<p>Why do many universities not offer MAs (only PhDs which include a Master's along the way)? Does this indicate that MAs are basically worthless? </p>
<p>Am writing on behalf of someone interested in graduate economics work, by the way.</p>
<p>I'd like to know if they're worthless too...</p>
<p>its kind of obvious that masters are not worthless because if they were they wouldnt exist and people with great achivments in life wouldnt have past through them</p>
<p>some masters degrees are terminal (meaning you can use it pretty easily, and doesnt require further training. for example, MSW, MPH).
if the masters degree leads to a PHD (such as psychology, history, etc), its not terminal, and you need to further train before you can actually use it to its fullest.</p>
<p>Not offering masters degrees is kind of a unique phenomenon that happens only the United States. In the rest of the world they are indeed valued, and many very interesting jobs require a masters degree but not necessarily a ph.d. So why spend 5 years living like a well-endowed hobo aka ph.d student when you could do one or two years and then start gaining relevant and interesting experience doing what you want to do (and actually being paid a reasonable amount to boot)?</p>
<p>If your "friend" wants to do a ph.d in economics in the US, then a masters degree is not necessary. For anywhere else in the world it will be necessary before you are admitted to the ph.d program it nearly all cases.</p>
<p>Many "terminal masters" programs in scholarly (versus vocational) fields are excellent preparation for PhD admissions. Many of these programs actually rise to the level of "feeder schools" for top doctoral programs.</p>
<p>The masters is a funny degree. In some professions it's a necessity (teaching primary or secondary school) In some professions it bumps you up to a higher pay scale. Sometimes it's not worth getting at all because 2 years of work experience is more valuable. A lot depends on the school and the program. (I'm going to discuss my own field Biomedical engineering just because it’s what I know, but I'm sure you can find similar things in Econ) Some schools make you get a masters before you can get a PhD, MIT is a good example. Some schools explicitly tell you not to get a masters because it isn't necessary, Georgia Tech is one of them. Many schools give a conciliatory masters degree to PhD students who fail their qualifying exams. Sorry if this is confusing or frustrating but like I said, the masters degree is funny. The bottom line is your friend should look at job offerings in his field and see if they say masters degree required or work experience required. if he wants to get a PhD, he should look at college websites to see if they require students to get a MS first or if they can go from BA to PhD (if they do let you go straight into PhD DO IT, you don’t want to spend 2 years and $80,000 on a degree no one cares about. And once you have a PhD no one will care if you didn't get a masters)</p>
<p>My plan is to get my professional master in Int'l Business in France (because of the €5 tuition), then get my what I suppose to be research master in Economics or Int'l Relations (an MA) in the United States to then be eligible for doctoral programs back in France (or in the Unites States as well if I get funding, which I don't think will happen.)
So my question basically is if an MA could get me a job in the US? And also is the Sorbonne a reputable school there?</p>
<p>Sorbonne is very reputable. Probably one of the three international schools Americans are actually aware of, along with Cambridge and Oxford. If you go anywhere else, most American employers will probably think your alma mater is a small liberal arts school from Ohio.</p>
<p>well good because I think it'll be the highlight of my grad application lol... already did some independant study and have a few ivy league teachers in my pocket already but my GPA is 3.2 :-s right now, I can't get it higher than a 3.5 because of the grade deflation. I'm only a freshman though, I hope 2-3 semesters abroad and good scores/recs will do the trick.
Does being a Western European (underrepresented) student help you?</p>
<p>zules,</p>
<p>You're way too early in the game to be thinking things through that specifically. Trust me, your vision will change in the next few years, and the opportunities that rise up will be different than you would expect.</p>
<p>Not saying dont set goals and strive to achieve them, only that things will unfold as they may. Im a pre-planner as well so I've benefitted from this type of advice many times in the past :)</p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>well I just want to know if I stand a chance, because if not I'm not going to bust my ass for four years and start enjoying college life a bit more :)</p>