<p>What is/would be the advantage of some research grad program?</p>
<p>I read so many postings about folks worrying their hair out about getting into some funded graduate program for their M.S.</p>
<p>Me?....I didn't even use my GRE. I just came into grad school in non-degree status and reimbursement checks from my employer.</p>
<p>What is the big thing about the funded grad programs?</p>
<p>congratulations, your employer paid for your grad school. is that what you’re looking for? obviously not everyone has that option.</p>
<p>Actually, that option is out there for a lot of employers. Of course, I am always going come at an angle that is different than the 1,000,000+ postings on this board that has everything centered on one path only.</p>
<p>It doesn’t tie you down to one company, if you get a funded degree-- a lot of companies will fund your graduate degree in return for working for them for a certain period of time. Also, you can concentrate on just your degree and not have to work part-time while you’re doing it. The third advantage for me, personally, was that I could continue straight from my undergraduate studies and use that inertia to get myself through my grad studies.</p>
<p>^ I’ll buy that.</p>
<p>And 4, the research experience can help get your foot in the door for future research positions.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Ok. </p>
<p>Well I can see the excitement of research. At the same time, I am sensing lots of competition over the course of years…or is there any time in a research career where you can get a “tenure” type of feel at your position?</p>
<p>Well if you are doing research in industry, the competition is a non-issue. Research in industry is not that much different than a normal job at the same company as far as job security goes. Oftentimes the research topics in industry are more closed-ended and you have less freedom than in other settings though.</p>
<p>Research in academia is the most open-ended and allows the most freedom, but as you alluded to, it is incredibly cutthroat, and if you don’t produce and fail to make tenure, you start over from square one somewhere else. Getting those positions is incredible difficult as well.</p>
<p>Research in government labs is somewhere in the middle. That is why a ton of PhD’s end up in government labs somewhere (e.g. Sandia, Livermore, etc.).</p>
<p>Of course a lot of this only applies to PhD’s. With an M.S., you are more limited anyway. A research-based MS can still get you into research positions, but you won’t generally be leading the big research projects. I also don’t think there are many options in research for MS holders except out in industry, as academia requires a PhD and government labs usually do.</p>
<p>Another advantage is that in order to get a company-sponsored MS you need to first be hired by a company that is willing to pay for it. They also tend to be more restrictive of which schools you can attend, so even if you could get into a Top X school you’d have to go to local satellite of mediocre state school since it’s $3000 cheaper a credit, and you need to commute there after work.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you are in your late 20’s (even early 30’s) and you have been working since undergrad, it won’t matter if the school is so-called “mediocre”. All the employers care about is that you HAVE an M.S.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That is true of a lot of jobs, but not if you are looking to do research. In research, they want proof that you can handle big research projects and get good results, which means the higher profile your research is, the more interest employers will show. You can certainly find high enough profile research from a reputable advisor at a lot of less known schools, but it is not nearly as common and you have to get somewhat lucky. The higher you go up in program reputation, the higher the concentration of high profile research and high profile advisors becomes, and that is the primary draw of the top schools for grad school.</p>
<p>Of course if you are getting it paid for by your company, you likely aren’t doing a research-based M.S. which makes that issue sort of a moot point.</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>To be honest, I am learning this. About 90% of my career has been consulting/contract work.</p>
<p>I DO have to say that since there is “continued” competition, I probably would not have opted for the research path. I kind of like the “quasi-socialism” (for lack of a better word) of the I.T. industry, especially the cleared/INTEL sector. You pretty much get rewarded for just showing up (as long as you keep current with the technology).</p>
<p>Yeah, research can, at times, get somewhat cutthroat. It can be incredibly rewarding though. I do like the idea of generating new knowledge and doing things that have never been done before. It is pretty neat to know that you are doing things that enhance humanity’s knowledge of your field.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh it helps. I do know the proposal folks in my department are quick to mention any new research accomplishments by the company when bidding for new contracts.</p>
<p>I have not worked near any of the research projects for the No Such Agency, but you hear about them during their award days. It seems like the whole agency shuts down.</p>
<p>Well, in a sense, you should care where you get your MS degree. I was exploring employment with a particular company that would have offered to pay for me to get a master’s, but the curriculum at the place turned me off not only from the school but also from the job it was associated with. Plus if you were to change companies later on, a better program would open more doors, as has already been said. Clearly the company paying for you to go to school thinks the place is alright, but another company might care that it’s mediocre.</p>
<p>Getting a fellowship / assistantship is nice because it gives you the graduate academic experience that you might not get otherwise. This has several dimensions: your being in near total control of the courses you take (some employers go so far as to tell the employees what courses are allowed); your being able to schedule courses how you like, which is all but impossible when you are working full-time too; being able to do other academic things in graduate school, like work on a variety of research projects, educational initiatives, etc.</p>
<p>“Of course if you are getting it paid for by your company, you likely aren’t doing a research-based M.S. which makes that issue sort of a moot point.”</p>
<p>Boneh3ad, why do you say this? If someone went to grad school why would they not do research? Are they being stopped from it for some reason?</p>
<p>brian01,</p>
<p>There are two types of Masters degrees, thesis and non-thesis. Usually, if you are getting your Masters while working at a company, you are going to be doing a non-thesis degree. Usually companies pay for a Masters from a local or regional engineering school that offers the classes so that you can work at the same time as going to school. A thesis-based Masters requires pretty much constant dedication to research and wouldn’t leave any time for work, and is generally more sensitive to the name brand of the school, so for an employer, if you send your employee to get a thesis-based Masters, you are likely paying more for a bigger brand and you aren’t getting much if any work out of that employee for that 3 or 4 semesters while they working on the thesis.</p>
<p>Just about any grad student that is in school full time and not on the company dime does a thesis-based Masters, though. It is all just about who is paying, what your responsibilities are during school and what purpose the degree serves when you are done.</p>
<p>As of fall 2009 I am doing masters with thesis in electrical engineering. I am also employed full time and my company is paying most of my tuition. I don’t get any research grant money or anything but I do work in research group. Research isn’t something I “have to do”. It’s a dream - I absolutely love research, working with my co-researchers, at the lab on weekends and late nights. I’m doing one course per semester so I have four more years. My professor wanted to pay for me to do some course work for him by working on some stuff for him this summer and to help me graduate sooner. I declined because it I am more than happy to do the work out of shear joy of research. Plus, I have four more years to do research and I’m not interested in graduating as soon as I can. I hope to produce as much as I can during this time.</p>
<p>Brian01, sounds like you would be a very good candidate for a Ph.D program. Have you considered doing that at all? Typically when you’re doing a Ph.D you’ll get an RAship funded by your adviser, so you wouldn’t have to work.</p>
<p>Hadsed, I would definitely like to do a Ph.D after I finish my masters. I’m married and hope to have children soon, so I need to be saving up money for when I do Ph.D. I’ve got four more years to finish masters and then work for my company for 3 more years since they are paying for masters.</p>