3 ms·
I'm speaking only from indirect experience here, but if one is in a staff position in a good research institution, has the aptitude for a PhD and stays in with
by leoc 12y ago
I'm speaking only from indirect experience here, but if one is in a staff position in a good research institution, has the aptitude for a PhD and stays in with the bosses, I think it should be possible over time to pick up a doctorate on the side while keeping the job. Maybe it's harder if the job is at a free-standing lab rather than a degree-granting institution, but I assume that's not an insurmountable problem. The upside is probably lower than going Hollywood-or-bust with a full-time PhD while young, but at least it means that a PhD requirement won't be a hard ceiling for future promotions and so on.
- mbreese 12y agoIt really depends on the institution. You may be able to get into grad school at the same institution, even working in the same lab, but you wouldn't be able to keep the job and get a degree at the same time. I'm sure that in theory it's possible to do part-time PhD work, but I've never seen it. I've seen people work for a Pharma company and get a masters at the same time, but not a PhD. On the other hand, I've known good staff researchers who've been told that while they'd be perfectly capable of getting a PhD, they wouldn't be able to get into the grad school where they worked. Unless there was some kind of already established program, I couldn't seen how you'd be able to effectively do it part-time. Maybe you could get a Masters part-time, and then move to a PhD program, but it would take longer.
- leoc 12y ago> I'm sure that in theory it's possible to do part-time PhD work, but I've never seen it. I've seen it done, though at a university, and in CS rather than physics. (And in the UK.)