<p>I'm going to be a senior this Fall, and I've taken it upon myself this summer to research different grad programs. At first I was looking at MA programs in Political Science and IR. I'm kind of debt averse, and this has deterred me from taking these options seriously (and I wouldn't qualify for many fellowships. I haven't done much except go to school). </p>
<p>So I've stared looking around at Ph.D programs. The reason I initially wanted to do an MA is that it wouldn't have required a 5 or 6 year commitment like a Ph.D, and I would've begun searching for a job right away (having an MA as a personal accomplishment also played into it here). But I don't think going $70,000 in debt is wise. Funding is more readily available for Ph.D programs. </p>
<p>I had a few questions about admissions and programs in general.
1) Is it wise to use as my research proposal my undergrad honors thesis (with an expanded focus), which I will be writing this Fall? Is this seen as lazy?
2) I have no independent research experience. Does this significantly hurt my chances for top programs (my GPA is currently 3.9, and I have yet to take the GRE)
3) If I complete my Ph.D, but choose not to go into academia, how useful is the doctorate? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance. I'd normally ask these questions to my adviser but he isn't in until the Fall. </p>
<p>What do you mean by “independent research experience”? Have you done work in a lab? Grad schools aren’t looking for you to have solved the world’s problems as an undergrad. They mostly want to see that you’re capable of research and know what you are getting into.</p>
<p>What I meant by that was doing research with faculty, and the like. </p>
<p>Don’t do a PhD because you don’t want to pay for an MA. Yes, funding is more readily available for PhD programs - but the work is also completely different, and has a different goal. Do you actually want a PhD? Do you want to do research as a career? Do you want to spend 6 years answering a burning question in political science (or a set of related ones)? Trust me when I say that if what you really want is an MA, it’s better to take $70K in debt to get the MA than it is to go to get a PhD if you don’t want one. (And besides, you don’t need to go $70K in debt - go to a public university.) I am nearly finished with mine (defending in 2 weeks) and I just feel drained. And I actually really wanted a PhD.</p>
<p>1) I’m not sure what you’re asking here. You don’t need to write a research proposal to get into graduate school; you usually need to submit a writing sample and a personal statement. For the writing sample, you absolutely should submit something that you’ve already written and gotten excellent feedback on - that’s expected. In your personal statement you might be asked to elaborate on your research interests and perhaps spend a sentence or two expounding on what you plan to do for a dissertation. In that case, no, it is not a good idea to use your undergraduate honors thesis. That’s work that you will hopefully have completed, and you don’t want to sound like you are trying to rehash it. You can say that you want to continue that work in a different direction, though.</p>
<p>2) Yes. You are unlikely to get in without research experience, even with a high GPA and test scores. PhD programs want to know that you know what you’re getting into.</p>
<p>3) But in general I would say that if you don’t want a career as a professor of political science AND you can’t already identify a couple of career fields that attract you and require a PhD, that you probably don’t need to get one. You don’t get a PhD just to get one; you get it because you need it to do a job.</p>
<p>I suggest you visit VersatilePhD.com, as it has profiles of people in the humanities and social sciences who have gone to non-academic careers. But VPD was created for people who had already started PhD programs in hopes of being academics and then discovered partway through (or after) that they didn’t want to be an academic anymore. It was designed to help them transition into other fields, and most of the time, they don’t need a PhD in ___ to do what it is they do. I really have to stress that if you want a career that doesn’t require a PhD, don’t do one, because it’s not worth it unless you really have a burning passion to do research for 5-6 years. I mean, there are worse ways to spend that time, but there are better ways too.</p>
<p>It’s that last bit you shouldn’t be so confident about. I don’t have big plans after I graduate. Chances are I’m going for a dead end job (BA Political Science with no work or internship experience—and not for lack of trying either). I guess I want this for personal achievement, and I wouldn’t want to go into debt for that. Anyway, thanks for the thorough response. Appreciate it. </p>
<p>I guess my counter-point to that is…if a BA in political science with no work or internship experience will only lead to a dead-end job (which I don’t believe, but let’s assume so) - why would a PhD in political science with no work or internship experience be any better if you don’t want to be a professor? Not only do you lack the work experience, but you also signal (rightly or wrongly) that you’re highly educated and therefore might be expecting higher pay and responsibilities than you can get at the entry level. Not only that, a lot of people stereotype PhD holders as aloof, antisocial, and stuck in their heads. You have to work harder to convince them that you are a “normal” person who will happily accept an entry-level non-academic position - and won’t skip merrily away at the first hint that you might get a position as a professor. (VPD posts do talk a lot about this, etc.)</p>
<p>When I say that I don’t think it’s worth it unless you need it, I’m speaking from my own experiences completing a PhD - but only my own. Some people do it for the personal achievement and move onto other fields and feel just fine with that, are happy even that they completed it.</p>
<p>Sorry for my cynicism, first. I guess I define dead end broadly, but it would encompass the kind of work most people have (I.e., no meaning is derived from it itself). I’m willing to accept this, but I do want to try to achieve something I can be proud of before I move on to that phase of my life. </p>
<p>But I guess that’s neither here nor there. If independent research experience is indeed as crucial as you make it out to be, I wouldn’t get in. I’ll talk to my thesis adviser in the fall and check out that website. </p>