PhD or MSc

[zaphyr]

Folks,

I have been studying toward a PhD in Electrical Eng. at Texas A&M University, College Station since Fall 2014. The program sounds very good but there was no promise of RA funding.  I am not able to secure it till now, too. If I wanted to get a TA, I have to  pass a notorious ELPE exam which I also couldn't  pass its writing section!!!! even though I got my MSc from a school which its instruction language is English. What would you do if you were in the same boat? are they considering me as a cash cow to feed their own program?  I would like to transfer it to MSc or MEng, what would be its career outlooks?  Does a PhD worth it without funding? BTW my major is analog/mixed-signal  ICs design. Please advise me of your experiences.      

Edited June 23, 2016 by zaphyr

[eternallyephemeral]

I would say that a PhD is not worth it if it is not funded, especially in Engineering where it is common to be funded.

However, you should see if your work so far can grant you a masters, or help you to fulfill those requirements. I think it all depends on how long you likely have in this program, and whether the Masters would be funded. If it isn't and you have one or two years left of the PhD, that would make things pretty similar (I could be wrong).

 

On a (kind of) unrelated note, my father studied the EXACT same things a long time ago. Is your goal to be a prof? To work in industry? To do chip design? Because from what I've seen, there are not a lot of these jobs in North America, as things move to other countries. I would look into exactly what you want to do, and make sure that there are jobs available when you get out. My dad had a LOT of difficulty finding new positions, even after starting two chip design companies. There's a lot more software now, and people aren't investing in early-stage hardware companies as much.

Good luck!

[juilletmercredi]

I don't think a PhD is worth it without funding; especially in a field like engineering where funding is so readily available, I'd consider it a sign that your program doesn't have a lot of confidence in you. I'd switch to an MS or MEng and get out of there.