Hi folks,
I guess I am in a position where I appear to have a “luxury” problem:
I used this year as a gap year but I will soon have to face and make a decision; I completed my undergraduate degree in business with flying colors.
My grades were far better than I had expected and so I took a shot and applied to several grad schools (or post-graduate uni courses, as they are called in the UK).
Basically, I am in the position now that I will have to choose between a Master’s degree from Harvard USA or a PhD (DPhil) from Oxford UK.
I want to remain rather anonymous on here, but what I can and want to say is that I am from Europe and later on, work-wise, I would want to be in Europe also.
However, I am puzzled now… I think that from the point of view of European employers, the Harvard degree may (slightly???) trump the Oxford degree in terms of prestige and I also think the European employers might find the experience abroad, in the US, an additional impressive asset.
But then, title-wise, the PhD (DPhil) from Oxford is obviously above the Master’s from Harvard in the academic title hierarchy…
Obviously, if I have received those two offers, one should assume that I am mature and intelligent enough to make up my own mind and not to ask complete strangers… but really, I don’t know which path to go… and I will eventually have to make a decision soon next year…
What do you think?
What field would the degrees be in? Are you willing to spend 4+ years for a PhD in Oxford vs 2 for a masters? What are your career goals?
If you don’t know if you should go to a master program or a PhD program, you may want to consider neither. You need to have clear career goals. The two programs likely lead to very different paths. @sciencenerd is being very generous with the 4+ years for a PhD. Depending on the program, it could be a lot more. Unless you really want it, starting a PhD programs usually doesn’t end well.
Please help me understand the timeline.
You completed an undergraduate degree in business in June, 2017 and were happily surprised to find that you got some equivalent of a first class honours result. So you applied during the autumn/winter 2017 admissions season to Harvard for a Masters in something (business?) and Oxford for a PhD in something (presumably a similar something). The gods have smiled and you have now received offers from both for autumn of 2018 entry.
Except, that can’t be right, as Harvard applications for 2018 entry are still open & offers have not gone out, so you couldn’t have this choice to make yet (if you were an Oxford undergrad and had been on track for a First for a while, you could have a PhD offer already, but the rest of the post makes me think that unlikely).
So maybe, you finished in June, 2016, applied during the autumn/winter of 2016, got acceptances in the spring of 2017, decided you wanted (another) gap year, applied for and got deferrals from both programs and now in the autumn of 2018 you getting ready to choose one? That seems unlikely as well, not to mention unethical.
It has happened that I have not seen an obvious explanation for a CC post, and the OP or other posters have kindly helped me understand what I am missing, so maybe that is the case here (in which case, help is welcome).
Or, maybe this post is a thought experiment.
I finished and applied last year and got acceptances last year and decided to take a gap year and to defer entry for summer next year…
So, you are holding places in 2 programs, and with the benefit of time, the content and purpose of the two programs is still equally interesting?
It is true that a PhD is a ‘higher’ rung in the academic ladder, but in business a PhD is really only valued in academia/ research- an MBA is the coin of the realm.
So, it comes back to what the other posters have said: which degree is “better” will depend on the field, what you want to do with it.
For names, Harvard / Oxford are not enough different for it to be a decision factor.
The international ‘experience’ of US OR UK might be a help in some situations- it could as easily be a negative. Again, not a good decision factor.