I would recommend contacting 2-3 people that have your "ideal" job and asking their opinion.
Overall, my sense is that an MS is a very useful degree. Whether it is "more useful" depends on your career goals. The difference in MS vs PhD is not simply academia or not. You should get a PhD if you want to 1) teach at a 4-year institution and/or 2 ) be the Principle Investigator on research projects. In addition to universities, a number of government agencies, non-proftits, and consulting firms look specifically for PhDs to lead and conduct research. There are some notable exceptions to this but, in most cases, getting a job as a PI will be tougher without a PhD. Most importantly, the main point of many PhD programs is to train you to be a PI. Also, in many government institutions, the pay is often quite higher (A GS 12 starts at over 60,000 with the opportunity to double that amount in the future). So a PhD can be financially beneficial in SOME instances. The problem with a PhD is that for those 2-6 extra years in school you are not in the workforce learning non-research tasks, making contacts, etc. (Not to mention the potential financial opportunity costs). Depending on your career goals, you could learn more during the 2-6 years working than you could in grad school. Often the problem is not that a PhD leads to one being overqualified, but that many new PhD graduates often have a fairly narrow range of experience and skills. A trend I see (in my short career), is the awarding of more PhDs and fewer MS degrees. On top of this, many PhD students are not gunning for R1 schools. If this trend is the case, it will be interesting to see how this will (already has?) change the job market. On Apr 5, 2010, at 1:11 AM, David Gillett wrote: > I would concur with the other answers so far. For work vs. reward, I think > an MS is more useful than a further degree. As the others have noted, > outside of academia, the degree is less important than how good you are at > science (plus who you know). When someone would query him about getting a > Ph.D., a former advisor of mine would quip, "A Ph.D. is only good if you > want to teach college or be king". This is always the advice I give to > students debating on what to do with their lives, academically speaking. > > Good luck with everything. > -david > > ____________________________________________________________________________ > _ > David Gillett, Ph.D. > Ecologist > Southern California Coastal Water Resource Project > 3535 Harbour Blvd, Suite 110 > Costa Mesa, CA 92626 > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news > [mailto:ecolo...@listserv.umd.edu] On Behalf Of David M. Lawrence > Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2010 7:36 PM > To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU > Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] M.S. -- is it useful? > > An M.S. is useful -- more useful than a Ph.D., in fact -- for many types > of non-academic jobs, such as for consulting firms, government agencies, > and many non-governmental organizations. If you want to stay in > academia, though, you might have a problem. > > Dave > > On 4/4/2010 7:58 PM, Jason Hernandez wrote: >> I am nearly finished with my Master's degree in biology (anticipated date > May 2010). But, scanning the job postings from the several days I have been > subscribed to this listserv, I see two main categories: jobs for applicants > with Ph.D's, and jobs for current students. I am wondering, how often are > there actually openings for applicants who already have Master's degrees and > are not currently students? I am trying to figure out my strategy for life > after grad school, and this kind of information will help me to find the > best approach. >> >> Jason Hernandez >> East Carolina University >> >> >> >> > > -- > ------------------------------------------------------ > David M. Lawrence | Home: (804) 559-9786 > 7471 Brook Way Court | Fax: (804) 559-9787 > Mechanicsville, VA 23111 | Email: d...@fuzzo.com > USA | http: http://fuzzo.com > ------------------------------------------------------ > > "All drains lead to the ocean." -- Gill, Finding Nemo > > "We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo > > "No trespassing > 4/17 of a haiku" -- Richard Brautigan >
