Student vs. Candidate

[Adelaide9216]

Might be a silly question, but when you reach the Master's level, do you call yourself a "master student" or a "master candidate"? Is there a difference between both of these terms because I've came across both pretty often.

[fuzzylogician]

Well some schools have an official "candidacy" status, usually for a PhD, attained once you've reached a certain milestone (defended your proposal, ABD, or similar), so you can say you're a PhD candidate. Other schools don't have that, so you'll be a PhD student throughout. Can't say I've heard of a similar distinction for a Masters, but it might be out there. I honestly don't think it matters one bit what you call yourself. But if your school doesn't have an official distinction, I'd just say Masters student. 

[Camel90]

I heard that you become a master "candidate" once you have finished all the coursework.

[Eigen]

59 minutes ago, Brillantine11 said:

I heard that you become a master "candidate" once you have finished all the coursework.

This is not something that will be universal. Some schools advance masters students to candidacy, some don't. 

Any school that does will have explicit guidelines for it, and it will (usually) show the date you advanced to candidacy on your transcripts. 

Unless you are absolutely sure you are a candidate, don't claim it. The risks of looking like you're claiming a title that you haven't earned far outweighs the benefits of the title. 

We've had this discussion here before, and I've mentioned people who use the wrong signifiers in their email signatures (i.e., candidate as a first year doctoral student) and that it makes them look pretentious and like they don't know the system. 

[Adelaide9216]

I am so glad I asked the question! I wasn't sure. Thank you all for your input and insight!

[AIIMEduSys]

Hello

Both are same but most of the peoples called master student rather then candidate. And this term is well known.

Thanks

[ThousandsHardships]

At the school where I did my master's, becoming a candidate means that you're close to graduation and have paid the fee and filled out the paperwork to advance to candidacy. However, being a candidate doesn't really mean much except that you've done part of the paperwork toward graduation and that you're now qualified to go on filing fee status, meaning you can pay a reduced fee and not register for classes (also no research or teaching obligations) for your final term as you put the final touches on your thesis. For this reason, even master's candidates don't often refer to themselves as candidates, simply because doing so doesn't add much in terms of your qualifications.

For PhD students, though, candidacy means much more. It doesn't necessarily mean you're close to graduation. In fact, many PhD candidates are not even close to being done. However, it does mean that they've finished their course work and passed their qualifying exams, which represents a huge step in their research and scholarship. For them, candidacy means that they've gone through the rite of passage and become trusted scholars who can now navigate their research on their own, with minimal guidance. Often, PhD candidates call their status ABD, "all but dissertation." Some students who advance to candidacy but don't finish their degree actually put ABD on their resume as an accomplishment in and of itself. And I've even seen some programs that consider advancement to candidacy as equivalent to another master's degree and allow those students to emerge with a master's degree without a thesis or extra exam.

At my old school, I also heard that international PhD students have a financial benefit for advancing to candidacy. I'm not sure about the details though, as I did both my undergrad and master's within two hours of home.

Edited April 12, 2017 by ThousandsHardships

[TakeruK]

1 hour ago, ThousandsHardships said:

For PhD students, though, candidacy means much more. It doesn't necessarily mean you're close to graduation. In fact, many PhD candidates are not even close to being done. However, it does mean that they've finished their course work and passed their qualifying exams, which represents a huge step in their research and scholarship. For them, candidacy means that they've gone through the rite of passage and become trusted scholars who can now navigate their research on their own, with minimal guidance. Often, PhD candidates call their status ABD, "all but dissertation." Some students who advance to candidacy but don't finish their degree actually put ABD on their resume as an accomplishment in and of itself. And I've even seen some programs that consider advancement to candidacy as equivalent to another master's degree and allow those students to emerge with a master's degree without a thesis or extra exam.

At my old school, I also heard that international PhD students have a financial benefit for advancing to candidacy. I'm not sure about the details though, as I did both my undergrad and master's within two hours of home.

Just to add, for many programs, candidacy requires a separate exam that is separate from the qualifying exams. At least in my field, qualifying exams are considered the end of your "probation period". In my department, this happens after the end of your first year, after you have completed 2 research projects and the core classes (but not all of your classes---electives are still taken after quals). Passing quals signifies the end of your "trial period" as a grad student and some of the old fashioned professors will congratulate you on finishing quals by saying "Welcome to the department". So, in this sense, we treat the quals as a "rite of passage" and a transition between a "student" and a "colleague".

To earn candidacy, we need to finish all of the course requirements plus a few other university-level requirements. Our department does not have a candidacy exam, instead, you write a 1 page summary of your plan for the dissertation and then your advisor defends it to you at the next all-faculty meeting. You are not present for this part, it's all about your advisor defending you and your plan. The faculty will then vote on whether to advance you to candidacy. By university rules, all students must reach candidacy after 3 years---if not, they must file a petition for permission to extend this deadline. The idea of candidacy is that you are finished all coursework and while you still have much more research to do, you have a plan in place for those last 2-3 years. 

Candidacy is an important milestone because there are many internal and external applications that require you to reach candidacy. For example, some summer programs in my field (i.e. one or more weeks long, meant to develop a particular skill or provide a particular experience) will only take  you if you are a candidate. It also helps you get some end-of-grad-career fellowships or awards. 

I would say that for my department at least, passing quals is a rite of passage that counts you as a (junior) colleague amongst your faculty and the other grad students, while candidacy signals that you have a clear path towards completion. 

[Concordia]

At Cambridge, you are a Probationary Student when you arrive for your PhD.  Only when your dissertation proposal is blessed by the right committee do you become a Candidate.  They make no such distinction in their MPhils (or MSts, for that matter).

Edited April 12, 2017 by Concordia