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RE: Anybody have higher than a master's degree? - 10/29/2010 11:33:21 PM   
popeye1250


Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
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MissAsylum, have you ever considered medical school?
You could do it in about the same time it would take you to get a Ph.D.
And there's a shortage of M.D.s in the country. If you wanted to do it you could get it for nothing by joining the Navy or Air Force and they'll pay for everything. And you'd be a lt with full benefits and about $3,000 a month while going to school. After that you owe them 6 years in the fleet. Just a thought.
I have a friend who's a Ph.D at Tufts in Boston, a Bio-Chemist.
He said he "lives" at the lab, he just sleeps at home.

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"But Your Honor, this is not a Jury of my Peers, these people are all decent, honest, law-abiding citizens!"

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RE: Anybody have higher than a master's degree? - 10/30/2010 4:53:34 AM   
barelynangel


Posts: 6233
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There are many many people i know who are going for their PhD in their chosen fields.  However, they are doing it after having been in their field for a while.  There are many people who i know have their PhDs and i would suggest you may want to consider first working in the field you want to get your Ph.D. in as it does kind of suck if you spend time getting a PhD only to realize 20 years down the road its not something that actually benefits you.  I know a couple people like this and its very frustrating for them.  However, if you are interested in teaching in the field you get your PhD as in college -- i hear they get some pretty cushy jobs lol and usually are very well off because of the PhD.

To me, if you are going to put your time and energy getting a PhD, you may as well get it in something you 1) enjoy, 2) will be able to use to benefit yourself at a career etc.

Otherwise, to me, i would work on getting a master's in your other degree, and then perhaps work in the field you are interested in pursuing a PhD in before putting time and energy into it.  Because your field may not need one and while it may make you feel important, to me, if you can't use it, it really doesn't make sense to get one -- and it makes people raise eyebrows when someone says they have a PhD and end up in the extreme working in a low paying job that they are miserable at and their PhD didn't benefit them at all.

How fulfilling would that be?  I agree that if you are wanting simply the "letters" behind your name, become a doctor or a nurse or a college professor, or pick a field wherein the letters will actually do you some good.

Personally, if you don't know really what you want to be when you grow up -- i would instead of the PhD go for more education in other fields -- i.e., getting specific masters in various fields so that if you do decide to change fields you will have the education and your experience of working will actually help you move through the careers more laterally.

angel

< Message edited by barelynangel -- 10/30/2010 4:54:44 AM >


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What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
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RE: Anybody have higher than a master's degree? - 10/30/2010 5:02:52 AM   
MissAsylum


Posts: 1863
Joined: 1/9/2009
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um, no. never.

the medical doesn't appeal to me in any way shape or form. thanks for the suggestion though.

quote:

ORIGINAL: popeye1250

MissAsylum, have you ever considered medical school?
You could do it in about the same time it would take you to get a Ph.D.
And there's a shortage of M.D.s in the country. If you wanted to do it you could get it for nothing by joining the Navy or Air Force and they'll pay for everything. And you'd be a lt with full benefits and about $3,000 a month while going to school. After that you owe them 6 years in the fleet. Just a thought.
I have a friend who's a Ph.D at Tufts in Boston, a Bio-Chemist.
He said he "lives" at the lab, he just sleeps at home.


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RE: Anybody have higher than a master's degree? - 10/30/2010 5:17:03 AM   
MissAsylum


Posts: 1863
Joined: 1/9/2009
Status: offline
well my degrees are fine art with a minor in history and art with a concentration in painting. My master's will be the fine art.

I love the field of art and i'm not a happy camper if i'm not involved in it in some way. 1st year of college for me, which started while i was a junior in high school, i believed that i should be an English teacher(an idea imposed on me by my mom, not bitter or anything), and i barely passed my junior year of high school and 1st year of college because i was ridiculously depressed about it. I didn't know it had stemmed from what i had chosen as my college course path until i took myself to a therapist before I truly had lost my mind.

She suggested that I take a wide range of classes for my second year to get a feel for what I really wanted to do. Instantaneously, i was drawn to art. It should have made sense for me to do so- at both my mother's home in the states and my father's home in the UK, they both gave me my own working space just to keep the metric tons of paintings and supplies confined to one area, instead of taking over the whole house.

So i believe art is my calling. its not work to me.

I am hoping to be a museum curator, and typically, a master's is a preferred to run the whole lot.

quote:

ORIGINAL: barelynangel

There are many many people i know who are going for their PhD in their chosen fields.  However, they are doing it after having been in their field for a while.  There are many people who i know have their PhDs and i would suggest you may want to consider first working in the field you want to get your Ph.D. in as it does kind of suck if you spend time getting a PhD only to realize 20 years down the road its not something that actually benefits you.  I know a couple people like this and its very frustrating for them.  However, if you are interested in teaching in the field you get your PhD as in college -- i hear they get some pretty cushy jobs lol and usually are very well off because of the PhD.

To me, if you are going to put your time and energy getting a PhD, you may as well get it in something you 1) enjoy, 2) will be able to use to benefit yourself at a career etc.

Otherwise, to me, i would work on getting a master's in your other degree, and then perhaps work in the field you are interested in pursuing a PhD in before putting time and energy into it.  Because your field may not need one and while it may make you feel important, to me, if you can't use it, it really doesn't make sense to get one -- and it makes people raise eyebrows when someone says they have a PhD and end up in the extreme working in a low paying job that they are miserable at and their PhD didn't benefit them at all.

How fulfilling would that be?  I agree that if you are wanting simply the "letters" behind your name, become a doctor or a nurse or a college professor, or pick a field wherein the letters will actually do you some good.

Personally, if you don't know really what you want to be when you grow up -- i would instead of the PhD go for more education in other fields -- i.e., getting specific masters in various fields so that if you do decide to change fields you will have the education and your experience of working will actually help you move through the careers more laterally.

angel


_____________________________

I hate when I'm wearing my apple bottom jeans, but i can't find my boots with the fur.

(in reply to barelynangel)
Profile   Post #: 24
RE: Anybody have higher than a master's degree? - 10/30/2010 5:39:11 AM   
barelynangel


Posts: 6233
Status: offline
Then you have a direction, if a PhD will actually help go for it, if not -- and it seems as you said you aren't tired of school yet -- art has many concepts you can get a Master's as does history that would help you in becoming an excellent coveted curator.  . 

From what i hear the competition is tough, i would make sure to go out and speak to many different curators (in both countries) who work in the areas you are interested in and see what do they recommend with regard to the direction you should take your education -- staight to the top with one aspect or more versatile range of education?  Their experience to me would be like gold, because being 21, you aren't exactly a threat to them as they probably wouldn't realize you are finishing a Master's instead of starting one, and you can simply appear like a college student who is eager to learn.  I ouldn't tell them otherwise.  They will probably be more open to explaining what they wished they would have done differently with regards to their education, and see what direction their education went and is going.

Good luck.  angel

_____________________________


What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
R.W. Emerson


(in reply to MissAsylum)
Profile   Post #: 25
RE: Anybody have higher than a master's degree? - 10/30/2010 11:58:35 AM   
popeye1250


Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: MissAsylum


um, no. never.

the medical doesn't appeal to me in any way shape or form. thanks for the suggestion though.

quote:

ORIGINAL: popeye1250

MissAsylum, have you ever considered medical school?
You could do it in about the same time it would take you to get a Ph.D.
And there's a shortage of M.D.s in the country. If you wanted to do it you could get it for nothing by joining the Navy or Air Force and they'll pay for everything. And you'd be a lt with full benefits and about $3,000 a month while going to school. After that you owe them 6 years in the fleet. Just a thought.
I have a friend who's a Ph.D at Tufts in Boston, a Bio-Chemist.
He said he "lives" at the lab, he just sleeps at home.



I knew a woman in Boston who was going to get a Ph.D but everyone told her she'd be "overqualified" and noone would hire her so she got another Master's instead.
She told me that in one of the stalls in the ladie's room at a school she went to someone had written in magic marker just above the toilet paper dispenser; "Bachelor's degrees, take one."

_____________________________

"But Your Honor, this is not a Jury of my Peers, these people are all decent, honest, law-abiding citizens!"

(in reply to MissAsylum)
Profile   Post #: 26
RE: Anybody have higher than a master's degree? - 10/31/2010 12:30:13 PM   
marioprty


Posts: 1
Joined: 8/14/2010
Status: offline
I am getting my M.Ed right now.. I want to get a PhD, but I think it'd be more for personal achievement and study later on rather than for a job... I don't know, we'll see. 

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Profile   Post #: 27
RE: Anybody have higher than a master's degree? - 10/31/2010 2:07:56 PM   
Steponme73


Posts: 552
Joined: 11/9/2007
Status: offline
Like some of the others here I have 2 Master's degrees and I worked on my PhD. I finished all the course work, but ran out of time, desire and money. The process can be really good, really bad or somewhere in the middle. My advisor was really a great person and basically told me that I was at a point where a PhD might hurt me. As others have mentioned, PhD does not guarantee you a job. In fact, it may guarantee that you don't even get an interview.
Some small minded people feel threatened by people with PhD's. I never told anyone that I had 2 Master's Degrees for the same reason. Take a look at your profession, and see what is available. You might find that you are better off getting into a museum somewhere and getting real life experience. Then if you see a PhD is necessary go for it!
I really think PhD's are over rated. I have lots of friends who are there...some of them really shouldn't be! They just slogged through it and with dogged determination made it.
Think about it before you do it.

< Message edited by Steponme73 -- 10/31/2010 2:09:22 PM >

(in reply to samboct)
Profile   Post #: 28
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