<p>I am starting an MS program in the fall. Although my ultimate goal is to study integrated circuit design, my research-focus (and the lab where I’ll be working) for my MS is in embedded systems. </p>
<p>If I choose to continue to a PhD program, I want to do it in integrated circuits, but i’m afraid that if I switch over, the adcoms will say I dont’ have a clear research direction and i’m jumping all over the place. I also feel maybe I could get into a much better school if I stick with my expertise in embedded systems, so switching over to the field that (slightly) interests me more will have a great penalty. I mean, think about it, as a professor wouldn’t you MUCH rather take on a PhD student who has been researching in your field for 2 years rather than a complete “noob” who just coursework experience in your field but no research? </p>
<p>You should pursue the filed that you are the most interested in. When you do your PhD you often, at the bare minimum, have 2-3 “lab rotations.” These are basically 2ish month period where you work in (rotate) in a research lab and see if you like the work. This gives you a pretty good idea of the different research projects that exist in the field (by rotating into different labs and sampling their work). </p>
<p>At the MS level if you switch to a different lab, that is NOT a red flag at all. It just means you didn’t like the lab or the project you were on and “rotated” to another project that you are more interested in. You will have to do the rotations at the PhD level anyway, so if you switch now and stick to it, its not a bad thing at all. </p>
<p>As you already pointed out, there are a lot of benefits to doing your MS work in the same area you plan to pursue a PhD in. </p>
<p>Don’t worry about it. If anything this is an advantage to your education, because you would have experience in both embedded systems and integrated circuit design.</p>
<p>Your PhD advisor will advise you for at least 4 years. A person who did their master’s in IC design might start quicker, but after a semester you would have caught up. In the end that extra semester matters little. It’s more important that you show that you can produce research results in your master’s; this skill will transfer over regardless of which topic you do. Plus you provide additional perspective having done your master’s in embedded systems. Interdisciplinary is pretty hot these days. This is one reason certain departments (MIT’s Mechanical Engineering is one, I think) require students to do their master’s and doctoral theses on different topics, even if they both come from the same schools. Postdocs often switch research fields as well.</p>