Masters before PhD

[grizg]

If you get a Masters at one university, do you have to repeat the first two years of classes if you start a PhD program at a different university?

[someDay]

Although this depends on the university, my experience is that most schools still require you to take the usual number of taught courses, regardless of whether you have a master's degree or not.

sD.

[rooster34]

It really does depend on the university and, to a lesser extent, on the person. I've had several friends go on to earn a PhD in mathematics after earning a master's degree in mathematics. One of them went to Notre Dame; he passed both qualifiers before he started his 1st year and was out in 4 years with minimal replication of courses. Others have taken the courses over just to make sure they were prepared for the qualifiers. In short, it seems as if it is almost inevitable that you will end up repeating some courses. My advice is to check with the department at the universities your are considering. You should ask for the list upon which the qualifiers are based and see how your courses measure up.