<p>How much more difficult are M.S graduate courses? I am thinking about the non-thesis path (I think my school's programs says it's 9 courses), which 5 is from the graduate level.</p>
<p>Do this number of courses sound about right? It seems like one can finish this in one year (3 quarters of 3 classes each). Assuming I don't do any TA-ship or research, would I be able to get out in 1 year?</p>
<p>I'm doubting a bit because the school website says the average period to receive the M.S is 2 years, and maximum of 3 years.</p>
<p>Also, what are the benefits of taking the non-thesis option over the thesis option? Here, the thesis option lets you take 2 courses less (7 to get M.S), but is the amount of work worth it? What would you be writing about and what is the length of the paper?</p>
<p>I don’t have much knowledge about graduate school, but back in high school, my history teacher told me he had to do a 80 page paper for his masters.</p>
<p>I think their assuming the student already has a job, then the average of 2 years to receive a MS would be correct.</p>
<p>Most MS degrees in engineering take one to two years. Like LK said, grad courses are advanced upper division courses and aren’t a cakewalk. No blow-off filler courses in grad school.</p>
<p>It’s not so much the length of the paper, it’s the amount of research that goes <em>in</em> to the paper. There’s no appreciable difference between a thesis option masters and a non-thesis option masters, once you graduate, though. I liked the opportunity to be able to do unique research and to try to tackle a problem that nobody else had tackled before… If that sounds like something you’d like to do, rather than just get a bunch of courses done, then a thesis option might be something you’d be interested in.</p>
<p>See what grad programs you’re admitted to and then decide from there. But yeah, 1.5 to 2 years was what most of the structures programs I looked at were estimating.</p>
<p>I am planning a 1.5 year MS + a certificate program. However, I feel that the MS degree will be easier than my senior undergraduate year. Since all my fourth year courses were graduate level courses + did extra independent studies as free electives… (why did I do this…)</p>
<p>It is feasible to finish grad in just one year without RA & TA…</p>
<p>I guess taking the thesis option would allow you to get closer to the professor… + it really benefits you if it’s your field of interest. But it will take consume a lot of your free time.</p>
<p>Actually, I thought the workload in grad school is lighter than what I had in undergrad, but as others have said, it totally depends on where you did your undergrad and where you did your grad. I’ve talked to others who went to the same undergrad and grad (but different majors) as me and they’ve agreed with me as well.</p>
<p>Also depends on the major. Some majors have classes that are all graduate-level courses… Therefore the workload actually shrinks compared to one’s senior year, unless you are doing RA, TA, or working part time.</p>
<p>Some schools reduce the workload expected of their graduates because they understand that many students are holding jobs at the same time. Look at your school’s graduate program. Do they cater to students who are working full time (e.g offer online courses, night classes)? If so, you can probably expect the workload to be easier than it is for their undergraduate program provided your undergraduate institution was similar. My civil engineering professor said that graduate school was nothing to worry about. Even with a full time job, he was doing 3 courses no problem. But like others have said, it really depends on the school and the program, so I can’t guarantee you it will be easier.</p>
<p>Well, I’m thinking about going to the same institute as my undergraduate.
The website said that the average time to get a M.S is 5 quarters, but I looked online and found people who did research and took 3 years.</p>
<p>The thing is that I am thinking about a program where they pick “genuine prospective graduate students” and allow them to participate in a 1 year Masters program. </p>
<p>I guess they were just expecting people to take courses (9 for non-thesis, 7 for thesis). Assuming no job, I guess people have said that 3 per quarter is no problem, so I hope so.</p>
<p>I think for engineering the difficulty of grad courses is overstated. In my last semester of undergrad, I took 3 grad classes and was doing research on the side and it didn’t seem that bad compared to my other upper division semesters. I think it’s feasible to take 4-5 grad classes without spending all your time on them.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how your school views your M.S. program, but where I went for undergrad they said you should take 2-3 classes during Fall and Spring, 2 over the Summer, then finish up the following Fall as a typical track. Similar to this with my current grad school, they require TA’s to take 3 classes a semester to get the benefits.</p>
<p>With no job Boelter, you shouldn’t have trouble handling 3 courses if your undergraduate courses aren’t all that demanding. My school for example “requires” you to take at least 3 courses per semester.</p>