I know my son should be asking these questions but his plate is pretty full right now and this is a new consideration for him. He completed his undergrad in May and is doing a +1 Masters of Mech E. It was recently brought to his attention that a Ph.D. might be a viable option for him at some point and because his masters is only a one year program would have to apply for those programs this fall. He did not do research as an undergrad, preferring to join an engineering team instead, and I/he have no idea how to go about even looking for appropriate programs. He has decided that his passion is Materials and his research is going to be on bio-materials. Can anyone offer any insight? Obviously he is going to talk with his profs to see what advice they have but with doing an internship this summer he doesn’t see them often.
The +1 masters is hugely efficient if he knows he wants a terminal masters. Switching schools would add another full year.
My son did that in ME and will be defending his thesis in a few weeks. Walking out with a thesis based MS having just turned 23 has positioned him nicely. That said, he knew with absolute certainly that he didn’t want a PhD. For what he wanted to do, a masters was perfectly sufficient.
The biggest thing your son needs to decide is what he wants to do and whether or not a PhD is necessary. @boneh3ad can possibly help him sort that out unless he already knows he wants a PhD already. He can also speak to the challenge he might face landing a good spot without undergrad research versus the inefficiency of switching schools after a MS. Lastly, he posted a great article that I linked below.
Good luck to your son!
https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2017/08/should-you-go-grad-school
Thank you @eyemgh. I shared that article with my son and he is trying to decide what he truly wants.
He can certainly get into a PhD program after attending a program that is a terminal masters program. That might be what would be necessary anyway as he is late in the game for applying and he doesn’t have research experience. It’s also probably what’s best even if he did decide to get a PhD. For now, he doesn’t have a foundation to know what he really wants to spend those years devoted to. Lacking that, he wouldn’t know where to apply. For PhDs you seek out people doing the work that interests you as opposed to vetting whole institutions. His MS research could help narrow his focus. What he would lose is just the efficiency of starting in a PhD program. There might be, and I say might with a big caveat because I don’t really know, a way to conceptually regain the lost efficiency of moving to a second program. If graduate coursework would transfer, significantly reducing the burden of doing it again at the PhD school, he might be able to focus more effort on his research. At the end of the day, that’s the real rate limiting factor. @boneh3ad would really know, but it’s finals week. I’m sure he’s burried grading and wrapping up the semester. As @HPuck35 is fond of saying, a career is long. A year or two in either direction won’t make a big difference. Good luck!
I’m sure his research for his Master’s thesis will help him decide. I think his biggest problem is going to be time. With an internship and research already this summer adding researching programs/people will be a lot. You are definitely correct, though, that an extra year or so is a drop in the bucket but seeing his friends get jobs with sizable paychecks will be difficult too.
There should be a jump in pay for his MS though and it will reap dividends across his whole career. For all but a handful of PhDs (I’ve been told that position, navigation and timing PhDs can print their own money; they are by far the exception), the pay difference won’t be much different, if different at all, between holding a PhD or a MS. The reason to do a PhD is to be able to do things that you can’t otherwise do without it. It’s about the love of the science and exploration rather than financial remuneration.
Our son did some undergrad research, and that taste (too tedious for him) was enough to get him off the fence about attending grad school. For other students, research is really appealing.
Per Op, “his passion is Materials…” - if the passion relates to his current research, perhaps he would like the Ph.D. Probably his adviser/research-prof could give tailored advise.
Finals? Finals were over a month ago. A more accurate statement would be that I’m buried in proposals and toddler poop.
“There might be, and I say might with a big caveat because I don’t really know, a way to conceptually regain the lost efficiency of moving to a second program. If graduate coursework would transfer, significantly reducing the burden of doing it again at the PhD school, he might be able to focus more effort on his research.”
PhDs in the UK are just (3 years of) research, you can certainly do the preliminary masters course elsewhere. But funding is hard to come by for international students.
@eyemgh he wouldn’t be doing the PhD for monetary reasons but more the access to lab/research potential. He is fascinated and motivated by the research and problem solving.
@colorado_mom I’m hoping the research helps him decide for certain. While his current research fascinates him (it’s biomaterials) it certainly isn’t the only focus of materials that does so. I think this is where it gets overwhelming for him - he loves so many different facets
@boneh3ad if you ever dig your way out, any advice you have would be appreciated.
Honestly, I am not sure what the question here is.
@boneh3ad I guess I’m just wondering if anyone has any ideas, besides scouring countless university sites, about how to find a program that would be a fit?
I know this was directed at @boneh3ad, but I can answer. Until he knows specifically what facet of biomaterials that interests him, and there are lots of options, he can’t really find a program. It is about locating the people with labs doing the thing you want to do when looking for doctoral programs. Without knowing that, he’d be getting the cart way ahead of the horse.
@boneh3ad, congrats on the baby! When I looked at the calendar I kind of looked right past the fact that they were in the 5th month and noth the 6th month. Dooh! The days made perfect sense for that story otherwise! 
I don’t know much about engineering grad school stuff… except that it is VERY different from the undergrad engineering research process. As eyemgh pointed out, very much depends on the areas of interest (especially for PhD).
Well he apparently is already doing MS research, so he probably has an idea of what sort of things interest him and who is publishing regularly in that field in good journals. Scour the literature in that field of interest for groups who are doing interesting work. That is a pretty good starting point for a list.
I really appreciate all of the advice. I wish he had some free time, or a spare weekend, where we could discuss some of this. I guess he’s going to have to narrow down what he really wants and do some more reading. At least he’ll stay busy this summer.
I misunderstood the original question. I thought you were asking direct to PhD in lieu of continuing to the terminal MS.
@boneh3ad laid out the path. He will read respected literature about stuff that interests him. He’ll learn who is doing what and where they are. He’ll then see if his thesis advisor knows their work and walk him through the process of getting in touch.
It’s much different than looking at rankings, class sizes, etc. It is really about finding professors who are doing the stuff he wants to do, ideally with grad students publishing respected work in that area.
Sorry I might have led you on a wild goose chase!
Your son has a bit of time to do some research regarding programs. Most don’t have application deadlines until mid November to early January. If he hasn’t taken the GRE he will need to plan for that. Thinking and learning about writing cover letters and personal statements woul also be a good use of time. Above posters are correct, it is very different than applying undergraduate school, much more about matching to research interests.