SedRocks Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 Well, I was accepted to The University of Tulsa so far for MSc in Geology; however, my advisor told me that there was little chance of receiving funding due to competitiveness. My question, would you consider going for your masters, (to work for oil/gas companies), even though you were forced to take on a sizable amount of debt?
gneisstomeetyou Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 Honestly, no. This happened to me last year. I got one acceptance but it was without funding. I sat down, made a list of the pros and cons and decided that the financial burden was just not worth it, even though it was a dream of mine to go to grad school. I currently work in o&g, and its nice being able to save up some money before I apply again and I wouldnt say that I regret my decision.
GeoDUDE! Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 Well, I was accepted to The University of Tulsa so far for MSc in Geology; however, my advisor told me that there was little chance of receiving funding due to competitiveness. My question, would you consider going for your masters, (to work for oil/gas companies), even though you were forced to take on a sizable amount of debt? No. That being said, students at my MS department did this, and the best of them ended up getting funding (through other assistantships on campus, like working for the department of waste). Also, every student had at least a 1/3 tuition waiver, regardless of assistantships. Also figure out how fast you can get instate tuition. Also, talk to your advisor about what kinds of funding you can work on getting if you were to end up going there. The thing is, I'm not sure it will be easy for you to get funding. If this was 2 years ago, I think it would be a different story, and in 2 years the job market might be good again. But there is no guarantee a MS will get you a better job than a BA right now, all signs point towards mudlogging for a lot of people.
SedRocks Posted March 18, 2015 Author Posted March 18, 2015 I agree, the debt might be overwhelming without any sort of funding. Also, it is a private school so regardless of in state vs out of state, the tuition is still around 35k. I've also been accepted to the graduate program at my school; however, the O&g opportunities are pitiful. I am still waiting on responses from a few more schools in Texas, but I don't wanna bank on getting accepted with full funding to some of the more competitive schools.
columbia09 Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 I'm in a similar situation. If the department can't give me a TA position or if my advisor can't get funding in time for the fall I'm putting off my acceptance to next fall. Why don't more people do this btw if funding is unavailable this time around ?
Usmivka Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 I'm in a similar situation. If the department can't give me a TA position or if my advisor can't get funding in time for the fall I'm putting off my acceptance to next fall. Why don't more people do this btw if funding is unavailable this time around ? Because not all schools allow deferrals, and some of those that do discourage it for anything besides medical and family emergencies. If a department has funds in a subsequent year, they'd rather take the best available applicants, regardless of who is left over from the previous year. GeoDUDE! 1
MechRxn Posted March 25, 2015 Posted March 25, 2015 What about this situation: Undergrad (7 years lol fml): 48k in debt Grad school would cost for two years: College 1:) $12k College 2:) $15k College 3:) $20k College 4:) $30k College 1,2,3 are all for Geology and College 4 is for Geophysics. College 1,2,3 have TAs to help pay you (unsure of monthly amount) while college 4 is waiting for the april 15 deadline to see if they can offer me funding. Thoughts?!
GeoMex Posted March 25, 2015 Posted March 25, 2015 What about this situation: Undergrad (7 years lol fml): 48k in debt Grad school would cost for two years: College 1:) $12k College 2:) $15k College 3:) $20k College 4:) $30k College 1,2,3 are all for Geology and College 4 is for Geophysics. College 1,2,3 have TAs to help pay you (unsure of monthly amount) while college 4 is waiting for the april 15 deadline to see if they can offer me funding. Thoughts?! Maybe not in a very specialized way, but you can use geophysics even if you're doing a master in geology. I've seen a lot of thesis with seismic interpretation, seismic inversion and rock physics from geologists. It seems to me that you're more interested in geophysics, so it might be good for you to see how much of them you could use in the geology schools, which cost even less than half in the case 1.
GeoDUDE! Posted March 25, 2015 Posted March 25, 2015 Maybe not in a very specialized way, but you can use geophysics even if you're doing a master in geology. I've seen a lot of thesis with seismic interpretation, seismic inversion and rock physics from geologists. It seems to me that you're more interested in geophysics, so it might be good for you to see how much of them you could use in the geology schools, which cost even less than half in the case 1. The name of the degree is not important. I have a masters in geology, and havent really taken a "geology" course and my thesis was all numerical modeling Usmivka 1
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