Benefits of a Graduate Degree
What can you do with a graduate degree that you
can’t with a Bachelors degree?
Ph.D. Degree
For starters, a doctoral (Ph.D.) degree allows you
to be your own boss. You can have your own lab and run your own research
program. You can write grants based on your ideas and submit them to
national funding agencies. You can travel to scientific meetings all over
the world to present your results. You can be the main author on papers
that appear in prestigious journals like Science, Nature, and American
Journal of Physiology.
You can teach and train students at the
undergraduate and graduate level and postdoctoral fellows. You can work
with pharmaceutical companies on the production of new life-saving drugs.
You can serve on review boards for granting agencies and journals.
You can help shape the future of professional societies by serving
on their committees and governing boards. You have the opportunity to
travel both nationally and internationally to attend meetings, present
your research, and collaborate with other physiologists.
In research, a Bachelor’s degree will allow you
to work as a technician for someone else, helping with his/her research
projects. While you may be allowed to work on an idea of your own, it will
depend on the person for whom you work. You may be an author on a paper
and you may be allowed to attend a meeting and present your data, but that
is certainly not the norm. You wouldn’t be invited to sit on review
boards or committees. With a Bachelor’s degree you could teach science
at a middle or high school or a science museum, but you would need special
courses and educational certification in most cases.
So it depends on what your goals for your career
are. Talk to your professors and family/friends and get their
perspectives. In the end, though, it’s your decision.
Master’s Degree
In between a Bachelor’s and a doctoral degree is
a Master’s degree. Some schools have a formal Master’s degree program,
whereas other schools award a Master’s degree if you finish your
coursework toward a doctoral degree but decide not to complete a research
thesis.
A Master’s degree allows you more opportunities and usually a better
salary than does a Bachelor’s degree. Often you will be the person
coordinating the lab, including overseeing technicians and graduate and
undergraduate students, for the Professor or Principal Investigator. In
some labs and companies, you may even be allowed to have your own research
project and be included on scientific papers as an author.
Should you prefer teaching to research, you often are also able to
teach at community colleges and some undergraduate institutions. You might
also consider teaching at the high school level, although additional
educational coursework and certification would be required in most cases.
See also:
Considering Graduate School? Answer These Five Questions Before You Decide
Randall S. Hansen, Quintessential Careers
Science Master's Education
Website
Commission on Professionals in Science & Technology, includes
- Articles
- Data and Statistics
- Database of Master's Degree programs
- Surveys
- FAQs
If you are really unsure, you might want to look at the following
sections:
Graduate school or work experience first?
Graduate/professional
school: What should I expect?
Back to Preparing
for Graduate Work
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