<p>Would I have any chance as a master's student getting enough research experience to qualify for a decent PhD program? I'm an aerospace engineering senior here at UMich, and after my most recent grades and GRE, I should be heading smoothly into the master's program after December. My interests recently have turned toward research (influenced by internship experiences), but I never bothered to pursue research as an undergraduate, something I really regret. Would I be able to make up for that to some degree as a master's student?</p>
<p>Uh, yes? </p>
<p>Are you doing a five year bs/ms program? If so you might be short on time, but you can still do some very good research, even if it's not a full out 2 year thesised Master's. Quite a number of engineering students do MS then reapply or work a couple years then do PhD. Considering you're already at a great PhD school means you may well be able to easily just join a research group as a MS and keep going for your PhD.</p>
<p>The biggest question is why you want to do research. You make it sound like a bad internship experience made you realize you don't want to work in industry as an Aero space engineer and you're hoping research will be better. And by all means, give research a shot as an MS, but don't just go after a PhD because you're scared of industry. Give it some real thought.</p>