Applied for grad program, offered job?

[Boril]

Hey all,

 

I applied to a masters program outside of my undergraduate major, and was offered a full time job (guaranteed for at least one year) in a different but related deparment.

 

Basically what happened is my POI at this university thought my undergrad and professional background might be a good fit for the work one of her collaborators needed to have done, so she recommended me to him. If I took the job I would be eligible to take a course or two per semester at no cost as a non-matriculated student with the intention of rolling into a matriculated RA position in my desired department when funds became available.  The work I'd be doing is indirectly related to what I want to study.

 

Since I haven't received an official acceptance or academic financial offer to the graduate department yet, this is all still hypothetical, but suppose I was admitted to the academic program with a TA.  I would be left with the following choices:

1. Work full time as a pseudo RA + benefits + mediocre pay (much higher than TA, much lower than industry with my experience) + 1 course per semester non-matriculated + working closely with faculty, indirect networking with other students
2. Work half time + TA pay + much faster track to degree + more direct interaction with faculty and students

If you had to choose between these two options, which would you pick?  What factors would sway your decision?

[stephchristine0]

2.... No brainer. 

[pombe]

If you were to pick option 1, can the courses you take be transfered towards your master degree (assuming you would enroll at same university)? Getting course requirements out of the way during a working year would leave you just the research component to finish after. Plus, can this research help you with your research of interest for the degree (fullfill publication requirement? allow you to learn more about the subject?)?

 

As easy as it is to just jump to option 2 and "get that degree".. I wouldn't rule out 1 without doing some further research into what you can really gain from it other than more money and better benefits.

[Boril]

Yes, the credits would count towards the degree once I was matriculated.  The work is with one of the major collaborators of my POI, so some portion of it would help with the research for my thesis.  There probably won't be any opportunity to publish my work initially.  After crunching the numbers, the difference in time to completion could be just 1 semester which in the grand scheme of things isn't much.

[juilletmercredi]

It would depend a lot on the program and the field.

 

In my primary field (public health), if I were offered, say, a full time project coordinator position with the opportunity to take 1-2 classes a semester and possibly finish in 3-4 years, I would do that.  The kind of work that I would do in a PC position here would be amenable to graduate admissions and I would be working closely with the faculty, which is important for admittance to a PhD program.  TA pay sucks and if I were happy in the working role, that would be desirable.  A lot of project coordinators here earn their MPHs that way.  Actually, in my secondary field I would probably take the job, too.  However, in my secondary field an MA is not required for admission to PhD programs, and many many PhD students start out as a "pseudo-RA" (lab manager/research coordinator) and do that for 2-3 years before applying to PhD programs.  They take a few graduate-level classes, maybe earn an MA.

 

And if the difference in time-to-degree was only 1 semester?  Oh, heck yeah, I'd take the job.  TA pay sucks.  I don't see why you couldn't do direct networking with the students.  I see the project coordinators who work in my lab far more often than I see the other graduate students in my department, and I work with them more often, and I am co-authoring papers with two of them currently.

[RosamundReage]

I would work full time as the RA, you will buid better connections with faculty and get to do the research you want to do, which is presumably the reason you are in grad school. You will also be in a better finacial situation by taking the option. TAing is generally pretty terrible and you can always do it later on in a PHD program.