My child is graduating from a pretty good undergrad program in CS and Math this spring and has applied to CS graduate programs both in the US (PhD) and in England (MS).
The long-term goal is a career in higher-end academics.
Of the 12 schools applied to (10 in US and 2 in England) we have only heard from 6. While it may be late to hear positive news from the remaining 6, we are happy that there have been two acceptances, one in the US for a PhD and one in England for an MS (apparently the British schools do not allow for application to their PhD programs until you have a masters).
My question is this: is it possible to defer the acceptance to the PhD program in the US in order the get the masters in England first?
While my child is anxious to “get on with it” with the PhD, I think after a rigorous Covid-infested 4 years of undergraduate studies, a 1-2 year experience in England to broaden oneself (and get a masters) before embarking on a 5-6 year PhD program sounds like fun to me.
Anyway, I wasn’t sure what was customary and with grad school admissions in CS getting so competitive, I don’t want to miss a chance at a top PhD program even if a masters would also add to an academic resume.
Any thoughts?