<p>Hey, I'm sort of in a pickle here, so here's the skinny:
I applied to UF and Drexel both MSE PhD programs. Drexel still hasn't made decisions, they operate on trimesters so I can see why they are, what I'd consider, way behind. UF rejected my PhD application but accepted me for masters. I accepted admission to UF(UF was my top choice). </p>
<p>Now the question is, should I contact Drexel and tell them not to consider me? Of course, I'm still wondering if I should consider Drexel if they offer me a fellowship there; afterall free tuition and a stipend make life much easier(as opposed to UF which just gave me an academic achievement award that covers partial credit tuition). UF is better ranked and has research I'm interested in, but Drexel has research I'm interested in as well. Of course this all hinges on Drexel accepting me, so it all might be moot question. Just asking for advice on this one.</p>
<p>And for the second part of my question; if you get a masters degree and apply for a PhD program, does the program look more at your GPA for your Masters degree(I had a terrible undergrad GPA)? For your CV/Resume do you put your Masters degree GPA separate or combine it with undergrad(they are on different levels), if you decide to place your GPA on there? If you have a Masters from a school, does it make it easier to get into the PhD program at the same school? When should you apply for the PhD program(masters program takes a year and a half, leaving an awkward pause if applying for fall)?</p>
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And for the second part of my question; if you get a masters degree and apply for a PhD program, does the program look more at your GPA for your Masters degree(I had a terrible undergrad GPA)? For your CV/Resume do you put your Masters degree GPA separate or combine it with undergrad(they are on different levels), if you decide to place your GPA on there? If you have a Masters from a school, does it make it easier to get into the PhD program at the same school? When should you apply for the PhD program(masters program takes a year and a half, leaving an awkward pause if applying for fall)?
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<p>Honestly, I think they look more at undergrad. As some have said, Master's grades tend to be inflated, and if you think about it you are only talking about 30 credit hours, some of which are just thesis hours with no grade, classes like seminar (show up and get an A), etc. I think it is less indicative of how well you do academically. That said, showing you made it through a Master's is a pretty huge indicator of how well you might do in grad school. You've done it for 2 years (1.5?).</p>
<p>On the CV it is separate, it will also be separate on your applications.</p>
<p>Same school? I would say yes. Most people tend to not want to be "inbred" and want to go to another school, but I hear that is less common in engineering programs. I know of a few Master's students where I am who have shown promise and were actually asked by their PIs to stay on for a PhD. I know others that took the PhD core course as a Master's and did well so they were admitted to the PhD even though their other stats were less than stellar. </p>
<p>The when is harder, but if you stay at the same school, I would imagine you could get a research tech position or something to keep doing research while you wait. Most programs I know of are Fall admit only.</p>
<p>Most classes are graded on a B/A scale. You have to do something pretty catastrophic in order to get a C or lower. I don't know if this is true for schools which offer a lot of MS degrees for people that are paying their way through or not, though.</p>
<p>Right, what RacinReaver said. In grad school a C is failing. Usually one C can mean probation and two C's you are out. Seeing as how most people who make it into a Master's program are at least competent enough to get in, a lot of profs tend to break the grades down into A's or B's, and only use C's when the student just does not put the work in at all.</p>
<p>Considering you need at least a 3.0 to stay in the program and graduate, the grading scale narrows to 3.0-4.0, hence the more or less natural inflation.</p>
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Most classes are graded on a B/A scale. You have to do something pretty catastrophic in order to get a C or lower. I don't know if this is true for schools which offer a lot of MS degrees for people that are paying their way through or not, though.
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<p>This is true. Even the tough schools like Georgia Tech give only 1-2% of people C's in their grad classes and maybe 30-40% A's. It reflects the fact that grad school is much less about making the grade than undergrad.</p>
<p>I'd just like to mention that there are plenty of Cs and Ds given out to grads here at Caltech, I got a 2.6 my first quarter and probably would have had considerably lower if I hadn't dropped a class. It's kind of a known thing that happens, and some of my friends who are third/fourth years wound up with Ds in a handful of their classes and still made it through fine. I think it's mostly due to my program taking people from all different undergrad science disciplines and trying to have all of them take the same graduate curricula, which almost none of them are trained for. I asked the professor of a class I was taking what I should study up on in order to be prepared for the class since I didn't have the prereqs in my undergrad. He told me three years worth of courses (needless to say, this is a course some grads get Ds in and it's not a cause to fail someone out).</p>
<p>I did Materials Science & Engineering in undergrad and I'm doing Materials Science now. The thing is, I'm pretty much doing the coursework required of an applied physics major, of which I have little of the background for. The only difference between the courses of the two degrees is three classes (most of which are taught as though they are physics classes anyway). So we get a lot of people from Chemistry and MSE that haven't had more than a fairly basic quantum class in undergrad and haven't touched a math class since they finished diff eq. freshman year, so we get kinda rocked by the Caltech curriculum at first.</p>
<p>Ah, I get what you mean by inflation now, I did see in many of the programs I looked at that 2 Cs usually meant the end of Grad school. Now that I know the grades are inflated, it eases my mind a bit. Also need to keep above a 3.0 for achievement award that would cover half my tuition(again, peace of mind). I actually had more questions relevant to this thread as well that I thought of tihs morning, but now I forgot :(</p>
<p>wow some mixed answers about gpa in graduate school.
I always thought grad school is more tough with more readings because some of my G.A said they only take 2-3 classes a semester.
So in other word, is the grade based more on your performance? and participation in the class?</p>
<p>All of these things depend on your field. Within mine, we're expected to take 15 classes over the course of two years (on the quarter system). So that works out to either 4 every quarter for the first year and 1 for the second, or 3/2. Whereas the grad students in chemistry only have to ever take 5 courses total. I've heard the people in some sort of finance or some sort of math program here take upwards of 30.</p>
<p>If you're going to grad school to do research, your performance in the classroom isn't the most important part; it's what you get done in the lab. A few of my friends have already been going to particle accelerators and neutron sources across the country to perform experiments on their research. It's not really a huge deal for them if they get a slightly lower grade in their classes, since they've been missing a pretty decent chunk of classes each term.</p>
<p>None of my courses have had a participation grade, most of them half the class doesn't even show up to. I'd say my classes have been roughly split as to how they were graded. Half were ~20% homework, 80% midterm/final, and half have been 50% homework. I've actually liked the homework based ones since the professors can assign more involved problems that make you think more deeply about the material than otherwise.</p>
<p>If you're in a non-engineering/sciences graduate program, I could easily see things being quite different, though.</p>
<p>Remembered what I wanted to ask, in regards to the comment New User made, about his friend doing PhD core courses for his Masters and then getting accepted for PhD.. Is that a good idea? Should I take only the courses I want to specialize in, core courses, or a hybrid of both if I want to get into PhD? Are core courses easier or more difficult than specialized?</p>
<p>Well, again, it probably depends on the school, the program, etc.</p>
<p>In my example, there is one course that all incoming PhD students have to take (the core course). I know of a couple master's students that took that course seeing as it was one that was offered and relevant to their field. When one of them then decided to apply to the PhD program after his first year, the fact that he had taken the course and shown that he could do well was taken into consideration as part of his application. Basically, if that course is used to weed out people and you can pass it, you are more likely to be able to succeed in the program. Also, keep in mind this is an example of someone who did one year of a master's and then applied to the PhD program at the same school in lieu of the master's. I am not sure if that is what you are looking into doing or if you are suggesting getting your master's and then applying for the PhD.</p>
<p>Overall, in your master's you want to take the courses that will help you with what you want to specialize in and that are specific to your research. Sometimes getting a broad background in your main area can be a big help. I would just advise that you talk to your advisor and explain your goals and see what they have to say. You might also want to talk to the head of the PhD program and see if they have any advice on what they might look favorably upon in an applicant in your situation. </p>
<p>Again, this is just one program at one school...so your best bet is to find out how things work where you are going.</p>