3 ms·
> Do most in the US start their PhD from a Bachelors degree? Yes, it's almost always in the student's interest to go direct, for two reasons: 1) Master's degr
by nwiswell 4y ago
> Do most in the US start their PhD from a Bachelors degree?
Yes, it's almost always in the student's interest to go direct, for two reasons:
1) Master's degrees are frequently unfunded. PhDs in STEM are fully funded basically as a rule.
2) You are going to be in school significantly longer if you complete a Master's degree at a different institution from your PhD.
In general the biggest reason a student might complete a Master's elsewhere is because their academic performance in undergrad was poor.
- was_a_dev 4y agoGreat points, thank you. I did an undergraduate Master's degree for similar reasons, which is four year vs three years for a Bachelors + 1 year for a seperate Master's degree. At the time of starting, it was a much easier funding route. The majority of my cohort chose this option
- cge 4y ago>1) Master's degrees are frequently unfunded. PhDs in STEM are fully funded basically as a rule. PhDs in the humanities and social sciences are also often, or usually, fully funded as well; my sense has always been that for pretty much any academic-career-path field in the US, not being funded for a PhD is essentially an indication that the university doesn't actually want you there. Meanwhile, I think many simply don't offer Master's programs at all. One aspect of this is that in the US, PhD students can make up a significant part of the teaching staff at the university, with class structures that are heavily built around having large lectures by a professor and PhD students who do quite a bit of the more one-on-one instruction. So departments with many general education requirement classes, like History, can actually end up having a significant amount of funding for PhD students.