Summer Before Grad School - Research or Internship

This post may not be 100% engineering related, but I know there’s a lot of people on here who have BTDT and shoot straight, and I trust you guys for advice.

Anyway, I have decided to do grad school and go for a terminal masters. I’m not admitted yet, but after talking with the department head about it, I’d say there’s a 99% chance I can get in to the grad program at my current school.

I did an internship this summer, really enjoyed it, thought it was a great experience, but I didn’t get invited back. I went to the job fair at my school this year looking for another internship, but it was kind of tough sledding. Of course the problem is that most places are looking for interns that they can potentially convert in new hires the following year, but with a rising masters student, he’s guaranteed to go back to school after you’ve spent three months of your time and money on him. Two recruiters with masters’ honestly told me that I should probably spend my summer doing research rather than look for another internship.

So anyway, I’d like to know where you guys stand on this. I just started doing some research this semester as an undergrad, so I really don’t know if I like it or not yet. I honestly thought work was a lot more interesting than school, and the money of course was great too. On the whole, I think I’d prefer to take another internship if everything else was equal. But frankly, I don’t know very much about the whole process of grad school. I don’t know if spending a summer on research gives you a leg up that I’m unaware of, or if pursuing another job really isn’t worthwhile right now.

Any input would be appreciated.

It’s not a leg up on grad school that should concern you. By this summer that is irrelevant. It’s the ability to get into the lab and start gearing up for your thesis project that would be the real benefit of doing research over the summer. This isn’t undergraduate research, where it’s sometimes just another thing to add to the resume. This is what actually leads to the degree.

That’s an interesting question that I don’t personally have an answer for. What I can tell you is that my son is in a very similar boat and we’ve had the same discussion. He’s in a 4+1 program and a little ahead. He’ll be starting his MS during his senior year and will have thesis work under his belt before that summer.

I posed the question. His thought was that since his ultimate plan is to join the work force and not get a PhD, he’d do an internship. This was largely aided though by the fact that he’s ahead and even if he spends a summer away, he will finish in less than 5 years.

As you know, no matter how talented you are and how polished your resume is, landing an internship is not easy. Why not apply (now’s the season) and base your decision on whether you land one that excites you?

Is that really how Cal Poly runs their MS program: with a finite length project that you can realistically finish a year before you finish classes?

No. They run a classic 4+1. When the student is nearly done (typically one term left), they change their degree objective from BS to co-terminal BS/MS. They are able to dual count a few hours (in CP’s case, 8) to both degrees and are awarded both degrees when both are complete.

He brought in enough credit through dual enrollment and AP that he only has 15 quarter hours left his 4th year. The senior project is sequential though, so he has to be there 4 full years. As a result, he has capacity to take 30ish hours more, all of which will be graduate level classes. It’s simply a function of being ahead. His situation, at least at Cal Poly, is rare.

Still, that sounds like they give projects with definite ending times. At a typical research university, the thesis work is essentially a small slice of a given professor’s research program and is somewhat open-ended. The student essentially takes over all or part of the project and works on it until he or she finishes their classes or finishes “enough for a MS thesis”, whichever comes last. Most of the time with a MS, they end up finishing classes and research around the same time and just have to write the thesis.

Most schools list MS as 2 years, which implies finite timing. They all list the number of hours they are, whether they are course based or thesis based, and how many various types of classes need to be taken.

I don’t think Arizona has a 4+1, but ASU does, and advertises a single extra year to complete it.

Cal Poly is a bit of a different beast research wise too. They don’t offer doctoral degrees. The research they do isn’t typical of the bigger cutting edge research institutions. It is student driven. It can be a one off project or part of a bigger, ongoing project. Even large programs like Westphal’s boundary layer project are just a bunch of Senior Projects and MS theses. By his admission, he guides the project, but it’s completely student driven, much like a Cal Poly club might be.

I doubt many of their theses are basic science in nature, but rather more practical. I’m not positive though, because I know they launch CubeSats with basic research missions. Not sure.

https://engineering.calpoly.edu/news/milestone-westphals-boundary-layer-data-system-project/

http://mustangnews.net/boeing-uses-cal-poly-aerospace-sensory-project-flight-tests/

@boneh3ad Some schools, UCLA included offer both the comprehensive exam/project and thesis based MS degrees. The comprehensive exam version is terminal at my school and is also the one the 4+1 program offers. If you want to get a PhD you have to do the thesis plan and can’t start it as a 4+1 in undergrad. The terminal degree since it’s just coursework should really be renamed MEng since it’s not research based.

This varies from school to school. The ability to choose either a thesis option or a course only option is pretty common.

This discussion is very helpful. I have a son who is in 3rd year of chemical engineering. He is trying to decide what to do next in terms of grad school or a job (grad school seems like the more likely option at this point).

Read @boneh3ad’s pinned grad school post at the top of the forum too.