<p>I completed my master’s degree at Boston Univ. in electrical engineering. I enrolled in the PhD program at Columbia Univ. and dropped out, earning only a master’s degree. Now, I have two master’s degrees, both in electrical engineering.</p>
<p>Is it a good idea to leave one of them out of my resume? I’m concerned two degrees in the same subject will raise a lot of questions and reflect negatively.</p>
<p>That’s weird. I didn’t even know you could do that. It might raise questions unless you could somehow distinguish between them - different concentration, different thesis. It might still raise questions anyway, but I’m not sure it whether it would be a positive or negative. You might also be able to phrase one as PhD in progress, even though that progress might be really slow and in fact never happen.</p>
<p>Write what you concentrated in…as in Masters in Electrical Engineering, and Masters in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in _______________.</p>
<p>Agree with poet if each Masters had a different concentration put them down. If there is nothing distinguishing you could put the first Masters and for the second list PhD program, Columbia Unversity, 2 years work completed toward Phd. When you complete applications generally they have you check the box graduated or not graduated. Check graduated for the Masters and “not graduated” for the PhD program.</p>
<p>Some people who complete all the coursework for their PhD but don’t get to the dissertation refer to their degrees as being a “Master’s plus 60”. Maybe you could list yours as a "Master’s plus…(however many credits you have)?</p>
<p>Thank you for the responses. There are some differences in the coursework I completed at the two schools and I can highlight them on my resume. </p>
<p>However, I’ve been told that if an employer sees two master’s degrees in the same subject, I will be aggressively questioned about why I dropped out and it may also show that I lack the focus to complete the dissertation. Even if it doesn’t hurt, two of the same degrees adds very little value so it’s not worth the risk of leaving them both in. What do all of you think?</p>
<p>First, I don’t think it wise to omit an important part of your education (that you spend some number of years at Columbia) on your resume.</p>
<p>Second, I think that you should list Boston University as the school where you did your Masters in EE. Presumably you did well since you were accepted to Columbia. So if there was a Masters thesis at BU list it. If you graduated with high grades/distinguished etc., then mention it.</p>
<p>Third, list Columbia as the school were you pursued your PhD. State how much of the required coursework you completed. If all, then state that. Note that you started on your thesis (noting the area of focus) but decided not to complete it. That you got a “second” Masters (as a consolation prize?) is not relevant, and I would not mention that on the resume. But if asked I would mention it in the interview – exactly for what it was. Your interviewer would understand it for what it was, and is unlikely I think to dwell on it.</p>
<p>Finally, I’m assuming that you are not applying for a university research/teaching position, but rather for a position in industry. So that you didn’t complete your PhD is no big deal, and in fact may be a plus. Employers in industry are often are looking for hands-on people, and a PhD degree can be viewed as a negative – i.e. the person may be viewed as over-qualified. In your interview don’t dwell on why you didn’t complete the PhD. You can state something as simple “I wanted to get into the real world” and “I lost interest in the academic side of EE”. Then focus on you skills and accomplishments.</p>
<p>In some cases universities will have a stage in the PhD process called PhD candidate. It usually means you’ve completed your required courses (though perhaps not all coursework) and have a thesis proposal accepted by an advisor. If Columbia has such a process and you got that far you could put down PhD candidate. If you completed all the requirements for the PhD except the dissertation, some people call that an “ABD” - all but dissertation. That’s not an official academic designation, but it’s a well recognized term.</p>
<p>I agree that industry might not be too concerned. Industry sometimes considers a PhD as “ivory tower,” and not practical.</p>
<p>Consider how few engineers have Ph.D.'s.
No one is going to hold it against you that you didn’t finish a Ph.D. unless you are applying for a job that requires a Ph.D.!</p>
<p>It’s not weird at all to have two master’s degrees in this situation. Ph.D. programs often hand out master’s degrees to their students at a certain point along the way, without requiring a thesis, or really, anything beyond what the student is already doing in the Ph.D. program. Thus, a student who already had a “real” master’s (the kind that involves a thesis and a specific program of coursework) before entering the Ph.D. program could easily end up with two of them. But it’s possible that recruiters who do not encounter many people who have been in Ph.D. programs do not know any of this. </p>
<p>I like momofthreeboys’ solution: List the Boston University masters (which is a real master’s) and the “X number of years work completed toward Ph.D. at Columbia” (without mentioning the master’s you got there). If anybody ever asks for your Columbia transcript and notices the master’s degree, you can say that you didn’t consider that master’s meaninfgul because you already had one or because it didn’t require a thesis. (This is not a lie; many Ph.D. students consider the master’s that they pick up along the way to be meaningless.) </p>
<p>It would also be a good idea to be prepared to explain at the interview why you decided not to complete your Ph.D. Not a long explanation and not an apology (you were doing something constructive with your life during the years when you were at Columbia – you have nothing to apologize for). Something like “I realized that I didn’t want to pursue a career in academia, so I decided that the financial sacrifice of graduate school was no longer worthwhile” would do. Try to avoid saying “I flunked my comprehensive exam three times” even if it’s true.</p>
<p>Did you complete ALL the coursework required for the PhD? Did you pass the exams? Basically - how far did you get??? What are you missing?</p>
<p>I know it was a long time ago, but my mother completed all the coursework for her PhD, passed all her comprehensive exams, had her dissertation topic, but never finished it. From what I remember of her resume, she had something like “XXXX University, PhD program in _____, ABD” with ABD meaning “all but dissertation.”</p>
<p>ABD is a big term in Wash DC, but IMO it is more than silly – it signifies failure to complete. NOT the message you want to send to a future employer. If you have two Master’s degrees, list them both.</p>
<p>I believe your PhD program is “in process”. You could go back in the future, right? I see this all the time in hiring.</p>
<p>The ABD label doesn’t really fly in my book… a PhD is primarily about the dissertation (and all the research and work that goes into it). The coursework is basically masters level coursework that leads into the research and dissertation work. So saying ABD is basically just saying “I did a PhD except I didn’t do the PhD work just the masters work.” In that cases just say you got the masters and be done with it.</p>
<p>I guess one of the 2 MS was a thesis degree and the other was the result of completing courses for the Ph.D. If that is the case, I would suggest you list the thesis MS and mention you have completed all coureses for a Ph.D. and passed the qualify exam (if applicable).</p>
<p>I just want to say that employers who are not looking for PhD’s won’t care if you have 2 degrees. So list them both and don’t worry about explaining the drop-out–remember that most likely the person interviewing you won’t have one either.</p>
<p>I’m an electrical engineering manager, dropped out of a PhD program with an MSEE, although just at one graduate school. I regularly hire PhD, MS, and BS degree holders. I’ve hired several people who have dropped out of PhD programs, at least two of whom I can think of right off the bat had a double masters at two different schools. </p>
<p>I would suggest to list both master’s degrees, but clearly indicate next to the second one that you were pursuing a PhD degree. Any possible disadvantage due to the double masters would be outweighed IMHO by an unexplained gap in your resume. The additional experience that you gained during your second degree could be helpful in finding a job. Don’t try to hide it. </p>
<p>PM me if you want to discuss further.</p>
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<p>I left a Ph.D. program with a master’s degree myself, and I hire many engineers, and I think the above statement is baloney. No education is bad education. So what if you didn’t finish the Ph.D.? Two master’s degrees give you more education than one master’s degree, even if they’re in the same subject. It’s not even that you tried and failed; it’s more like, you tried and succeeded less than 100%, and that is not bad in any way.</p>
<p>Any employer who looks down upon someone who started a Ph.D. program and didn’t finish is, in my opinion, an employer you don’t need.</p>