4 ms·

If someone just wants a visa, then it's much easier to get a quick and easy masters instead of doing a PhD with 5 years of research.

by xmprt 5y ago

mehrdada 5y ago
Maybe--very much depends on the source and destination country. Fact on the ground is lots of people have ended up choosing that as their path, optimal or not. You can master-out in the middle of a PhD program, which is frowned upon, but it is difficult to get funding if you directly apply for a masters degree. Perhaps the solution is to decrease the negative cultural backlash against predisposed intention of leaving with a masters despite applying for a PhD, which is currently seen as some sort of betrayal of the adviser if you are going to have your grad students do boring work. It'll be a win-win deal in that case.
- auxym 5y ago
  In Canada, research masters are a prereq for entering a PhD program.
  - simplestats 5y ago
    In the US I think it's entirely up to the school. Or at least the accreditation bodies in different fields and regions. When I was in school, one applied to "MS/PhD" programs most typically. And all imaginable variants existed in terms of funding and likelihood of leaving with only a MS. Some schools would fund no one till they finish the MS stage, and others would fund everyone from the beginning (just give every accepted student a full fellowship for the first couple years). And also some schools were pretty notorious for kicking people out at the end of the MS stage, with a difficult exam at this step or not enough advisors to take them on for the PhD. One positive side, though, is if you wash out of a PhD program at any later stage, you at least walked away with a Master's.
  - throwawayjd 5y ago
    I don't think so. It is funded and recommended, but direct doctorate is also possible, unlike many European schools.
simplestats 5y ago
Master's degrees cost about $30k per year for a couple years. Not available to the average person I'd say. And even so, judging by the proliferation of MS programs at unranked schools without research programs, many of which overwhelmingly serve international students, I'd rank the visa as the most important part of the price, followed by the credential, and lastly the education itself (given that cheating is so rampant).

If someone just wants a visa, then it's much easier to get a quick and easy masters instead of doing a PhD with 5 years of research.

by xmprt 5y ago

If someone just wants a visa, then it's much easier to get a quick and easy masters instead of doing a PhD with 5 years of research.

mehrdada 5y ago

Maybe--very much depends on the source and destination country. Fact on the ground is lots of people have ended up choosing that as their path, optimal or not. You can master-out in the middle of a PhD program, which is frowned upon, but it is difficult to get funding if you directly apply for a masters degree. Perhaps the solution is to decrease the negative cultural backlash against predisposed intention of leaving with a masters despite applying for a PhD, which is currently seen as some sort of betrayal of the adviser if you are going to have your grad students do boring work. It'll be a win-win deal in that case.

auxym 5y ago
In Canada, research masters are a prereq for entering a PhD program.
- simplestats 5y ago
  In the US I think it's entirely up to the school. Or at least the accreditation bodies in different fields and regions. When I was in school, one applied to "MS/PhD" programs most typically. And all imaginable variants existed in terms of funding and likelihood of leaving with only a MS. Some schools would fund no one till they finish the MS stage, and others would fund everyone from the beginning (just give every accepted student a full fellowship for the first couple years). And also some schools were pretty notorious for kicking people out at the end of the MS stage, with a difficult exam at this step or not enough advisors to take them on for the PhD. One positive side, though, is if you wash out of a PhD program at any later stage, you at least walked away with a Master's.
- throwawayjd 5y ago
  I don't think so. It is funded and recommended, but direct doctorate is also possible, unlike many European schools.

simplestats 5y ago

Master's degrees cost about $30k per year for a couple years. Not available to the average person I'd say. And even so, judging by the proliferation of MS programs at unranked schools without research programs, many of which overwhelmingly serve international students, I'd rank the visa as the most important part of the price, followed by the credential, and lastly the education itself (given that cheating is so rampant).