<p>Who is writing your LORs if you have no research, no internship or job experience in ME?</p>
<p>So after some conversations with professors and some extensive thinking, I’ve decided to go the PhD route. It sounds like something I’d probably like. And though five years seems like a long time, it’s only a few more than the MS would have been. Thanks for the responses. Hopefully the funding won’t be too much of an issue now lol.</p>
<p>LORs aren’t going to be great, but when you get A’s in classes and make a few trips to office hours to chat while you’re in their class, professors tend to remember who you are and are more than happy to write a letter. I won’t be relying on these heavily for admissions. Hopefully they’ll be satisfactory enough.</p>
<p>I’m sure you’ve got the right choice. It’d make more sense to have chosen MS if you wanted to go for working route. If you like research, PhD is the way to go</p>
<p>'Mobius - not knowing you or your resume, it is hard for me to say what you should do. I feel fairly confident in the probable outcomes of going into a PhD program under false pretenses, and would recommend that you intensify your job search, and apply to a few MS programs as well - you may find funding, or at least you may be able to find a 1-year program that will not ruin you financially paying out of pocket. '</p>
<p>what else could i do to help me decide if a phD is right for me or not? I thought doing two different research projects would help, but I still can’t decide if the satisfaction that comes from getting results outweighs the frustrations that come from trying to figure out problems with simple tasks</p>
<p>Mobius - if you are not pretty sure, you should be trying to get a major research effort undr your belt. You can do this in a research-based masters program, or in an R&D project in industry. In engineering, I would strongly consider industry - if you have the academic qualifications for a decent grad school you should have no problem getting a good job with some opportunities to get into some research.</p>
<p>do there exist many R&d projects in industry? Whenever i look at the job listings, it seems most are for entry-level full-time positions mentioning nothing about doing research</p>
<p>Most larger companies do some amount of research. I went in with my BS and was doing research into new component designs (including some fundamental device physics) starting in my second year. This is not something they advertise, because most new BS-holders are not looking for research opportunities, but they are out there.</p>
<p>would it be better if i found a full-time position, whether or not its in engineering, or a industrial research program, such as this?
[RIPS</a> 2009](<a href=“http://www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/rips2009/default.aspx]RIPS”>http://www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/rips2009/default.aspx)</p>
<p>Mobius,</p>
<p>RIPS is a summer research program, a good experience but not comparable to a masters program. I would strongly recommend that you look at industry - most companies will pay for your masters part-time, and some even do it full time. I believe Lockheed Martin has a program where you are a full-time student, part-time engineer for 2 years.</p>
<p>‘Funding for graduate studies is premised on you conducting research for a professor, and since it seems that an M.S. will be your terminal degree, there is no incentive for a professor to fund your coursework-only M.S. degree’</p>
<p>what about thesis-based MS? is it easy/common to get fully funded for it?</p>
<p>'what about thesis-based MS? is it easy/common to get fully funded for it? '</p>
<p>Thesis-based masters candidates sometimes get funded, but it is harder, less generous, and usually requires working the professors individually since the departments usually do not push for it. The best bet (if funding is crucial) is to apply to departments that offer the masters but for whatever reason do not offer a PhD - they exist, and usually fund the masters students.</p>
<p>i havent seen any such programs. It seems impossible for one with a physics BS like me to get an engineering job or internship, and hence unable to get a engineering company to pay for my MS. Thus, I was thinking my only options for funding for a MS program were to do the phD program and quit after getting the MS, or hope I get funded for the thesis-based MS</p>
<p>First of all, there are a lot of engineering companies that hire physicists, and most to all of them are happy to pay for an engineering masters.</p>
<p>Second, there are a few schools that offer the masters but no doctorate:</p>
<p>Rochester Institute of Technology (good)
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (better)
Kettering University (no idea)</p>