The BS is the new high school diploma, so for any kind of specialized work (especially science), a graduate degree is a must. However, PhD programs take such a huge investment of time and energy that they should only be entered if one has a clear idea of what they want to get out of it, whether it be a job in academia or leader of an industry project.
So, get a masters degree, right? They're one of the more rapidly growing degree programs, largely thanks to MBA and M. Ed degrees (and companies that sponsor the cost of higher education for employees). It also creates another pivot point to switch disciplines if you find that you don't entirely fit one, but would maybe feel more comfortable somewhere else. Many biological science doctoral programs require a masters beforehand, and credits can transfer should you choose to go on in academia.
The problem I find, however, or at least cannot shake from my personal headcanon is that it sort of feels like a consolation prize. This is a monumentally stupid perception considering the percentage of Americans with a graduate degree is ~11.77% compared to ~31% of Americans who have a bachelors or higher. . I know people with masters; I know people who have gotten MS degrees in the last several years. Within my department, though, there's about a handful of students who intentionally entered as a masters, and another few who got an MS after they had to scale back their initial PhD proposals. In other departments/disciplines, failure to pass qualifying exams means getting the consolation masters to indicate that grad work had been done, but not enough to be a candidate.
I'm a scientist (or at least, I'm nominally one- that debate is open to interpretation because I certianly don't attempt science daily), so let's consider those data points mentioned above.
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| Or maybe I am, if twitter documentation counts. |
It's again, incredibly dimwitted to view an MS as a consolation prize when one in five Americans don't go on to college after high school, and the graduate school matriculation rate is roughly around 460,000 people a year. If we narrow the lens on biology PhD programs (~16,000 a year), 70% go on to do a postdocs and of those, only 15% of postdocs will go on to a tenure-track academic job (ASCB 2014).
So why do I feel so down about it? A colleague mentioned Thesis Whisperer's Valley of Shit, and I've seen numerous other posts about grad student struggles and impostor syndrome. It weirds me out though, that these all often come from the perspective of PhD candidates- on the masters timeline, there's the added stress of trying to get done in two, or as is more often the case three years. I also have the personal problems of lack of focus and tying my success rate to my emotional well being, which are both again, hugely problematic areas. There needs to be a culture change- slowly, people are recognizing that tenure-track isn't a tenable position for every grad student. Perhaps the next step is recognizing that it's okay to not make the giant academic leap in one degree.
