I just wanted to make a posting of some information I came across. My wife is a student at the local University of California. She is working hard at her biology degree (straight A's) and is now doing her own research in the Stem Cell lab there. She's hoping to go to med school. I have read from other posts on this site that some colleges and some schools within universities don't require you to have a masters degree to get into a Ph'D program. I also thought these opportunities were few and far between or in other countries. I was wrong. At least in the UC system there are many PhD candidates without masters degrees. This is important too because masters candidates pay tuition to get their masters, while many PhD's get a stipend and nearly all their education costs paid for. Now, not every school within a university will permit this, but some do. And those that do are often the sciences. One engineering program I know of is just dying to enroll PhD's and they will consider you even without a B.S. in engineering. Although they do state you must have solid prerequisites and a solid understanding of math, physics and chemistry. So the point of all this is that in these hard times, if you ever wanted to work in research and nothing else is working for you right now, this may be your opportunity. Especially if you can get paid to get your PhD, and earn an income. So don't do as I did and rule out PhD programs just because you don't have a Masters degree and check with your local universities to see what programs they have.
This is one of the worst reasons to start a PhD program and is an easy path to a life of stress and misery. PhD students who do this really don't have any focus on what they are trying to accomplish and end up taking a lot longer than they originally planned. Some realize half-way through that this isn't really what they wanted to do. The stipend that they thought was so great is usually not enough to live on. Many end up taking out financial aid. It is very possible to after 4 or 5 years to end up with a large student loan debt, missed opportunities along the way, no degree, and possibly burned any bridge to a different PhD program. Even worse, you'll actually earn that PhD, and you'll quickly find that the 2000 of you that graduated last year have all applied for the 10 faculty positions that are open around the entire US. Your option in academia is to adjunct for little pay and no benefits, or maybe become a post-doc, which pays just as much. Private employers will not want you because you are now "overqualified" and lack "real-world" experience. Start a PhD program because that is what you really want to do, not because you just need a job. Don't even think about applying somewhere until you have interviewed several faculty members as different schools, talked to former students, and have read at least 2 graduate school/PhD guide books. If you want any recommendations, I can give you at least half a dozen. Better yet, spend a few hours reading phinished.org. Understand what you are getting into and the job market after you graduate, inside and out, backwards and forwards. Of course, I'm mainly talking about traditional, full-time, on-campus programs. If you want to go part-time or online while you are doing something else, knock yourself out.
addison, I appreciate your sharing this information with us. It does sound like an interesting adventure and it sounds like your wife has found a pretty sweet gig. I agree that it would awesome to be a tenured professor who mostly does research on subjects that fascinate him/her and to subsequently make a solid income with tenure/security and good benefits. Unfortunately, I'm not alone in that opinion and, as edowave said, a great many others are attempting to break into the few positions that are available. So employment prospects are not that encouraging. I also agree with his statements about the motivation for pursuing a doctorate. It's so much work that you really need to love your subject matter or you will be an unhappy camper.
I would want to add one additional point (maybe one and a half). While there seems to be a growing number of people who choose distance learning right out of high school, most of us got into DL because the traditional routes through higher education are not really an option for us. A person with a job and a family can't simply quit their job and enroll in college. Most people on this board are working full-time and "attending" online classes at night and on weekends. It simply is not helpful to point out that PhD programs are now accepting applications. We couldn't attend such programs even if we wanted to (and most of us don't). By the way, those doctoral degree stipends aren't free. In return for these measely stipends (barely enough to live on) you get to be research assistants or teaching assistants for full-time faculty members. So not only do you have to do your own academic work, you have to do endless hours of data entry or correcting tests, etc. When you add up all the work hours you'll find that the stipend comes to less than minimum wage (or so I"ve been told).
My daughter and her husband both were accepted at Virginia Tech, in a doctoral program with just a Bachelor's Degree. Neither of them got enough funding to get all the way through without borrowing any money. VT had the option of earning your Master's on the way to the Doctorate, which they both took. Her husband stopped with the Master's but my daughter first earned her Master's and then went on and got the Ph.D. in computer science. She was immediately hired at MIT after graduation, so for her, this worked out very well.
Totally missed my point I completely agree with most of what you are saying. I wouldn't expect someone with a family and bills to go into this type of program. With that said, the reason I posted this information is because I know that there are many people here who are not 40 years old with responsibilities. If I had all these online resources available to me when I was younger I would have taken the opportunity to get my degree online for no other reason than to save money and not be burdened by a large school debt, then go on to graduate school. So my posting was directed to those who have always wanted to go into research, yet thought it was out of reach because they had no masters degree or they may have their own kids in college that could take this opportunity. As far as the PhD and teaching aspect, you should never get your PhD just because you want a teaching job. Because there are very few positions available. Those that have them are most likely tenured and aren't giving them up. Yet there are still a multitude of jobs in emerging technologies and sciences for PhD's to do work outside of a university. Most of these want you to have at least a masters degree. In these hard times companies are looking to get the best talent for the least amount of money. We all know that there are people with MBA's being hired for jobs you didn't need a degree for in the past. Just because there are so many people looking for very few positions. So those with a B.S. degree are loosing out to those with masters (all experience being equal). As companies have shed their bloated workforce, when they hire again they are going to look for two types of employees, the unskilled labor at the least cost (often hired through temp agencies these days) and the most skilled they can get at the cheapest price. As far as the cost, not every PhD program will pay your full way. Some more than others, and I explicitly mentioned to check and see what is available. Research is not easy and yes often you must do the research of your primary investigator or lead scientist. But, you also have the opportunity to develop your own research and create a name for yourself as in every other line of work. Many of the PhD candidates I know of are getting a stipend of about $2400 per month with some of the best medical insurance you can buy. Not too shabby for a potential 24 year old, or even a 30 year old in this economy. Some other stipends for biological sciences can be found here 2009-10 BEST GRADUATE STUDENT STIPENDS - Graduate Student Stipend Comparison - what PhD programs in biological sciences pay their graduate students.
I have looked a numerous (lost count at around 25) doctoral programs. The majority (well over 50%) did not require a masters. That said entrance was easier if you did have a research (read thesis) oriented masters, as that showed you knew something about research. Also I have not found a single DL doctorate that paid any stopend, heck I couldn't find one that provided coffee or even paper for notes. If you can find a DL doctorate (I include those that require f2f meetings periodically) that pay a stipend of any amount let me know.
That proves Kizmet's point -- the stipend comes from the military benefit, not from the school. -=Steve=-
In the sciences now, most for less means foreigners, aka Chinese and Indian. Engineering has been like that for a while. PhDed foreigners are a dime a dozen. Even in Spain that is the case. I work with all these countries. Foreigners getting PhD's overseas do not have the student loans like Americans. These people can be had for cheap. They don't have to pay student loans back and will take a lot less money. Largely, Americans are still following the education scam here.
While it is true that faculty positions are very competitive, it is not true that there are only a few such positions available. Currently, HigherEdJobs lists over 8,100 faculty positions and the Chronicle of Higher Ed lists about 2,000.
Not true if you are doing your degree online. If so, your school costs will be covered but you will not receive a stipend.
Later this fall, that will change. A partial stipend will be available. https://www.gibill2.va.gov/cgi-bin/vba.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1417&p_created=1292942163&p_sid=9VmkCytk&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD00NDUsNDQ1JnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj1_YW55fiZwX2N2PX5hbnl_JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTE*&p_li=&p_topview=1
I agree. It's great for our veterans. Although I am a VA Certifying official for a campus-based program, I recognize that many of our veterans need the flexibility of online programs. I wish that they would get the full housing allowance, but this is definitely an improvement!
