I'm thinking of applying for a PhD in political science (intended subfield of Comparative Politics), and looking up some of the profiles of current/recent grad students at my target schools (Duke and UCLA, among others), I discovered that some students also seemed, while pursuing their PhDs at a given school, to also have attained an MS in Statistics from the same school during that time. Recognizing the current trends in the academic market, I thought that concurrently getting an MS in Statistics might provide a useful opening for industry/data science positions as an alternate career path. Just out of curiosity, if anyone here has done something like that or is familiar with the process, I had a few questions:
1. Is the MS in Statistics in these cases usually free/subsidized for PhD students?
2. Is it generally possible to set up an arrangement with one's advisor to get a masters, if it's available? In other words, if it's possible to get a concurrent MS in Statistics, does one typically need to have a special background/extenuating circumstances (for example, that a masters in stats reflect their PhD subfield, etc.)?
Sorry to ask if there is some publicly available answer, but I couldn't find any information on funding/permission for this sort of situation. Still, I kept seeing that degree combination appear on multiple CV/LinkedIn searches, and it really piqued my curiosity.
Thanks!
