<p>I am currently a student at UMD, and I have a very good GPA but no stellar research experience(Some research but no publications). I was wondering that if I extended my stay by doing a BS/MS would it help/hurt my chances of getting into a really good school for PhD (by really good I mean Stanford/Berkley/MIT). </p>
<p>The short answer is “yes”. Grad school looks at a lot of things that are hard to achieve outside of a university, and if you are not competitive for your desired PhD schools then completing an MS can give you more opportunities to improve your application. But there are a few things to consider:</p>
<p>1) Do you really NEED Stanford/Berkeley/MIT, or do you just WANT them? Is that where they are doing the best research in your specialty? Or is the prestige important, and if so, why?</p>
<p>2) If you do a joint BS/MS at your school, will they fund the graduate portion? Or will you be paying tuition for an extra year and a half?</p>
<p>3) Is it worth the time? In the best case, the PhD university accepts some to all of your credits from the MS towards the PhD, but in the worst case (like ECE at MIT) they accept NONE, delaying your entry into academia or industry by that whole MS term.</p>
<p>4) Have you considered doing an MS elsewhere? UMD is a good school, but you should consider additional schools for your MS as well. The BEST case would be to do your MS at one of the schools where you would be happy getting a PhD (if they accept MS students, of course) - if you are admitted then to that same school for your PhD, points 2 and 3 above would be nullified.</p>
<p>I agree with @cosmicfish, make sure that you aren’t choosing a Ph.D. program just because of the “ranking” of the university in what is usually a primarily undergraduate ranking. For a Ph.D., you need to decide if you have a particular field that you wish to pursue, look into publications in that field and then do your homework to decide which universities are best for YOU. Once you know that, you can ask yourself (or the admissions offices of the universities) if the M.S. will give you a leg up or not. Even if you don’t get all the credit for the M.S. courses you have taken, the experience of taking graduate courses can really prepare you for the coursework required in a Ph.D. program.</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies. I talked to my professor who I did some research with and he said that if I wanted a job in academia I have to have a PhD from a prestigious school. Currently, I do have a 4.0 GPA, two semesters of research and an internship at a really good company. But I have friends who have research publications and have been involved in research for almost all their undergraduate career. So, in my opinion my chances do look smaller as compared to them and I am hesitant to apply to the topnotch schools.
Now paying for tuition isn’t a big problem at UMD (they have scholarships,TA, RA positions+ I am paying resident fees). I am just worried, if the Masters to PhD transition is harder than a direct admission in MS/PhD.</p>
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It helps, for reasons I will not go into here, but it is not an absolute need. Look at departments where you would consider working as a professor, and see where the current faculty got their doctorates. If they can do it, so can you. I would also consider that “prestigious” has poorly defined boundaries - you named 3 schools, I would consider at least the top 10 in any field to have such a distinction for the purpose of academic hiring, more when you consider how many “top 10” lists there are! </p>
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I would say that you are in a good position - a 4.0 is fantastic (although to be honest, not much better than a 3.5 when it comes to admissions!), 2 semesters of research is good if not amazing (assuming you are a junior), and the internship is probably irrelevant, since most internships develop your industrial chops only. What you need to focus on is the quality of your research, and not the quantity - this means chasing opportunities to publish and present, and finding work under highly-regarded researchers who will sing your praises to the world… * and mean it!. If you can reach application time with a letter of recommendation from a top-notch research professor that says "bennydenny is one of the X finest young researchers I have seen in my academic career, and has the skills, talents, and drive to excel at Stanford/Berekely/MIT and make an excellent research professor some day!" then you have done 90% of what you could hope to accomplish in preparing for grad school applications.</p>
<p>You also need to realize that grad admissions is holistic - although there are often minimums, there is no guaranteed formula for success. Some of the guys who you think “have it made” will get rejected from all three of your listed schools, and some people with inferior numbers will get in instead.</p>
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I would say “different” rather than “harder”. Some people are not ready for the transition, and doing the MS can smooth the way, but there is usually a cost to that, in time and in money.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for your help cosmicfish.</p>