<p>My son has a fairly substantial scholarship at his school, and he should be able to get a masters degree in one year, and keep the scholarship for that fifth year. He had very good grads going into college, but one terrible semester will likely leave him with a low enough GPA that he won't get offered any fully funded programs. I'm hopeful that he will do well in the masters classes, which may lead to better job offers. To get the masters, he will likely need to take a loan of up to 20k, and he will have at most 16k in loans from undergrad. </p>
<p>What does your son want to do?</p>
<p>Regarding school, he would be happy to stay. Regarding employment, he really doesn’t know.</p>
<p>Is his intention to do an MA/MS in math to improve his academic record and do additional research to improve his chances of getting into a funded math PhD program?</p>
<p>He doesn’t really know what he wants to do, and he doesn’t talk with me about it much. I’m thinking its a good idea because it may make him more employable. He has thought at times about a PhD, but hasn’t mentioned it lately.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is that he may be over-qualified for any positions and under-qualified as a technical person plus, end up with a bunch of loans. My husband’s company hires few math-only majors and typically the engineers (EE, ME, CS) get the “interesting” jobs. They hired math majors for statistics research but the pay level does not equate with the same level as the engineers. </p>
<p>My dd’s company, at this time is only hiring CS and a handful of ME’s and EE’s. </p>
<p>Before he does the grad school thing, I think he should research what jobs are possible for a math-only major.</p>
<p>It is possible an employer will pay for a master’s in the future. But in that case the program would probably be more than one year.</p>
<p>Is this idea appealing to him mainly because he doesn’t know what to do after graduating from undergrad? There does not seem to be any driving passion or goal. Or is it mainly with the idea of cleaning up the record he would present to employers?</p>
<p>This more than doubles his debt. I would think about the debt first and foremost.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions and questions. The main reason he is considering a math degree now is that he doesn’t have to apply - he’s already “accepted,” and his scholarship will help fund it. There are some jobs, such as working for the National Security Agency, that are easier to get with a masters degree, and I have heard many employers won’t look at candidates without a 3.x, often 3.5, GPA. He could get a masters in something else, maybe he should research what other programs he could complete within a year. </p>
<p>Master’s will also allow him to teach at colleges. Part-time teaching is an interesting and relatively easy way to supplement his main income. Not a lot of part-time jobs out there that pay $50+ per hour like college teaching.</p>
<p>Math skills are highly coveted and well remunerated in private industry, specially if they are accompanied by programming skills. S1 says that the experience he has acquired in a little over 2 years out of school is more applicable than what he would have learned in a Master and that he could always go back to school full time (company paid for one course already). He’s not interested in teaching.</p>
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Uh, yeah, I’d like to know where this statement is in any way true.</p>
<p>If he opts to look for work have him look into actuarial programs with the large insurance companies. It entails taking a series of highly competive exams but it is relatively well paid.</p>
<p>OP,</p>
<p>Your son’s not being sure of what he wants to do is not likely to help him gain admittance into PhD programs if he still has that issue after gaining that Masters.</p>
<p>Math or most PhD programs also want excellent LORs and indications the applicant and has a highly focused interest in a given topic or subfield of mathematics. If he’s not sure what he wants to study or gives indications he’s jumping from one disparate topic/subfield to another without giving a good explanation as to why this jump is part of a coherent academic learning/development process, he’s not likely to get helpful LORs from current undergrad/Masters Profs and/or be admitted.</p>
<p>Incidentally, I had a friend who was just bluntly told by a Professor that she won’t take her on as a grad student at the PhD level because her undergrad and MA Majors/fields and interview indicate she’s lacking sufficient focus to be a good candidate for a PhD program in her department. </p>
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<p>While an academic Masters is theoretically the minimum academic degree need to teach at colleges, in practice, an academic PhD is the bare minimum to even teach part-time nowadays. </p>
<p>Especially considering academic Masters programs vary greatly in quality and preparation with some not even requiring a research thesis. Something hiring committees in academia would look askance at from what I’ve heard from many tenured established Profs. </p>
<p>What is his current major? Is it math or something else? what year is he? Is he supposed to graduate in the spring? If so couldn’t he start interviewing for jobs but still sign up for the masters then if he gets a job he just doesn’t do the masters?
At DS’s school they have a 5 year BS/MS degree program where if you have a certain GPA in your junior year you can apply for the 5 year program. However you don’t actually start the MS part until you are done with your BS so…someone could always change their minds if they got a nice job offer.</p>
<p>If his undergraduate major is math then I think he will have better job prospect with a master in applied math. The common subfields are: scientific computing, CS, operation research, statistics, actuarial science, mathematical economics.</p>
<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_mathematics[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_mathematics</a></p>
<p>so is the question have your son not know what he wants to do with 16K in debt today, or not know what he wants to do with 36K in debt in a year?</p>
<p>I’d go with figuring it out now. The fact that his scholarship will continue- but still leave him in the hole- to me is not a compelling argument.</p>
<p>With the lower debt level he can work in finance or market research for a few years and THEN decide what he wants to focus on for a Master’s. But now he’s talking about essentially one more year of taking classes without a plan, correct?</p>
<p>I’d encourage him to get on over to career development ASAP.</p>
<p>On the surface it sounds like a great idea but with $20K more in debt, it seems more like a stall tactic rather than a directed education/career goal. Per Blossom, he needs to have a talk with his advisor and career counseling.</p>
<p>I disagree with Knoxpatch. It doesn’t sound like a good idea on the surface or at any level. He hasn’t got either the $20K or a career plan. A math bachelor’s degree is a good degree. Now he should go out and use it.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. He is a junior right now, so he has some time to decide. I am looking for advice to help guide him.
Quite frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if he decides to finish his degree and “go off the grid/travel/enjoy himself a little” before moving into a serious career. Money is not particularly important to him, and if he wants to get his degree and then do a little traveleling/grow up a little, as long as I’m not funding it I’m not opposed. He is a very strong test taker, so the actuary route could work for him, but he might consider it too “boring.” He has programming experience, so that’s an option for him. I have to give advice in only occasional short snippets, and you are helping me figure out what those snippets should be. </p>
<p>Will it be harder to “go off the grid/travel/enjoy himself a little” with $16k undergrad debt? I think it’s great for students to do this for awhile after graduation, but in this day and age it seems hard for many to do… </p>
<p>The additional $20k debt from possible grad school would make it even harder to “go off the grid” and might prescribe a lifestyle he doesn’t want yet.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>