anontank

What do you want to do? Which one will let you do what you want?

Thanks for the replies! I'm not sure if I have it in me to go for a PhD. I feel like I'll never have these years of my life back and they will end up being the best. Spending them studying vs. living and enjoying other productive activities is a very tough choice. My reasoning for continuing my education is basically to force myself to find things I don't know yet. Learning anything on my own is not an issue. It's finding out about the new things in order to learn them where school has helped me. A more advanced degree will surely help with pay but I do still have my entrepreneurial urges. Doing some research for the degree may lead me closer to this goal as well though. I guess it's all about making the biggest and broadest positive impact for me.

I'm in a bit of a dilemma... I was accepted last fall to get an MSME at a mediocre school and deferred a year so I could work and pay off some bills. I like my job although it's not exactly my passion, the place is great and has been good to me. They also have a policy of paying for education which is nice. I have a couple options... I could: A. Work full time. Get a masters at a slow rate locally. Work said they could probably give me a project to use toward the MS. With this option I could probably buy a house and work on some other of my passions like recording and perfoming music and various mechanical projects. B. Work part time while taking school on roughly full time but with no assistantship. Work would likely pay for schooling costs. I'd probably earn more than graduate stipends pay. C. Move away to go to school full time with assistantship and scholarship. Basically I wouldn't have time to form a band and would be living pretty meagerly but I feel I'd learn more and possibly open the door for some interesting opportunities in a field I'm more interested in. I could always form a band when it's all over in 1.5-2 years. However, this would mean throwing away a good job and starting over again (sort of) after graduation. Right now I'm leaning toward option C but option A is tempting due to my lack of patience. I'm not sure if I'd want to go all the way for a PhD but I would like to start my own company (or something like that) some day. Both schools in question are of about the same level of prestige except school C has slightly more advanced facilites. Anyone have any insight? Similar dilemmas?