General impression of a Master Degree and its requirements - (May/28/2008 )

Dear All,

A friend of mine is coming from outside the EU and asked me what is the general impression of a Master Degree (Research Master) in Europe and in North America.
Explaining better, she wants to register to a Master degree, but first she wants to know:

"- What are the expectations towards a Master student, in terms of independence in research, scientific production, courses/theoretical learning and lab practice requirements?

- Is it true that in some places it is considered an asset to have a Master, but in others it looks like the person was not good enough or didn't like science enough to do a whole PhD? (especially in countries where a MSc is not required for a PhD?)

- Is it a waste of time to do a Master in research, if the university she chooses allows her to go straight to the PhD? What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing a Master before?

- What kind of people do a Master and why? (ie. people who want to go to the industry? People who are not sure if they want to do a PhD? People who are changing fields?)"

As far as I know, she didn't have much "hands on" experience during undergrad years, but I could be wrong. However, since I never did a master before, so I don't know how to advise her.

Thank you very much!

Julianne.

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hi julianne,

i've been a masters student for almost three years, nearly finished and hopefully defending my thesis soon. i don't know if you refer to north america only as the us and canada, but anyway, mexico is north america, tho a lot of people don't come here to do their masters or phd's, no wait, there are quite some students from peru, colombia and bolivia that i know.
anyway, coming back to the main subject

i would not expect a masters student to be completly independent (that's what happened to me, and it took a lot longer than if there had been someone in the lab, e.g. a phd student with more experience or a postdoc). the scientific production, if the student is good, should be a publication in a peer-reviewed journal, don't expect to obtain your first publication in nature or science from your masters degree, but it can be achieved. courses are less intensive than a phd program, more to be guided rather than allowing the student what to do about his project and the lab practice is acquired by self experience.


i don't know about that, what i do know is that in the uk there are different kinds of masters degrees, there's the master in science and there's another one with higher ranking called master of philosophy, it's true that some phd students can only get a mph because their work failed or the supervisors considered it was not good enough for a phd, your friend would have to see the different rankings of each degree and its characteristics.

i would say definitly not. in my institute there's also the possibililty of going straight into a phd program but it has showed a lot of failures. more than 80% of the students who get into this program can't make it past their candidature the first time and have to defend their project once again, if they fail they get expelled. there's lack of experience, many don't know if they're really interested into science and if they do it just to give it a try (directly into a phd program ) i don't think that's the best idea.



yes, i think all of those three.

i hope your friend finds this information useful. best wishes.
tj

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In Poland and countries from former Eastern bloc, Master's is equivalent to having completed higher education. It's "normal" and Bs is considered "pre-master". So everyone that goes for PhD, HAS to have a Master's degree.
Working in a lab during Master's is preparation for real work, courses are few and easy, publishing is not obligatory, writing a thesis is, independence is to be gained in process of learning. If some maturity is gained, then a candidate is considered appropiate for PhD.
I think, though I am not sure, that it's common in whole Europe except for UK.

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In Germany master starts to replace Diploma slowly, strange idea but if they want . Anyway for bachelors until now almost no jobs exist, because industry and all others employers wait for and want finished diploma students (or PhDs) or now master students. Therefore there is until now not much need of "half-finished" students, the positions for them are perhaps coming in future, when the system-change is over and the employers notice that bachelors can also work, but don't want to do "real research".

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Thanks you so much for all the answers! I'll send her the answers!
All the best,
J.

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