UCLA vs. UPenn vs. Columbia U

[SOC_edu]

Does anyone know: if I get MS.Ed which is a professional master degree from UPenn, can I apply to a PhD degree afterwards? Or, must I have MA or MS for research master degree? 

[COGSCI]

On 3/21/2016 at 6:13 AM, Young1008 said:

Thank you for you reply! In terms of quality of education, which school do you think is the best? 

 

1 hour ago, Young1008 said:

Does anyone know: if I get MS.Ed which is a professional master degree from UPenn, can I apply to a PhD degree afterwards? Or, must I have MA or MS for research master degree? 

Since I do not have a background in comparative education, I cannot say which school is better. However if your ultimate goal is to apply to PhD programs, you would need to consider which program would allow you to get involved in research and have a potential supervisor (or two) that you can work with. Even if you do a professional master's degree, doing a research project or writing a thesis would be a good idea.

Edited March 22, 2016 by COGSCI

[rising_star]

If you do some research during your professional master's, you should be able to go on to a PhD in the future. Take a look at the CVs of current and past PhD students to get a sense of whether they came in with master's degrees and, if so, what degree they had.

[SOC_edu]

On March 22, 2016 at 7:06 PM, COGSCI said:

 

Since I do not have a background in comparative education, I cannot say which school is better. However if your ultimate goal is to apply to PhD programs, you would need to consider which program would allow you to get involved in research and have a potential supervisor (or two) that you can work with. Even if you do a professional master's degree, doing a research project or writing a thesis would be a good idea.

Yes! I think research opportunity is important. UPenn's guaranteed internship is so attractive to me but the tuition is incredible high...It's a really tough question to me!!!

[SOC_edu]

9 hours ago, rising_star said:

If you do some research during your professional master's, you should be able to go on to a PhD in the future. Take a look at the CVs of current and past PhD students to get a sense of whether they came in with master's degrees and, if so, what degree they had.

Thank you for your reply! I do want to do research during my master degree, but I've heard there is little opportunity for masters to do research in graduate school. I don't know if it's true, so I was wondering, how can I seek a research in graduate school?

[rising_star]

3 hours ago, Young1008 said:

 how can I seek a research in graduate school?

Well, many people on here that do master's degrees complete a thesis so it's definitely possible to do research during a master's degree. You will probably want to talk to professors about their ongoing research projects to see if there's a way you can be involved. Alternately, you might talk to senior PhD students about ways to get involved in their projects, though this can be more complicated. If you're doing a professional master's, you'll need to be proactive about this if you want to make it happen.

[SOC_edu]

21 hours ago, rising_star said:

Well, many people on here that do master's degrees complete a thesis so it's definitely possible to do research during a master's degree. You will probably want to talk to professors about their ongoing research projects to see if there's a way you can be involved. Alternately, you might talk to senior PhD students about ways to get involved in their projects, though this can be more complicated. If you're doing a professional master's, you'll need to be proactive about this if you want to make it happen.

Yes! I think you are definitely right! I will go to admitted student day for UPenn and TC next week, so I think I should ask them about research opportunities. Thank you for your suggestions!