Chance Me, Grad School

collegemom3717
Thu, 06 May 2021 07:41:19 +0000

agree with @eyemgh.

The key difference between a PhD & a terminal Masters is original research. In a PhD you will spend ~5 years doing research in a very specialized area- you want to be sure that you love it enough to go the distance. Given the range of your interests I’m guessing/hoping you are in second year- I hope you have a great summer internship lined up to help you focus your interests.

@eyemgh’s son is the exception- my guess is that he had research interests that aligned with those of the program he was in, and thus his thesis work would be useful enough to fund. Funding for a taught Masters is even rarer.

re: “Ivy” - the label will impress only non-engineers: although there is some variation year to year, Cornell is the only “Ivy” that regularly is ranked as a top-10 engineering program (though this year USNWR has it at #12; Columbia & UPenn in the teens, Harvard & Princeton in the 20s, and Yale in the 30s). As above, you pick the programs that specialize in your area of interest. The overlap between the top aerospace programs and the top robotics schools is not huge.