Liberal Arts Colleges with really good sciences

tk21769
Sun, 27 Sep 2015 12:23:17 +0000

obtaining a Masters degree in your 5th year for free, means less time working toward your PhD

It may mean that, if your MS work supports the research you wind up doing for your doctorate.
It’s also quite possible that doing an MS degree program at one school, then switching to a PhD program at another, will only add to the total PhD completion time (compared to entering the PhD program directly.) If all you want is a terminal MS, then it’s hard to argue with “free”. However, most high-quality PhD programs will offer free tuition for all the courses anyway (along with a stipend).

(I’m not denying Wesleyan is a good science LAC, though, or that its graduate programs may bring advantages to undergrads.)