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Master program or PhD program?
I am a upcoming graduate philosophy major student. I definitely want to do a Doctorate program, but from what I heard, the M.A program is more realistic.
I came from a small 4 year university (University of Houston) so my chance to be accepted into Phd program in philosophy are slimmer than those came from top school. But sometime I just want to defy the odd (i think everyone want to do that sometime). In other hand, I do not want to wasted money into paying more on the application fee than I should. I sure that there are some PhD program that will accept me, but I do not want to go to lesser known PhD program while I can still do a M.A and jump into more famous school.
Need pros and cons plz people.
1 Answer
- oooooLv 69 years agoFavorite Answer
Ph.D. programs are more likely to fund you (via tuition waiver and teaching or research assistantship), if you can get into one. You may also find some fully-funded M.A. programs in philosophy, but they are less common. I would strongly advise against paying tuition for either an M.A. or a Ph.D. in philosophy, even at a good school. It just isn't going to pay off. At least if you get your tuition and basic living expenses paid for, you can pursue your studies and enjoy it, and then, if you're like most and don't land a full-time faculty job afterward, you'll only have disappointment and the difficult decision of whether to try again, rather than those things AND a crushing amount of debt.
Also, it's not just a matter of saving money. Getting an assistantship (plus the teaching/research experience that comes with it) or fellowship looks a lot better on your CV than paying tuition. In fact, paying can look very bad.
You can always apply to Ph.D. programs and then, if you're not fully content with the one you get into, reapply once you get past the M.A. stage. Of course, this depends on your faculty being supportive of your wish to move up to a better program.
And definitely get a native speaker of English to review all your application materials (assuming you are applying to schools in the U.S. or other English-speaking countries).