Going from Masters to PhD - Lend me your brains!

[serpentstone]

Hey, y'all. I'm about to begin a 2-year master's program in just a few short weeks. But time flies and this time next year I'll be fluttering around with all of you again for Fall '24 admits. I'm beginning my mental shop-around for PhD programs I might be interested in, but I was hoping there might be some among you who didn't hop straight from undergrad to a PhD and might have some personal insight into how you went from your Master's program to a PhD?

In particular, I was wondering about a few items:

• Did you retake the GRE? I studied hard and fast for MA admissions and, as you all know, the test sucks. Did you try to up your score for PhD admissions or did it not matter as much after gaining a grad degree?
• How early would you recommend building a relationship with POIs should start? I'm deeply first-gen and have never had to do this nor have I seen anyone else who has done this (frankly, it terrifies me!) 
• Statement of Purpose - how drastically did yours change between programs? Were they totally different or did you find that you ended up using many of the same items and tactics?
• Recommendations - did you use the same recommenders as before or were you able to forge good recommendations from a year or so of grad school?

Any personal experiences or advice you can give would be amazing - it has been so stupidly hard to do these processes without even one other person to ask for basic expectation advice. Love ya! 

(Oh, and on the odd chance somebody sees this many months after posting, please still add your reply! This forum usually goes pretty dead during the school year so even if you see this in The Future, I would still appreciate your thoughts!)

Edited August 23, 2022 by serpentstone

[Gitbashed]

1. Can’t speak to GRE’s as they have mostly gone out of fashion for my field.

2. I am also first gen. I’ve found that rather than reaching out directly, which can feel a bit gimmicky imo, unless you have a very specific question that’s relevant to your research - go to academic conferences, workshops, meet ups - anything you can. Meet people. You will inevitably run into people at schools that interest you. You will also probably discover cool programs you wouldn’t have thought to apply to.

3. My SOP changed drastically. My researched got more honed-in, and I had a better idea of my interests. I also gained a lot of experience in my field during grad school. Get as involved in your department as possible.

4. I am currently applying to PhD programs, and on the way out of a MA. I used none of the same recommendations. For my area of study, you write a thesis. It would be very odd to not have your thesis advisor write you a letter. I don’t see anything wrong with otherwise using other recommenders, but their experience with you will be pretty outdated by the time you’re halfway through your masters degree. Again, a lot of this will come down to you being very involved, making connections, etc.

hope this helps!