I am going to be a senior chemical engineering major in the fall and I am debating whether I should go for my PhD or not.
I am currently an intern at a local company and I could possibly get a job as a plant engineer here after graduation as long as they offer me a position in an area I would want to live in. If i do go into industry, I would probably want to work at a plant and not an office.
On the other hand, I have a 4.0 in my major and have a little research experience in labs at my school. I plan on applying to PhD programs but I am not sure if I want to extend my time as a student another 5 years (especially if I have to start paying loans back in 10 months). I am leaning toward PhD if I can get into a program (I don’t have many teachers who will write me good letters of rec at the moment). Being in a PhD program seems exciting, but I know in actuality it is a lot of repetitive lab work… the idea of doing something scientific with my life seems more interesting than working a 9-5 job in operations, how exciting/fulfilling can that really be?
I really am looking for perspective on people who either went to get their PhD or people that went into an entry level position. More generally, what are the things you like/dislike? Also if you go into an entry level position, what kinds of jobs can you grow into after say 5 years (from the people I’ve talked to it seems like you always become a manager of some sort).
You have a 4.00 in Engineering? If that is true you should definitely go for the PhD if you don’t mind the extra school involved. I don’t think that PhD students have to pay back their loans until they graduate, I could be wrong though.
Both daughters went for masters degrees full time after bachelors degree, and did not start paying back loans until 6 months after completing grad school.
You should go for a Ph.D. only if you are excited about doing research. You say you have had some research experience so you should know what it involves. You have to be fully convinced that it is the right path for you.
That being said, for engineers, it is quite common to work for a while and then go back for graduate school. I would say that departments actually like to see that real world experience. Your 4.0 GPA won’t fade if you work for a couple of years and if you take the GRE now, it will be valid for 5 years. Plenty of time for you to decide if being a plant engineer is the right path for you of if research is better.
I usually recommend that one get some work experience either between their BS and MS. It helps focus what your career and possibly research goals are. When you work for a company there are usually opportunities to move around a little to a lot within the company. You can do that until you find what you are really interested in and then go for your MS degree in that area. Less of an opportunity to move around once you start doing research within an advanced degree. After you get your MS degree then see if continuing on for a PhD is right for you.
I’m not a fan of recommending working for a few years firsts if the goal is a PhD. Most PhD-level jobs will be so different from that initial job experience that it renders it only partially useful, and the pay is going to be so high for those initial jobs that a lot of people have a hard time leaving their job to commit to 5 or 6 years of PhD studies.
If you just want an MS, then great, work first and then a 1 to 2 years commitment isn’t as big of a hit on your earnings or your company will pay. It’s harder to get companies to pay for a PhD (though not unheard of).
You do not have to get companies to pay for a PhD. Programs will fund you although you will be on a student budget. And you will be forgoing industry pay. Doing research is what the PhD is all about. Not what gpa you have, that is not important to the idea of what you want to do but is certainly helpful for you application and reflective of your scholarship… First though you would have course requirements and pass your quals. You may get a fellowship or you would have to work as a RA or TA for you stipend. But then you are doing research and writing up the research as papers for publication. That is what PhDs do too. But to get into a phD you need good letters of recommendation that show you have potential as a researcher. You do not want your recommendation to be Did well in class, or only one of the three, you want it to be about how well you did on your research or projects… If you did research with profs, why don’t you have strong writers for you?
I did research with one professor, so I likely have one solid letter if the fact that her grammer is terrible (recently moved here from china) doesnt ruin that. You could say that the students don’t vibe well with the professors at my school
I just wanted to point out that the job market for PhDs is national. If you have strong location preferences, then having a PhD might make it harder for you to find a job in a particular city.