<p>I’ve been accepted into a graduate program at Cambridge for my Masters. Many successful masters students in this program go on to do research PhD’s. My impression is that said PhD’s focus on deep research on specific topics and may be quite narrow in research focus. I don’t know if that is true but the impression I get is that the focus in narrow but deep.</p>
<p>So my questions are: </p>
<p>1) Is my impression of narrow but deep correct?</p>
<p>2) If I want to get into an academic position as a professor, will the Cambridge research PhD get me there?</p>
<p>Background: I’m an American who would like to end up in the US as a professor one day.</p>
<p>As I understand it, you go into a PhD (in the UK) with a topic and advisor already in mind. So there aren’t any rotations or coursework to be done. I suppose that’s narrow–it’s essentially the same as the last three years of a US PhD (provided the PhD takes 5 years).</p>
<p>I’m not certain about 2), but Cambridge is one of the best universities in the world; I doubt a degree from Cambridge will hold any less weight than one from the US. Lots of great US professors were once Rhodes scholars, which means they did their work at Oxford.</p>
<p>1) Yes</p>
<p>2) Depends (on the field and the university). If you are reading for a taught masters degree before reading for your DPhil, then absolutely.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. My masters has a taught portion and then there is the thesis.</p>