I'm currently in my 4th year of a 5 year undergraduate masters degree at the University of Strathclyde. The course is an MEng in Computer & Electronic Systems After this year I have 3 options (I plan on getting at least a masters) Continue onto my 5th year and get a masters Graduate with a BEng honours and go straight to a PhD program at Strathclyde or elsewhere Graduate with a BEng honours and apply to a masters program elsewhere I worked in a research institution in Switzerland over summer and I really enjoyed being abroad so if I do apply for another graduate program I'd like to apply to some abroad. Specifically Zürich ETH and some in the US. At the moment, with application deadlines around mid december for most places, I need to decide if I want to go for a PhD or a masters. I'm interested in what people here think. Pros and cons etc.
107 views and no one wants to comment =/ I'm not asking for an essay or anything. I'd especially like to hear from someone who has either got or is working on a PhD. What were the reasons that helped you decide?
sorry dude cant help much dont have a masters or PhD. got a Hons degree though lol. a lot of my friends went on to do masters at both the same uni or at another uni in the uk. i had several PhD friends and they came from other unis around the country too. Id say it depends on if your good at your degree to jump straight to a PhD if you grab a 1st class honors then could be an option but if your looking at a 2:1 or 2:2 id say do a masters first to ease you in to that next level.
I started a PhD after finishing my MEng Computer Science at UCL. I carried on with something related to my final year project, with the same supervisor. My personal experience, was, well, not happy. I left after a year, mainly due to complete and utter depression brought on by being completely isolated with my research for that duration. My research had stalled due to technical issues and it was just utterly frustrating. It's not even close to being like a student experience - it's entirely different, and requires a lot of discipline and effort to remain interesting. I'll be honest - I wasn't up to the challenge. It was made doubly difficult for me because I'd had a job for a year and really missed having teamwork. Unless you can do something like an EngD with a company who has a real business goal behind the research, working within a team to accomplish goals, I would strongly recommend against traditional PhD research if you don't really know exactly what, how and why you want to research your topic, and know exactly to the smallest detail what you're getting yourself into. It was a big decision to raise a white flag and give up after a year - i basically had written off 12 months of my life and this isn't an easy thing for someone used to succeeding to accept - but I found another job and am much happier now. So yeah. I'd just say find a company you can grow within.
Get a Masters. The decide. It's only 1 extra year and it's differentiating qualification above BEng that will set you apart. Doing a PhD is only useful if you intend to continue doing research - either in academia and industry. A PhD can actually leave you overqualified for 'normal'/jobs in other industries if you choose to change - employers ask why you bothered going that far if you weren't interested in doing it as a life's work. Find a company sponsoring the PhD and then do it, so at least you get paid. And only do it if you're interested in taking jobs that require it. Rich. /MChem, then 1 year PhD before I realised wtf I was doing
Bindi: The one thing i have to say about that is that PhD study is so far removed from masters study that it might as well be a different career entirely. I really enjoyed my final 'masters' year (yeah i know i did an MEng and it was all technically undergrad, but the final year was basically a masters) because of all the group projects and teamwork and general student-ness. That all disappears in a PhD.
I have to say I'm leaning towards doing the MEng. Fod, what do you mean when you say all the "general studentness disappears"?
Well, it goes from being a social, group-learning experience to a solitary slog through soloville. You are going to be doing stuff that nobody can guide you on - your supervisor can give advice on approaches to take and methods to apply, but at the end of the day it's your PhD and at some point you're going to need to overtake them in knowledge on your topic. It's original research on your own head, not a taught course. While I knew that from the start, I didn't fully appreciate the full ramifications until it hit home at 4am one night trawling through papers looking for some obscure reference on something.
For what it's worth, I know a LOT of people who have walked away from their PhD prior to completion, some of whom were really really close.
Hello fellow Strathclyde student! I'm in third year of my Politics/History course next year, and will be taking honours in politics next year. Good thread, keep the advice coming.
Well as I said I'm leaning towards doing a Masters. Cheers for the advice though guys Any thoughts on where I should do it? UK, US, Switzerland? One of the major issues about the US would be funding. I've seen that a couple of the big schools in the US are 'need blind' but it's pretty much only the Ivy league schools so it'd be ridiculously hard to get in =/ And hey there
I would also suggest being wary of any post-BS degree in Engineering. I am a Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering student and from talking to a couple of companies and recruiters they say that while they are more willing to hire a person with a Masters degree they will only if their graduate study specialty is in a field that they need. Otherwise they will hire a person with a BS or BE degree because they can train them and pay them less rather than having to train the person with a MS and pay them a higher rate.
This is true entirely, and partly why I dropped the PhD. The subject was so far removed from my MChem that I was well out of my depth and after I realised "this is my career, get used to it and the people" I GotTFO! Having said that, my friend has a PhD in electrical engineering and he still hasn't got a really good job out of it...
I'll toss in a third option: Instead of a PhD, what about multiple Masters degrees? One of my coworkers is working on his third Masters in Electrical Engineering. Each time he goes back he chooses a different area of emphasis, and each time he is able to apply what he's learned to his career.
I'd ask myself why do I want/need a PhD and take it from there. My field is Chemistry an all I could think about after Uni was PhD's. I went to a Science at the Scottish Parliament event hoping to network and find work. I was talking to more than a few people with chemistry PhD's and they were in banking and finance. I sort of questioned why did they bother with three years of that just to work in a bank? So if you need the PhD, apply for it and go for it. Otherwise I'd just complete the Masters. The Masters option as part of your degree was introduced shortly after I graduated. Now I've completed my PGDE (at Strathclyde) I'm thinking of a Masters now, probably by distance learning. Good luck whatever you choose to do.
Get the Masters first at your institution, feel out the job market, and then decide whether or not you want to commit many more years of your life to PhD studies. You'll still be continuing your education, but you'll have the option of ending your studies in a year or so if you decide you don't need the PhD or can't commit the time to do it. You can work and work on the PhD at the same time, but you might burn out and be miserable. Make sure you find a place you like and that will support your PhD if you decide to go for it, but make sure you can commit to the entire process. If the institution is going to be paying for your PhD, they REALLY won't like it if you decide you want to drop out of the program after they've put money into you. I'm sure that last bit is all stuff you've heard before. Also, keep in mind that if you get a PhD right away, you'll be competing with a whole new class of people for jobs in which everyone has a PhD, and the market will still be competitive.
get the masters and only do the phd if you have funding, an interest in the field and a location you'd like - have you thought of geneva?
Perhaps that's a risk if you never venture outside the world of academia. However, in the case of my coworker, he has earned his Masters degrees all while maintaining his full time career. In fact, in each case the pursuit has enhanced his knowledge and abilities related to his job.
