<p>Hi all, after a talk with my research professors, I am now no longer so certain about doing a PhD and instead going for a master's in ECE. Since I am now looking at simply going for a masters degree, I was wondering if any of you could give me advice in the following:</p>
<p>Why masters over PhD?
I assume a masters is more flexible than PhD and what I want is job flexibility and good enough money. This is the case correct?</p>
<p>How should I pick my master's school?
At the moment, I am working under an embedded systems professor, but what I am doing is making a quadrotor and make a vision tracking / head tracking system. I like these projects, but they are, in their foundation, not embedded systems as he specializes in--it's more like project to use for research. So, I ask, must I be as thorough in picking my graduate school for a masters as with a phd--must I seek a specific area and look at individual professors, or do I go for just prestige and quality of preparation?</p>
<p>Where should I look at applying credentials wise:</p>
<p>ECE Rice University with minor in Applied math</p>
<p>GPA Overall: 3.51/4.00
Major (ECE + minor): 3.6</p>
<p>*Not sure if this matters, but I have a high upward trend with a 3.7 for the past 2 years taking 15 hrs per semester.</p>
<p>GRE: N/A yet</p>
<p>Research/Project work: </p>
<p>Quadrotor, vision / head IR tracking system, Guitar effects processor (senior design, 3rd place at Rice in TI Analog competition), commercial breathalyzer design for a startup</p>
<p>EC's: Held plenty of positions such as IEEE Vice President, did interviewing for Rice, etc. I'm not sure if these are even considered for Masters because they don't matter for PhD.</p>
<p>Funding?
I know PhD can be funded, but what would allow one to get funding for a masters aside from a fellowship like Hertz?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>