at FSU in of themselves, just without the minor. </p>
<p>b@r!um, I was considering getting the Master’s partially for the increased teacher pay scale, and also to expand my knowledge. With the combined degree program I mentioned, that would only be another two years, maximum.
As far as research, I don’t know yet. I haven’t done any research as of this point, my first year in a 4 year college. I still have 3 years or so left, but those are entirely upper level or teaching courses, because I came in with an AA.</p>