Looking for industry, but would like to start my own company in the future. I’ve been accepted to those 3 so far. I’m still awaiting on UCLA, UC Berkeley, CMU, and CMU SV (all masters). I applied to BU Phd since I reasoned that the only way I might pick BU over the others was if I was accepted to its Phd program.
Background: I’m 19 receiving my CE degree from BU this May. I’m graduating in 2 years due to my high school AP credits. I have no work or internship experience. Due to my unique circumstance, I have some knowledge and experience gaps, although I’m a quick learner.
Here are my current thoughts so far:
Phd vs Masters:
- Fully funded + 30k stipend each year for 5 years for Phd vs Masters would cost 50k for 1 year.
- Relative life stability knowing what I will be doing for 5 year (Phd) vs 1 year I will need to reevaluate what to do next (Masters)
- Phd's are required for certain industry positions vs Masters where I can work for 4 years in the time it took to get a Phd.
- Phd has a higher pay ceiling vs Masters where the 4 additional years of experience could match that.
- Phd Stability + labs means I could use ideas for a company in the future vs Masters I could have more money initially to start a business.
- I can pursue internships during a Phd vs Masters I can work right away.
- Boston could get dull after 5 years (Phd) vs Masters is only 1 year.
- Since I'm 19, a Phd could give me time to mature before working vs a Masters where I would be thrown into it right away.
- I could still apply to a Phd after my Masters at a higher ranked school, but if I do a Phd now, I'm committed to it for 5 years.
Specific School thoughts:
LA seems incredibly fun, so USC and UCLA (if I get in) would be great.
USC is in a more dangerous area.
Cornell is an Ivy league so prestige name, but it is in a relatively small countryside area.
CMU SV is located 10 minutes from a house we own and I could live nearby cheap. Also it’s in silicon valley.
UC Berkeley is top ranked (if I get in).
It really depends on what you specifically want to do in “industry”. A CE degree kind of puts you in between EE and CS but a graduate degree is going to make you pick between the two for the most part. Like the CMU SV program for example is fairly software/coding/computer science heavy if I remember correctly from when I was applying last year. So make sure that the courses you’ll be taking in the program you choose are actually things you like/want to study further than you did as an undergrad because you will definitely being going really in-depth. Especially if you want to do the PhD, you’re committing not just to 5 years in Boston but to getting really into the weeds of one specific subject and declaring yourself an expert in that one thing.
Getting a master’s in 1 year is probably not going to happen unless you took graduate level courses as an undergrad and they will let you transfer those and count them towards your degree (or you did your undergrad at the same school and don’t need to transfer classes) or the program is specifically designed to be a 1 year master’s program. Most of the graduate schools I’ve seen won’t let you count graduate level courses you took as an undergrad towards a graduate degree if you used them to get your bachelor’s degree. So it’s highly likely you’ll start with a clean slate in terms of classes and will need to take the 10-ish classes usually required. I’d put the master’s degree estimate at 1.5-2 years.
So that being said, you’ll still have a summer in the middle of the master’s program to get an internship and gain work experience which is something I highly recommend you do. Not just to gain skills and see what its like in the industry but to network and meet people who work in industry and will have a different perspective than the professors or people in academia you’d meet in college.
I can’t recommend one way or another, just some food for thought:
- Some background first: I have a BS in Comp. Eng. Half of my working life was in hardware design. The other half and presently I work in software. My D is doing PhD CS at UCB, starting when she was 19.
- Your estimate of 5 yrs to complete PhD program is very optimistic. I'm not sure about your field, but at UCB EECS, the median time for a PhD student is 6.5 years. 5 years is very rare. The statistic doesn't take into account whether the student already has MS degree when admitted to the PhD program.
- Financially, for EECS, it doesn't make sense to pursue a PhD if you want to work in the industry. Take my D as an example: right after getting her BS CS (she graduated with honors), she could have comfortably landed a job making $120K/yr + stocks + bonus. But she chose to go for PhD, with $25K/yr stipend + $25K summer internship (if she's lucky). By the time she got her PhD, she'd have "lost" $500K + 6 years industry experience. There is no guarantee that the salary of a new PhD can match that of one with BS + 6 years experience.
- From what I've learned from my D, you need a passion for PhD program. She works very hard, 50-60 hrs work week is normal, and she loves it. I read somewhere that only less than half of PhD students "made it." Not that because they don't have the capability, but because there are so many "temptations" out there. While you are making $13K/semester, your peers are making $13K/month.
- My D chose to go for PhD because she liked to do research and teaching. Her main goal is not to make a lot of money. She once told me that her advisor (a world famous mathematician, about my age) made less money than I was. She just loves that world.
It is in fact, 1 year for most of the programs I am applying to (designed that way), unless I purposely choose to spread out my courseload to be a bit longer.
Yes, I’m thinking perhaps the opportunity cost of a Phd might be too much. What job would your daughter have gotten that offers 120k + bonuses, by the way?
Facebook, Samsung, Google, Intel, Microsoft,… and countless smaller companies.
Her little group had 5 members, all graduating with honors. 2 decided to go for PhD. 3 got jobs in SF Bay area, none of them getting less than $120K/yr.
More details here:
https://www.payscale.com/research/US/School=University_of_California_-_Berkeley/Salary/by_Degree