Thesis vs No Thesis MS for future phd applicant

[bsharpe269]

Hi guys,

 

Any help with this decision? I cant decide if I should do the thesis or nonthesis MS option. I am half way through my MS and I will be applying to phd programs in the fall.

 

The only positive I see to doing the thesis is that phd programs might want to see it?

 

I feel like there are many more negatives. I am very involved with a lab and have been able to work on a couple different interesting projects. I will have the opportunity this summer to help reprogram a pretty big model used by my PI which will be great experience and help me learn alot more about the model in the process. I have already done one small presentation and am hoping to publish one of my projects by the fall. I feel like the non thesis MS option lets me learn about multiple areas and do multiple interesting projects (which will be published) and the thesis option would force me to drop all of the interesting research that I am doing which would result in less publications and presentations, to focus on a single topic.

 

What would you do?

[victorydance]

Did you do a honours thesis during your undergrad? Also, can you not do your thesis based on one of your ongoing projects?

[bsharpe269]

No I didnt do an honors thesis. I did do lots of research through including 1.5 years on a biomath project (conference paper and presentation from that), an REU at a top 25 school, 1 year of bioengineering lab work, and 5 years of bio lab tech work.

 

I can definitely do the thesis on one of the porjects I have been working on. I would probably just have to stop doing the additional projects, which I am learning a ton from, and focus in on a single project.

[ss2player]

I'd say go for the broad, publication approach. Your hopeful PhD thesis will supersede anything you do for your MS anyway, and so long as you're productive (via pubs or thesis), programs you apply to will be happy. Hell, I got in and I'm only 1/3 done my MS and obviously don't intend to finish. 

[juilletmercredi]

Seconding the vote for forgoing the MS thesis.  Publications trump a thesis anyway.  If you can prove that you can do research and write, then most programs will be interested in you.  (The process of writing a senior honors/master's thesis is only useful for one thing anyway, and that's as a dry run for writing a dissertation.)

[victorydance]

Seconding the vote for forgoing the MS thesis.  Publications trump a thesis anyway.  If you can prove that you can do research and write, then most programs will be interested in you.  (The process of writing a senior honors/master's thesis is only useful for one thing anyway, and that's as a dry run for writing a dissertation.)

 

Not sure I agree with the last statement. It can be useful for many things. For one, especially a honours thesis, it can provide additional research experience, a good recommendation, and a good writing sample. It also provides you the opportunity of developing your own research design, collecting your own data, and writing a paper of substantial depth/length, all valuable skills.

 

That being said, the OP has a lot of research experience, will probably have a good writing sample if they publish something, and probably has good recommendations. I think sometimes there is a bit of a 'red flag' when people apply to doctoral programs and haven't ever written a thesis. But if that person has a lot of research experience and perhaps a publication under their belt, I would imagine that wouldn't be a problem. 

 

If you feel like you are getting more skills and experience from forgoing your thesis component, then you should probably continue doing what you are doing. On the other hand, forgoing one of your projects to write your thesis isn't going to hurt you either (unless it is zero-sum and definitely costs you a publication). Writing a thesis can be an incredibly rewarding and fruitful endeavour. It was personally the highlight of my undergrad. 

[bsharpe269]

Hmm thanks everyone.... some great, different perspectives to consider. I definitely think that I will learn a ton by doing a thesis. At the same time I will give up learning some things that I could have from other projects. It seems like this is coming down to breadth vs depth.

 

If anyone else has opinions, Id love to hear them. I will be considering all of these things and discussing this with my advisor next week.

[biotechie]

I'm all for doing the thesis. It will demonstrate that you're not only good at research (your experience), but that you generate hypotheses and generated a thesis, so you're ready to step it up for your qualifying exam, grant writing, etc.

 

I'm not in computational bio, but others in my interdisciplinary program are. I came into my program from a thesis-based masters, and I was told at interviews that that makes them view my application more positively than a non-thesis masters. This may vary by program, though! Even if the program doesn't want to see it, having completed that experience helped me a ton. I'm ahead of other students (even compared to those who did non-thesis-based) as far as being able to propose hypotheses, determine how to approach them, and write/defend that I wouldn't have gotten from being in the lab alone. My 6 years of research experience plus my thesis experience have me set up well enough that I'm well into preparing for my qualifying exam. At my practice qual with a proposal on a different subject, I felt more prepared to handle the questions as I had been through a thesis defense of my MS. Other students are not as used to presenting and defending.

 

That being said, if you can get multiple publications BEFORE you apply to grad school, that'll look awesome on your application, and they might not care about the thesis. My thesis was in-prep when I was interviewing, but the school still said that the fact that I had to complete one for my MS stepped me up.

 

Feel free to message me if you have more questions. I just survived my first year, and am now prepping for quals.

[Quantum Buckyball]

thesis MS > non thesis MS

 

a non-thesis Masters does not weight that much when you're trying to join a competitive lab, it might get you into a grad program but probably not your #1 lab. Most of top labs are extremely picky about their students. Personally, I prefer students who know how to write a thesis than someone with a bunch of coauthor papers. 

[bsharpe269]

Thanks guys. To clarify, I will be the first author on the papers and they were my ideas. I came up with the ideas and then pursued them. They will be coauthored in the sense that my advisor will be listed as the second author but no one else will be on them.