Debating pursuing a PhD

[robot_hamster]

I'm debating whether or not I should pursue a PhD once I have finished my MS (next May if I stay on schedule). Would it be best to apply for the fall following my graduation or wait a year? I was hoping to find a relevant internship over the summer to gain some experience, but so far have come up empty handed. I am going to be working on my thesis this summer, so it sort of limits me since whatever I find really couldn't be full-time. Anyway, if I do wish to pursue a PhD for the fall following graduation, that would mean I would be applying this coming fall. Yikes! So here are my questions:

My GRE is kinda so-so. Would it be a good idea to retake it or will the GRE not matter if I have a masters?

I was told by several professors that I need to leave the state to pursue a PhD because it doesn't look "good" if you don't have a great deal of diversity. Is this true? I went to separate schools for my undergrad and masters, but they are in the same city. Part of the reason for this is because my husband is "finishing" his undergrad and he didn't want to move anywhere. He still won't be done by the time I am finished, but I have pretty much given up hope that he is ever going to graduate (translation: he has made being a student into a career). What would be your recommendation?

How do you go about deciding what degree to pursue? They say you need to have some diversity. So do you look for something that is in the same field, but different specialization/focus? Or do you go for a different, yet complimenting field? Hopefully that makes sense.

[juilletmercredi]

Did you take time between undergrad and your master's program?

It really depends on your field and your inclinations. Personally, while I do not regret coming to this PhD program I do regret not taking some time between undergrad and grad school to fulfill some dreams - world travel, teaching abroad, that sort of thing. I often advise people who are vacillating and who ask me to take some time "off" between undergrad and doctoral studies, or master's programs and doctoral programs if they didn't take any time before.

It's up to you. I can't really tell whether you are asking whether you should pursue one at all, or whether you should pursue one now. It just really depends on you, and your readiness to pursue graduate work, and what field you are in and able you will be to do the things you want to do after you graduate with your PhD. In one of my fields work experience is nothing but good. In another, it's viewed as extra 'space' between you and research and people may doubt your passion. So it's sometimes field-dependent.

The answer to the GRE question is also somewhat field-dependent, and also depends on what you mean by so-so. In one of my fields (psychology), a 1200 is the accepted standard for getting into a PhD program. So if an applicant had a score significantly lower than a 1200 - let's say lower than 1150 - even if they had a master's I would advise them to retake. And even an 1180 will keep you out of some programs that have a firm 1200 cut off, like my own - my DGS openly told me that they do not look at applicants that come with a GRE score of less than 1200. So I'd say browse the websites of programs in which you are interested and get a feel for what their average and/or expected GRE scores are. If there aren't any, find some schools that you may not be interested in but are similar to your program in caliber and see what *they* say. Another resource is asking the departmental secretary.

I find that professors have some weird ideas about academic diversity. I've heard the 'no studying at the same undergrad school before', but never 'don't study in the same state'...I think that's kind of ridiculous. Two universities in the same state may have completely different academic atmospheres - there are so many universities in New York City, for example, and I don't think they share too many similarities. My university is probably more similar to some in other states than it is to some unis here. However, I think that for a PhD program you should be pretty location-free. If you are serious about an academic career, you're going to need to be portable; even if you don't want academia, PhDs are best done when you can go to the uni that's the best fit for you research-wise, advisor-wise, and personality-wise. Assuming that your husband is in good standing, he can transfer to a uni in your new city.

How you choose a field depends on what YOU want to study. I've heard it said that you can answer the same questions from different fields, but what changes is the approach you use. That is to say, sociologists, anthropologists, and cultural psychologists do a lot of overlapping work but they take different metholodigcal and theoretical approaches to those subjects. I chose my degree because it's an interdisciplinary psychology and public health degree. I like to use social psychological research methods to answer my questions but I wanted to interrogate from a public health perspective, so I chose this degree. I think it's silly to expect academic diversity on the graduate level in people's degrees, because graduate work builds on previous work. A computer science major isn't going to suddenly go do a PhD in English literature without some serious prep work, you know? So much of doctoral work is predicated on prior knowledge that it'd be difficult to complete the degree without a background in the field, and I don't think there's anything wrong with going into the same specialization for your PhD as your MS if that's what you are interested in. After all, there's a reason you attended in the first place.

[robot_hamster]

Did you take time between undergrad and your master's program?

It really depends on your field and your inclinations. Personally, while I do not regret coming to this PhD program I do regret not taking some time between undergrad and grad school to fulfill some dreams - world travel, teaching abroad, that sort of thing. I often advise people who are vacillating and who ask me to take some time "off" between undergrad and doctoral studies, or master's programs and doctoral programs if they didn't take any time before.

It's up to you. I can't really tell whether you are asking whether you should pursue one at all, or whether you should pursue one now. It just really depends on you, and your readiness to pursue graduate work, and what field you are in and able you will be to do the things you want to do after you graduate with your PhD. In one of my fields work experience is nothing but good. In another, it's viewed as extra 'space' between you and research and people may doubt your passion. So it's sometimes field-dependent.

The answer to the GRE question is also somewhat field-dependent, and also depends on what you mean by so-so. In one of my fields (psychology), a 1200 is the accepted standard for getting into a PhD program. So if an applicant had a score significantly lower than a 1200 - let's say lower than 1150 - even if they had a master's I would advise them to retake. And even an 1180 will keep you out of some programs that have a firm 1200 cut off, like my own - my DGS openly told me that they do not look at applicants that come with a GRE score of less than 1200. So I'd say browse the websites of programs in which you are interested and get a feel for what their average and/or expected GRE scores are. If there aren't any, find some schools that you may not be interested in but are similar to your program in caliber and see what *they* say. Another resource is asking the departmental secretary.

I find that professors have some weird ideas about academic diversity. I've heard the 'no studying at the same undergrad school before', but never 'don't study in the same state'...I think that's kind of ridiculous. Two universities in the same state may have completely different academic atmospheres - there are so many universities in New York City, for example, and I don't think they share too many similarities. My university is probably more similar to some in other states than it is to some unis here. However, I think that for a PhD program you should be pretty location-free. If you are serious about an academic career, you're going to need to be portable; even if you don't want academia, PhDs are best done when you can go to the uni that's the best fit for you research-wise, advisor-wise, and personality-wise. Assuming that your husband is in good standing, he can transfer to a uni in your new city.

How you choose a field depends on what YOU want to study. I've heard it said that you can answer the same questions from different fields, but what changes is the approach you use. That is to say, sociologists, anthropologists, and cultural psychologists do a lot of overlapping work but they take different metholodigcal and theoretical approaches to those subjects. I chose my degree because it's an interdisciplinary psychology and public health degree. I like to use social psychological research methods to answer my questions but I wanted to interrogate from a public health perspective, so I chose this degree. I think it's silly to expect academic diversity on the graduate level in people's degrees, because graduate work builds on previous work. A computer science major isn't going to suddenly go do a PhD in English literature without some serious prep work, you know? So much of doctoral work is predicated on prior knowledge that it'd be difficult to complete the degree without a background in the field, and I don't think there's anything wrong with going into the same specialization for your PhD as your MS if that's what you are interested in. After all, there's a reason you attended in the first place.

To answer your question, no I did not have a break between undergrad and grad school. The biggest reason for this was the fact that I started my undergrad late. I will be 30 this year and I am feeling extremely old at the moment. I'm not really asking whether or not I should pursue a PhD. I just want to know what I should be prepared for if my decision is such.

The reason I ask about the academic diversity thing is because so many people seem to place a lot of emphasis on it. I have seen many professors' credentials and a lot of the time they will have gone to different universities for different degrees. An example that I can think of right off the top of my head is a professor I knew that had a bachelors in biology, a masters in statistics, and a phd is sociology. This professor taught environmental sociology classes. This is what I meant by having degrees in different, but semi-related areas and all the pieces kind of go together. I realize that if you stray too far though that you may run into problems with not being familiar enough in certain areas and then you basically have to start from scratch each time. So I understand what you're saying.

As far as my husband goes, he needs to be okay with where we go. His major isn't something that is available everywhere.

[robot_hamster]

BTW, when I say so-so GRE scores I really mean below the supposed minimum requirements to be admitted to my current program. My verbal was 430, my quantitative was 570, and my analytical was 4. Posted minimum requirements are 500, 620, and 4 respectively. I blame a lot of it on the fact that I was preparing to leave the country at the time and did not have time to study. My undergrad school wasn't very, uh, informative when it came to what you needed to do in order to apply to grad school. I basically had no idea what I was doing and was completely unaware of deadlines. Since I was leaving the country before most application deadlines, I found myself on quite the time crunch. So would it be a good idea try retaking it? Or will having a masters degree be enough?

[far_to_go]

I would recommend re-taking the GRE, definitely. If you have limitations on where you're willing to go to school, then you'll need to do everything possible in order to make yourself a good candidate for getting into the program(s) you'll be applying to. We all know that GRE scores don't really mean a whole lot, but unfortunately a lot of departments do use them as cut-offs (there are a lot of good applicants out there, and they've got to whittle down the stack of applications somehow).

[robot_hamster]

Okay, so maybe I should study for it this summer then. At least I know now how the test goes and whatnot. Sometimes I choke when it comes to test taking. I do best when I study clear up to the final moments before taking the exam. You know, having stuff still fresh in my mind. Obviously that's not how it works when taking the GRE, but at least I have an idea now of what sorts of questions they have on there. The vocabulary thing is ridiculous though. I was seriously wondering if some of those words were even from the english language. And I have been told that I have a fairly large vocabulary. I don't think I necessarily do. But I do know a lot of terms that are used in life sciences, so sometimes those terms come out when I'm talking to people and then I just see these blank looks on their faces. Knowing that kind of stuff, doesn't really help you at all on the GRE though!

[far_to_go]

Yeah, the vocab can be killer. I'd recommend that you get a GRE vocab book or flashcard set (there are plenty on the market) and spend maybe 10-15 minutes a day reviewing from now til when you take the test. I think that, more than anything, can help bring up a verbal score.

[robot_hamster]

I've been told that the flash cards don't really help. Like there are tons of words on the flash cards but no one ever sees those words while actually taking the GRE. I will get some though if you think it is the best way to study. I do remember Kaplan relentlessly calling wanting me to take their GRE prep course. I can't remember how much it was, outrageously expensive I'm sure. They "guaranteed" that you would get a better score. But I'm guessing I can do better simply by giving myself enough time to study for it. Are the any other suggestions that anyone has? About the GRE or the other things I have been talking about? I just want to make sure I'm not overlooking something important.

[fuzzylogician]

I've been told that the flash cards don't really help. Like there are tons of words on the flash cards but no one ever sees those words while actually taking the GRE. I will get some though if you think it is the best way to study. I do remember Kaplan relentlessly calling wanting me to take their GRE prep course. I can't remember how much it was, outrageously expensive I'm sure. They "guaranteed" that you would get a better score. But I'm guessing I can do better simply by giving myself enough time to study for it. Are the any other suggestions that anyone has? About the GRE or the other things I have been talking about? I just want to make sure I'm not overlooking something important.

I studied for the GRE by myself and didn't think a course was necessary. It's really only necessary if you need an organized schedule or an outside motivation to make you study, but if you can diligently study on your alone then I don't think the course can teach you anything you can't study alone from books. For vocab, I learned the most by making my own flash cards, instead of buying ready-made ones. I used a vocab book and also added any word I encountered in practice tests or elsewhere if I wasn't sure what its meaning was. Like is usually the case with these things, I don't think I saw more than 3-4 of the these words on the actual test, but I still found it useful in general to study that way. It gave me a good indication of possible meanings of words I didn't know based on their roots. Roots are very important, by the way, they allow you to guess a word's general meaning even if you never encountered it before--which is perhaps even more useful than memorizing random words and hoping that they appear on the test.

[robot_hamster]

Okay, thanks! I will look into those vocabulary study guides then.