I can't really understand why anyone would do a Phd unless it was specific to their career or they were entering Academia permanently.
How do people fund postgraduate degrees?
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I can't really understand why anyone would do a Phd unless it was specific to their career or they were entering Academia permanently.
I don't understand why people love industry so much. When I worked in industry, my boss had me nailed to my chair with my butt cheeks forming a perfect impression on the chair, and everyone was pretty depressed, the office silent the majority of day, with faint clicks of keyboards.
A phd gives you much more freedom in your own work, still hardwork, but at least i can be in the library doing it or going to conferences and networking. Doing something interesting and novel as opposed to the 100th crud application.
A phd gives you much more freedom in your own work, still hardwork, but at least i can be in the library doing it or going to conferences and networking. Doing something interesting and novel as opposed to the 100th crud application.
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Although I agree in general that the field of post grad study is important, you shouldn't under estimate some of the bussiness related postgrads.
My GF did a PhD basically in bussiness studies (Bussiness ethics actually), she now earns about 140,000USD with significant pay rises to come, remaining in academia. Her collegues from her doctoral studies are on similar amountw, some entering industry are getting closer to 170-190,000CHF. You don't want to translate that into GBP, you will turn green.
I have a PHD in essentially Computer Science from an even more respected university, in industry I am looking at no more than 80,000USD probably less. Friends back in switzerland with Comp Science and engineering PhDs are getting 75-95,000CHF while remaining in engineering. Those that move to managment are getting much more, some are at McKinsey on 130,00CHF.
I certainly would have much preffered to do a PhD like my girlfriends and have the job opertunities she has with those kinds of benefits.
As I am unemplyed and searching hard for jobs it makes me wonder if getting a PhD in a numerate subject was really that benefitial. The actual PhD was, I mean I was getting paid more than all my collegues, some of them who went from undergrad to consulting in London. However, if I could get such commanding job positions without doign maths or programming, wow.
How come PhDs in Switzerland are funded so heavily? Seems quite odd that you could earn more doing a PhD than a well paid white collar job (at least in the UK it is)! Does the government/industry pump in a lot of money?
Maybe because not all industry is like that
Seems like you had a bad experience rather than it being the norm from my experience.
Maybe because not all industry is like that
Seems like you had a bad experience rather than it being the norm from my experience.
I worked for two sme companies, they were both like that. Maybe bigger companies are better. Oh god I remember the office chairs...they were obviously designed for pain, so cheap they had to be breaking some sort of regulation.... Plus the fact your on them majority time, go to bathroom for longer than 10 minutes, and boss asks questions... Phd allows me to walk around grounds for 30 minutes, thus no back pain =P
The other company had like 10 devs in room a bit bigger than my double sized bedroom. I've heard they've upsized now though =P
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It was never a barrier in the first place because a) MSc's etc aren't affected by the tuition fee rises as they aren't limited in the first place and b) PhD's etc are generally funded assuming that you do something relatively proper.
Sounds like a lot there, but from what I've heard the Swiss academics are a bit crazy with PhD students. I've heard tales of students being in the labs for long hours doing other academics' lab work as well as their own. I'm lucky in that I am industrially sponsored for my PhD, so my salary is about £23.5k. Most of it is spent on the hideously high rents around here though, if I was back in Sheffield I would be living like a king
Answer to the "how do you fund an MSc?" question is to do a funded one! Plenty of scholarships and stipends around.
Sounds like a lot there, but from what I've heard the Swiss academics are a bit crazy with PhD students. I've heard tales of students being in the labs for long hours doing other academics' lab work as well as their own. I'm lucky in that I am industrially sponsored for my PhD, so my salary is about £23.5k. Most of it is spent on the hideously high rents around here though, if I was back in Sheffield I would be living like a king
Answer to the "how do you fund an MSc?" question is to do a funded one! Plenty of scholarships and stipends around.
Quite simply by not doing one in the UK. I'm currently in the middle of applying for grad schools in the USA to do a professional MA (in conflict resolution and development management) and I have a far better shot at getting full funding over there despite the fact it'll cost the university somewhere in the order of $58k a year. The USA is expensive, but there are far more options for funding, even for international students than for those staying in the UK.
In the UK we overpay for absolutely shocking tuition (often getting fobbed off on grad students at MA level) and get barely any contact hours. I would also argue that 1 year is not long enough to really learn anything for an MA.
Do I think it's worth paying around £22k in the UK (tuition plus living expenses) for a one-year course that would effectively be a trumped up repeat of the third year of my undergraduate degree? Not bloody likely.
[edit] And there are very few courses that are eligible for PDC Loans - it's basically just law - and even then the max amount isn't enough to pay for the course and living expenses.
In the UK we overpay for absolutely shocking tuition (often getting fobbed off on grad students at MA level) and get barely any contact hours. I would also argue that 1 year is not long enough to really learn anything for an MA.
Do I think it's worth paying around £22k in the UK (tuition plus living expenses) for a one-year course that would effectively be a trumped up repeat of the third year of my undergraduate degree? Not bloody likely.
[edit] And there are very few courses that are eligible for PDC Loans - it's basically just law - and even then the max amount isn't enough to pay for the course and living expenses.
I wish I was getting funded by an organisation! Nope I'm going pure uni-funded and hoping this year's salary will make up the gap. I'm only applying to places that have a history of offering generous offers (one place does ful-tuition plus a $22k pa stipend) but I need to be the top applicant to get that. Not easy.
If I don't get that this year, I'll work another year, save some more and reapply hoping to get a more generous offer. It's that or eat a $40k+ loan.
You're right that CDL can make up the gap, and are good for that but if you come from a poorer background (as quite a few people do) it's not going to be enough sadly. I know quite a few mates from uni who ended up getting duff jobs with the intention of doing an MA in their field, only to end up stuck in dead end jobs because they have to pay the rent. I'm worried that the UK's stingy postgrad funding is going to leave us left behind globally - particularly when an MA is becoming the new undergrad.
MA content is another huge reason I want to go USA. I'll get taught about 50/50 on theory/practice. So while people in the UK doing a similar course will be all book-learning of theories I'll be spending half my time working on management, leadership, budgeting, program proposal and reporting skills. I find it kind of sad that people think £40k at LSE is buying them something amazing, when in reality it's buying them an overpriced piece of paper - not a year of valuable training.
Surely that's the degree itself rather than the system? If you did an MSc at LSE in something like management I'd expect that you'd do courses in management, leadership and budgeting. Even I did these sorts of courses on my undergrad in Engineering!
It's both. UK degrees aren't remotely as interdisciplinary (I'll be doing a mix of law, politics, management, comms. and international relations) and you also don't have anywhere near as much time to branch out on a 1yr course. UK courses that are two years (MPhils) tend to be really research led and not at all practical. There's not a single course in the UK that compares to the worst course I'm applying to in the USA.
I suppose ours do tend to be quicker - the PhD's there take forever! MPhils I think also vary quite wildly - the MPhil offered in my department here is 12 months and involves 4 modules of lectures. It's research-intensive, but you would expect that as it is an Engineering department!
Are you applicable to all of the student grants/funding they offer in the US? I know that a lot of the colleges there have some pretty generous schemes, which I suppose are necessary for the fees in private colleges!
If you're willing to go out to talk to companies, look at EU initiatives and funding bodies and get funding off your own back you can pretty much do what ever PhD you like (so long as said funding bodies think the PhD is a good idea)
You need to bear in mind that for a lot of jobs, a PhD has no bearing over an MSc in salary.
A lot of people go get a PhD and then wonder why it's difficult to get jobs. Employers are not that fussed about PhDs and they won't pay a premium over MSc unless they really need it. Doing a PhD to enhance your job prospects is more likely to backfire as it is unecessary (again, unless very highly specialised).
A lot of people go get a PhD and then wonder why it's difficult to get jobs. Employers are not that fussed about PhDs and they won't pay a premium over MSc unless they really need it. Doing a PhD to enhance your job prospects is more likely to backfire as it is unecessary (again, unless very highly specialised).