I would like to double major in computer science & linguistics, and go on to become a computational linguist. Now I know that in order to do that I’ll need a Masters or a PhD. I envision myself working in industry, but in all honesty, I’d like to have the option to teach as well. I know that in order to teach I’d have to have a PhD, hands down, and I also think (although I’m less sure) that in order to land a position at a university doing research, even if not a professor, I’d probably have to have a PhD. Either way, a PhD would be more competitive than a Masters. However, I’m a bit unsure whether this is a good choice for me because the idea of going to school for that long and doing a thesis is a daunting prospect. I’m not sure if I could do it. That said, a PhD program should be funded and a Masters would cost me money, probably out of pocket.
So basically, this is how the situation looks to me:
PhD
Pros: more competitive, could become a professor or work at a university, would be funded
Cons: lots of hard work, lots of time in school, maybe not worth it
Masters
Pros: short, sweet and to the point. I wouldn’t have to make a doctoral thesis.
Cons: less competitive, more expensive, more limiting career-wise
What do you all think? Anyone have experience with computational linguistics in grad school? Any advice appreciated.
No need to decide this now. I suggest you get involved in research it your uni. Or at REUs and pay attention to others careers and What the grad students are doing and looking into programs and opportunities
Yes, I think it’s way too early to decide this. And it doesn’t need to be decided all at once: You could get an MS, work in industry for a few years, and decide to go back for a PhD.
But one way to think about it is to decide what you want to do in computational linguistics. If you knew that you absolutely wanted to be a professor, a PhD is the only way to go for that. However, outside of that - or doing high-level research at a place that conducts research in that area, which I can’t imagine are a lot outside of the university - a PhD isn’t really necessarily. It’s not universally “more competitive” than a master’s. A lot of people think that if an MS is good then a PhD must be even better - but not so. Most employers would simply prefer someone with a master’s + 3-4 years of work experience than someone with a PhD and no work experience. Some employers are actively against hiring PhDs for a variety of reasons. I don’t think an MS is more limiting career-wise - it just opens you to different opportunities that may be better suited to what you want to do. (Heck, in the time it takes you to get a PhD you could earn two master’s plus still have 1-2+ years of work experience.)
Also, with experience, you could teach as an adjunct with an MS. So if you just want to work in industry and have the option to teach a class or two, that’s an option. (If you want to teach full-time as a professor, then yes, you need a PhD - but professors mostly concentrate on research, not teaching).
I will say, though, don’t worry about the thesis. First of all, some MS programs do require them. Second, by the time you get to it you’ll be prepared to write one. And third, they sound a lot “bigger” than they are. My dissertation was 132 pages (of text - not including references and other items). I wrote it in 2-page increments over the course of 9 months. My daily word-count goals were something like 600-900 words a day depending on the section I was writing. 600 words is roughly 2 to 2.5 pages, but what I figured out pretty early on is that even if I wrote a 150-page dissertation (which is pretty long in most fields other than the humanities), and only wrote 600 words a day, it would take me just 70 work days to reach enough words to fill 150 pages. 70 work days is 14 weeks or 3.5 months. Now, of course there’s also the research to do, analysis, and lots and lots of revisions and reading and thinking, which is why dissertations take longer than 3-4 months to write. But it’s not hard; it’s just long and time-consuming.