<p>My son is going for his masters in a science and then, perhaps, on to a PhD program. For one thing, his school makes it easy to get a Masters in 1 year. If you are a good student and have done some advanced coursework as an undergraduate, then you only need an extra year to get your Masters. He loves his major but he is unsure about research vs starting employment. The masters program allows him a little breathing room to make some decisions about his future and it may help him with employment should he opt for that instead of a PhD.
Also the masters program requires him to do some research and produce a thesis. He will get some idea of what pursuing research is like and will, hopefully, be able to make a better decision about his future.</p>
<p>My friend’s D also chose to get her masters in psych (it was only a 1 year program at Harvard) rather than apply for a PhD program. She was sure she wanted that program & it was the only one she applied for. She still hasn’t applied for a PhD program yet but has used what she learned in the program in her work since she got her degree.</p>
<p>Her brother is also going for his masters in psych at a different program that is expected to last two years (Vanderbilt). Both of them want a better idea of what they want to research before they apply for any PhD program but both expect they will eventually go for that degree as well.</p>
<p>We encouraged our S to pursue graduate studies but he wanted some breathing room and accepted a job in his EE field instead. His employer may pay for him to go to grad school or he may decide to pursue it after he’s worked a bit. He had no idea what he wanted to research or study further when he got his BS/EE.</p>
<p>OP,</p>
<p>Graduate school can be such complete torture, that a student should really, truly, want to pursue that advanced degree OR should have a very clear professional need for that advanced degree. This is not like undergraduate college where just being young, healthy, and out of high school can be enough to get you through the first couple of years. Motivation and drive are much more critical in grad school. Not all would-be grad students understand that until they have already arrived at their grad programs. When you talk with your child about grad school, please encourage your child to make certain that there will be enough drive and motivation to power through the tough times.</p>
<p>Both my h and I first had a masters before going on to the PhD program after a break. In my h’s program- applied physics, his master’s was more than fully funded since he received his normal salary while going to school but of course his program is different. Yes, most times phD science programs are issuing master’s as a consolation prize but not all. I have another friend who simply did her master’s in one field and switched for the PhD. In my h’s case, no one at his school went straight through. The military wants you to get a master’s and then later chooses some of those to also get a PhD. In my case, a social science discipline, the usual is to get a master’s and then later continue on to a PhD. Many in my discipline get a master’s for work related reasons versus the PhD is usually for academicians or maybe heads of agencies.</p>
<p>I agree that the master program’s entry requirements are lower than those of the PhD program, but the universities with strong PhD programs often has small or no standalone master programs. If admitted to the standalone master’s program, usually the funding would be limited. If in the PhD program however, then teaching and/or research is often required as part of the degree requirements. In other words, you have to funded. Isn’t that wonderful? :)</p>
<p>This is in the context of research oriented master program, which is often an intermediate step to a PhD. The professional master degree is another story, which I don’t think is OP asking about.</p>
<p>“The student does not want to commit to the time and process necessary to get a PhD, but will have much better job prospects with a Master’s. (Note: This situation may be a little bit like fairies. Whether or not I believe they exist, I don’t know that I have seen one. But I haven’t looked much, either.)”</p>
<p>One area where it exists: teaching in some high schools. A teacher with a master’s degree in the subject field qualifies for higher pay or faster advancement. In a competitive area, the master’s may be necessary in order to be hired.</p>
<p>Hanna, I consider teaching a field where a master’s degree is a terminal degree. Lots of teachers get master’s degrees – most of them in many public systems – and very few get PhDs – and when they do it’s to switch careers into college teaching. That’s a different situation from, say, Psychology (clinical or experimental). Not that I know much about either, but my sense is that a PhD is the normal terminal degree in both, and I don’t know whether a MA or MS has independent value in the workplace.</p>
<p>You can teach just about all subjects at California community colleges with only a master’s degree. Not sure if that’s true for other states.</p>
<p>D’s BF is a grad student in Chemistry. In that field, you get a Masters if you are going to teach secondary ed or if you are not likely going on to get a PhD. Most MS programs are end-points and not stepping stones to a PhD. The PhD programs are 5-6 years, entered with a BS. Some students go right from college and some work a year or two or more. The first two years are didactic and research, and are like working toward the Master’s. You may be a GA/TA. If you are not that successful or dedicated, you can be granted your Master’s after 2-3 years and asked basically to leave with your Masters. No PhD and not likely to get positive recs for another PhD program. The final 3+ years are research and thesis. You in the PhD program the day you enter, but are not actually a PhD “canditate” until you clear the first 2 years and are deemed worth of taking the next step from Masters work to PhD work. </p>
<p>Does that make sense?</p>
<p><a href=“1”>quote</a> Notwithstanding the availability of a PhD, the Master’s degree has meaning in an employment market. The student does not want to commit to the time and process necessary to get a PhD, but will have much better job prospects with a Master’s. (Note: This situation may be a little bit like fairies. Whether or not I believe they exist, I don’t know that I have seen one. But I haven’t looked much, either.)
[/quote]
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<p>I pretty much did this myself. My first job out of college was for a technical firm that at the time required that all of their members of the technical staff have Master’s Degrees. They would pay for said degree as well as paying you 2/3 of your salary. I chose to go to Princeton which normally would not have a terminal Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering but did for Industrially-sponsored students.</p>
<p>In hiring decisions in my field (biomedical research), Masters degrees are sometimes viewed with some suspicion. Because it is often hard to distinguish between someone who got a Masters because s/he wanted one and someone who flunked their PhD oral exams or otherwise washed out of a PhD program and was given the MS as a sort of consolation (a common practice).</p>
<p>^^On the other hand, companies do need many chemists, biologists etc. with a master degree to do the “bench work”. Compared with graduates with bachelor degrees, they have had research experience and can do the work used to be reserved for graduates with bachelor degrees more effectively and cost efficiently (compared with PhD holders). So depending on the industry and the economy, people with a master’s do sometimes have an easier time finding a job because of the scale of economies.</p>
<p>“Notwithstanding the availability of a PhD, the Master’s degree has meaning in an employment market. The student does not want to commit to the time and process necessary to get a PhD, but will have much better job prospects with a Master’s. (Note: This situation may be a little bit like fairies. Whether or not I believe they exist, I don’t know that I have seen one. But I haven’t looked much, either.)”</p>
<p>Econ. When I graduated college, I foolishly believed you either got a Phd to teach, or else got an MBA, MPA, etc. </p>
<p>In fact, over the years I have seen quite a few openings in consulting and govt that look for Masters in Economics, either as a requirement or a preference. And IIUC its also possible to teach at the college level with it - at least at a Comm College, or as an adjunct, but perhaps also as full time faculty at lower ranked 4 year colleges and B schools.</p>
<p>The relation between MA/MS and PhD degrees varies by school as well as by field. At many schools, the MA/MS isn’t a stand-alone degree but something that you pick up along the way, so that you have something to show for yourself if you’re dropped from the program at the point of the comprehensive exams, or if you don’t finish your dissertation. At other schools, you can get a free-standing master’s, and it’s typically much easier to get into such programs–as another poster noted, they’re often run as cash cows. </p>
<p>In English and in other humanities fields, you certainly don’t need a master’s degree to apply to a PhD program. However, since it’s very competitive to get admitted to a top PhD program, especially if you need ample funding, many people do get MAs first in order to improve their chances.</p>
<p>In some fields, research experience and letters of recommendation seem to matter more than GPA or GRE scores. That makes sense because graduate work in most fields is different in kind from undergraduate work; many students who’ve received high grades as undergraduates flounder as graduate students because they can’t do original work, or can’t work well outside the structure of course requirements. In my field, GPA and GREs are definitely important, and directors of prestigious programs have admitted to me that they don’t look seriously at people with verbal GREs below around 700. However, for English programs, the quality of the writing sample and the student’s scholarly promise are typically the most important criteria.</p>
<p>As far as deciding to apply: the faculty in a students’ major field are his or her best resource, especially if those faculty teach grad students themselves. They ought to be able to predict, roughly of course, whether the student has enough talent to succeed, and also ought to be able to give some insight into the job market. In the humanities fields, the job market for PhDs has long been awful and has deteriorated further in the recession. Whatever his or her ability, the student needs to understand what the odds are before plunging in.</p>
<p>My son originally applied for a fellowship to get a masters in engineering, but half way through the master’s program, his advisor was so pleased with his work that he offered my son a second fellowship to continue on for a PhD, which DS hadn’t even considered when he first enrolled as a grad student.</p>