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PLEASE give me an answer - Do most PhD students get a tuition waiver/stipend?
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Replies to: PLEASE give me an answer - Do most PhD students get a tuition waiver/stipend?
In the long term it gets trickier - advanced degrees CAN make more advanced positions available, but there are no guarantees (with the exception of academia - a masters will get you at best a poorly-paid instructor or non-tenure track position, you need the PhD to make it anywhere). There are relatively few non-academic positions that are limited to PhD's, but the title and training make it easier to advance - at my company, only about 5% are PhD's overall, but at the highest rank (making $250+k) it is something like 50%, so the PhD definitely does help.
The big drawbacks to the PhD are that (a) you become very specialized so fewer companies want you, (b) you may never recoup the lost income from your grad student years, (c) not all companies value grad student time equally with experience, and (d) while most companies will consider a MS holder for a BS-level job the same is NOT true for PhD's.
The bright side is that with the PhD there are some more interesting opportunities - academia, research, consulting/review, etc. If you like research (as in, doing things that no one has done before) then this is the right path. Even if you do not, PhD's can get in on some really interesting jobs - at DARPA, PhD's spend their time managing and reviewing other people's research programs.
This aside, one of the best ways to get an otherwise-expensive degree for free is to seek out a job that will pay for it. My company pays for all engineering or hard science masters degrees, as well as some MBA's and PhD's. Likewise, some companies have specific programs that integrate a set period of work along with part or full-time attendence at a grad program, again for free. Bear in mind that nearly all of these programs involve some work obligation afterwards.
Those professional programs don't seem all to appealing, but its not just professional programs is it? What else can you do in graduate school after an undergrad engineering degree? Can I get a PhD in economics?
Going into a grad program, adcoms are looking at general qualities and specific preparation. General qualities means that you have good grades, some decent research experience, acceptable GRE's, etc - indicators that you are hard-working and have some level of intelligence. Since these apply across all programs, you can generally see where you stack up. And yes, research counts as research even if its in a different field - perhaps not quite as much, but it is still valuable and instructive.
Specific preparation refers to foundational coursework needed for your research area - how much of it you have, how well you did, how much "catch-up" you will need to do. Bear in mind that many people don't have all the prerequisites even when they DON'T change fields, but the big concern with someone who IS changing fields is that (a) you might be starting off too far behind and (b) you might not be any good at those courses. They don't want to bring you in for a year of undergrad-level catchup only to find out that you really have no talent in Celtic Medieval Literature.
This means that your chances of getting in drop off the farther you get from your undergrad degree. Engineering to economics? Depends on the engineering. Aerospace or electrical are probably a decent match, as you have a ton of mathematics. Chemical or civil you might be in trouble. Conversely, a chemical engineering might have a better shot at a biology degree than an EE.
You can alleviate this by taking additional courses or even a minor in this second field of interest - my wife was a history minor, which helped her get into her archaeology program. A double major is generally not worthwhile, and even a minor might be too much (if the minor doesn't hit the senior-level coursework that programs really want to see), but taking at least a few courses can really help.
Of course, another option is just to major in economics. I know, crazy.
And to have at least some knowledge of the subject, do you mean you just have to take some electives on it in college? What usually goes well with a engineering B.S. in grad school, besides engineering?
Thanks cosmicfish I posted before I saw yours btw.
ChemE and MatSE to Chemistry is definitely possible, but brings up another point I should have mentioned. Generally speaking, you are only ever going to be really qualified to go into a few specialties in any given field. For example, I have a BSEE, but would not be competitive applying to grad school for control systems since I only ever took the most basic required course in that area. You are even more restricted if you are crossing fields - as a ChemE there would several areas in Chemistry where you would lack the depth required to be competitive. There would still be several other areas where you should be able to get in.
and - does anyone know what the job market for a Chem PhD is like, or should I post in the Science Majors?
Its not a bad thing that you are ambitious about your future, but before you can contemplate which graduate school facilitates your best skills, you need to actually take undergraduate courses and find your strengths. High school and college are not very similar and it is not practical to base your strengths on what you did or how you did in high school.
I think you ought to just choose a field, study it further as much as you can and if you realize you like it, then see if you can get into research at your school in that field. If you decide you hate it, then good thing you did so early enough so that you can move on to another subject.
The simple answer is NO. It is more complicated than this. Most students in a Phd haven't paid any tuition, however I do know some who have....even at top ten schools. Most masters students pay tution. Also, about 40% of the students who graduate from a PhD program initially get in as a Masters student and then transfer into the PhD program. They usually pay tuition to get into the Masters program, and then stop paying tution when they transfer into the PhD program. Masters programs are usually less cometitive, so there is a sense in which you can "buy into" a PhD program by first getting into the Masters program. Also many students will pay to get into the best Masters program they can, and then they will use this to then apply to different and better PhD programs. Also, students can work inbetween the Masters and PhD programs...like me. I disagree that paying for a Masters is a bad idea. It can be a very marketable degree if you work in industry afterwards. It also has the potential to get you into a better PhD program.....the reputation of your PhD program does make a difference when you apply for research jobs and academic jobs. Finally, often you can find some sort of full or partial funding as a Masters student after you pay for a semester or two.
It is not true, and it is very competitive for engineers to get into PhD programs. I do agree that if it were true, there would be strong motiviation for many engineers to get a PhD.
Right now graduate school should not be you prerogative, it can be something in the back of your mind, but right now all you should concentrate on is graduating high school and doing well in college. Whether or not you want to go to grad school, and especially for what will come to you more naturally as you keep learning and taking classes.
The best solution is to keep your options open until you decide what you really want to do - at most schools you have a year or two before you really need to declare a major. I do recommend that you start out as an engineering major if you have any interest in actually being an engineer - ABET puts enrollment caps on many engineering majors, and getting in often require walking a vary particular path, while getting out of engineering is quite easy. Regardless, figure out what you want to do and major in that - it will give you your best chance for success. Work hard and do well at it (whatever it is) and you should do fine.
EDIT: Dang, vicious, you beat me to the punch!