Waiting a year after MA before PhD or jump right in?

[Beals]

Hello everyone,

 

I attempted to search this topic but couldn't find any existing threads.

 

What is the general consensus regarding the road from MA to PhD?  Do most people take a break in between, get some research experience, reflect on what they want to focus on?  Or do people generally jump from one to the other?

 

I understand it probably varies by person and field of study.  As for personal background, I am finishing up my undergrad in sociology at present.  I will be starting an interdisciplinary one year MA program in September (social sciences and humanities).  

 

I can think of several pros to waiting a year.  If I were to apply to start a PhD program in Sept 2014 I would only be 1/3 of the way through my MA at the time of application.  This could lead to difficulty getting accepted.  Also, I'm not sure I'll be able to confidently narrow down what I want to study by the time of application!  I imagine that it's only after I've begun serious work on my major research paper that I'll have a better idea of what I want to focus on in my PhD.

 

Conversely, I'm a bit of a go getter and I think that waiting a year might be difficult for me.  Not that a year off would be a waste, but it would be a year where I wouldn't be pursuing my goals.  

 

Anyhow, if anyone could please weigh in on 1) what do most people do!? and 2) what, in your opinion  should I do!?

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who shares their insight!

[zabius]

My sense is that there isn't one thing that most people do. Many people jump straight in after the master's (or skip the master's entirely and jump straight in from undergrad), but many other people also take some time off between degrees. It could be one year, two years, or more. Some people are reapplying to graduate school after being out of school for over a decade. It really depends on your own circumstances... there is no one path that is overwhelming more common than the others. I know plenty of people who jumped straight in and plenty of others who waited. As for me, I waited a year between my MS (graduated last year) and my PhD (which I will start this fall). I didn't do it by choice, however. I had applied to a PhD program for the Fall 2012 season, but was rejected because of an unsupportive LOR.

 

Personally, I wouldn't have taken the year off if I had more control over the situation. I have had an incredibly hard time finding a temporary job in an area even remotely related to my field. Many of the jobs that I have applied to are traditionally positions intended for people like me who only have MS degrees, but since there are so many jobless PhDs on the market now who are willing to work for much less money than they should, I constantly found myself out-competed. Also, no one wants to hire someone who is just going to leave for a PhD position within the year. I suppose that one could always just lie or not mention the PhD plans to my prospective employer, but I didn't want to lie to people in my field... there's a good chance that I'd see them and possibly even need to work with them in the future, so why risk burning bridges by being secretive and untruthful?

 

Anyway, now I'm kind of stuck in this weird state where I've essentially put my life on hold. It's like I've lived these past few months just waiting for the next stage of my life to start, and it's terrible... but there's not much I can do because this is a transitional stage in my life, which means that I can't make any commitments to anything that would last beyond the next several months. I don't like it. Many of the other people I know who took time off between degrees did so voluntarily because they had sweet jobs or other experiences (volunteering, trips overseas, etc.) lined up that would be valuable to them when they applied to programs in the future. In that case, I think that taking a year off is a great idea. But that wasn't my situation; my hand was kind of forced by that one lousy letter writer.

 

This is just my experience, though. I've known what I want to study for a while now, and always knew that I wanted to get a PhD. In retrospect, the entire master's program was probably a waste of time... I probably should have jumped right into a PhD. I had years of research experience from my undergrad, so I didn't really even need the MS or any time off to build up my CV. Your situation sounds different. If you're not sure what you want to work on for your PhD, then you should take all the time you need to figure that out. A doctoral program isn't something that you should jump into without a reasonably solid idea of what you want to study and what you want to do when you graduate. Doctoral research is an unforgiving mistress, and if you aren't working on a project that you're genuinely passionate about, things will get overwhelmingly stressful and miserable fast. Taking time off to think about this carefully could be good for you.

 

So, my advice is to take a year off if you don't know what you want to study by the time that the application deadlines roll around. Just make sure that you have a temporary job lined up for your "off year," or at least some way to support yourself financially. And don't worry about what most other people do... there are so many different paths to a PhD, and everyone you talk to will have a different story.

Edited April 9, 2013 by zabius

[Beals]

Zabius,

 

Thanks a lot for taking the time to give me such a thorough, insightful reply.

 

I already know what I'm going to write my masters thesis on (roughly), but there are SO MANY subfields I'm interested in that relate to the larger topic I don't know if I'll be able to narrow it down before I've started working on my MA thesis.

 

I suppose only time will tell... I had wanted to start getting in touch with potential supervisors as early as possible, but I think I'll have to take it one step at a time and focus on my MA first.

 

The "putting life on hold" state you've found yourself in is exactly the reason I don't want to take a year off... btu then again, I suppose if I've planned the gap year, getting work experience isn't a bad thing!
 

 

Again, thanks for the advice!

[Thathathe]

After my undergrad course, I went straight to MA while teaching in the university at the same time. After I earned my MA diploma, I immediately jump in to PhD. Strike while the iron is hot, or else I might lose interest if I become too involved with my job.

[brandnewtothis]

I had applied to a PhD program for the Fall 2012 season, but was rejected because of an unsupportive LOR.

 

Wow.  I'm so sorry to hear that.  Why would someone even agree to write you a LOR if they're going to be unsupportive?

 

How did you find out?

[zabius]

Wow.  I'm so sorry to hear that.  Why would someone even agree to write you a LOR if they're going to be unsupportive?

 

How did you find out?

 

The letter was actually from my master's advisor! It's really strange because he never expressed any dissatisfaction with my research. Granted, he was very hands-off (he had many off-campus responsibilities, so he rarely had time to meet with me), but when we did interact he always came off as friendly and supportive. When I asked him for the letter, he didn't hesitate to say "yes." So, I have no idea why he would write me a lousy letter, but I wish he had just turned me down when I asked for it. My research had hit a rough spot when I had asked (some of my study organisms had died off due to a microscopic parasite), but that was something that no one could have foreseen or prevented... perhaps he blamed me for that anyway and wrote me a crappy letter because of it?

 

I found out because, after graduating from the MS program, I went back home to NY and looked for jobs to keep me busy during my "off year." One of the places that I interviewed at for a job was the institution that I had previously applied to for a PhD. I didn't know this when I applied for the job, but the interview was actually conducted by my former POI there. At the end of the interview, he apologized for how the PhD application process turned out and let it slip that it was an unsupportive letter that did me in; he pushed for my application to go through anyway because his lab was such a good fit for me, but the adcom just wouldn't consider it because there were so many other applicants with three glowing reviews. I figured out that it was my MS advisor because numerous people had told me that my other two letter writers had spoken very highly of me. To this day, I don't know what the letter said or why he wrote it that way; needless to say that I was very surprised when I found out the truth. He continues to be friendly to me when we interact, though lately he's been ignoring my emails. Sometimes academics can be strangely passive aggressive. I kind of want to confront him about it, but I know that it's probably better to just forget about it and not ask him for any LORs in the future. Also, I'm pretty sure that I'm technically not supposed to have found out that his letter was lousy.

Edited April 12, 2013 by zabius

[PolyWonk]

I know it's been a week or so since this topic, but I figure I'd put my 2 cents in. I differ from the others, because I encourage you to wait.

 

So, my situation is/was almost identical to yours. I went straight from undergrad into a 1 year MA program. I really wanted to apply for PhD programs in that year, but my MA program flat out stated to every student in that they would not support any application for PhD programs until after we had graduated. (One person went ahead and did it with recommendations from his undergrad. He got in, and he's now doing his PhD somewhere in the world.) They also made it clear that they would support us fully once we had graduated. 

 

After doing a 1 year MA program, I see why they said they would not help us. First, a 1 year MA is intense. If you plan on being successful in both school and applications I would suggest waiting. You should focus your energy on making connections with faculty and advisers, other students and (sorry to be cheesy) yourself. Develop your research interests. Ask faculty to put you in contact with people within the university and at other schools who share your research interests. I was able to do all of this, and most of it was an unintentional benefit of being "all in" with regards to my program. 1 year isn't that much time to do all this. Take full advantage of the resources that your program and university will offer you in that short time. And enjoy it! Before you know it, the program will be over.

 

The first response here, Zabius, went through an unfortunate situation that many people deal with especially in a 1 year MA program. Dealing with advisers is a tough thing, and in a program that is only 1 year, it's even more difficult. You will be asked to find a person to support you before you feel like you even know any professors. Take Zabius' story to heart, and find someone who will (hopefully) give you more support. This is important, because this person will likely be one of your letter writers. Waiting will give them the time to get to know you as a student and a researcher, and (perhaps more importantly) give you the time to choose advisers/LOR writers wisely.

 

A word of advice... many people will go for the "flashy" names at the university. Big name, tenured, full professors who will be recognizable to phd admissions committees. Personally, I picked a fairly fresh PhD to be my adviser. This person had much more time for me, and was more familiar with what I was going through because they had just finished the process themself. I think these are the BEST advisers, generally speaking. My adviser works with the big names. They are an up and comer in the field. We shared research interests. Most importantly, they had time to get to know me, and were committed to helping my reach my MA goals and my future PhD goals. This was key. 

 

Now, I would say with an adviser such as mine, it was important to get a big name on my side as well. So I found a "flashy" faculty member with a recognizable name as a secondary adviser. Someone well known in the field, with similar research interests. This person didn't have as much time for me, but we had a working relationship to the point were I felt comfortable asking for a letter from them later. These two professors (and one from undergrad) wrote my letters for me.

 

This is the kind of thing that you cannot ascertain within the first few weeks at your program. And between the restrictions of your program length and the speed and intensity of the PhD application process, you would only have that few weeks to find people to write you letters. And I believe that letters from your MA program are crucial to your application. For this reason alone, I would say wait. 

 

Also, the best writing sample you can submit for your PhD applications is your MA thesis (or other capstone MA project). And that won't be done until after most applications are due. This shows your ability to follow through with research, think critically, apply methods skills and, basically, be a successful student. It's one of the few parts of the application process that is in your control. Personally, I think it's best to finish this before applying.

 

Now to the year off. At first I thought that I would find a full time job in this year off. But like other posters have mentioned, it's hard to get a job when they know that you will only stay for a year. I ended up moving home to save money. I spent this year doing part time work for an NGO in a field that I am interested in. Doesn't pay well, but it was great on my application! I also used this time to live out my dream to travel around the world. With the money I've saved living at home (and some of my savings, to my parents' dismay), I was able to travel a lot. 

 

And most importantly, I had the advantage of committing completely to my PhD applications. I basically took the month of November off to specifically to work on my PhD applications. I applied to MA programs during my senior year of undergrad, and honestly, it wasn't that hard. PhD applications are a another whole ballgame, and I would advise you to not try to do this when completing a 1 year MA. 

 

This is just my opinion, but I hope this helps! Whatever you choose will work out fine... honestly, you're ahead of the game simply for seeking out advice.

 

Good luck!

Edited April 21, 2013 by PolyWonk

[TeaGirl]

I too advise waiting, although perhaps without a temporary job lined up it may not be easy. It's just that for a one year program starting this fall, you'll be applying for a PhD *this* fall. You won't have had time to get any work done and for some of the earlier deadlines, no grades, barely got to know some professor, and did close to no research.

 

I did an MS which was 2 years right after undergrad. I waited because I didn't really know what I wanted to study and I wasn't sure if I wanted a PhD. I'm glad I waited, I feel so much more mature and ready now of what I want to do than I would've been had I dived right in. Plus I worked in the mean time and saved some money which is always a good thing.

Edited April 22, 2013 by TeaGirl