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Being a new Ph.D program guinea pig

Rogue Robot

Rogue Robot

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In the next year or so, my department at school is looking to have a Ph.D program implemented along with the other degree programs we currently have (B.A., B.S., B.S./M.S., M.S.). I have been approached by a few faculty members and two separate advisors in my department to be a guinea pig for the Ph.D program.

As exciting as it sounds to do this, I'm wondering how much of a headache I will be in for if I decide to do this. I initially was going to finish my B.A. (recently switched from B.S.) and work on a M.S. immediately after and stay at my current university as some of the research I will be doing have the advisors that I need for this.

I was speaking to one of my research advisors on his opinion of it, and he didn't really give me much of an opinion on my particular situation other than deal with it later.

So, has anyone else ever been in a similar situation, or am I going to end up biting off more than I can chew?
 
I say go for it :)

If your goal is academia and research, then going straight to the PhD skips 2 years of Masters work.

What would the funding situation be? What about tuition? I ask this because here in Australia, if you are a local student, basically tuition is covered by the government/university, and you get funded by scholarship - wooHOO free degree :)
 
They are currently ironing out the funding situation, as funding issues have always been a problem in our department.

This is awkward to explain, but our Master's program is currently 30 credit hours (including research credits), and the proposed PhD program is 90 credit hours, where if you do the MS first, you are waived 30 credit hours. All in all, it's the same amount of work, but I guess I'm more hesitant at the thought of instead of having "guided" research, I'll be thrown down the stairs with little guidance. :\
 
^^
Well, all phds are guided research in the sense that your supervisor steers you along, especially during the beginning stages. It depends on the kind of project they are wanting you to work on.

Is this phd the kind where you can pick your own research topic and then just go for it? Or do they have some specific work that they are offering as a chance for someone to get a phd by doing some research that they have received funding to do? Either of these have their advantages. Whilst you get freedom on the first option, getting on board another project usually means you have much much more money to work with than your average phd student, and you will probably have the opportunity to collect some really genuinely amazing data.
 
satricion said:
Is this phd the kind where you can pick your own research topic and then just go for it?
Click to expand...

Yes, all of our research programs in my department are the same, even undergraduate research. The higher the degree, the more freedom you have, obviously, but generally students come up with some sort of topic of interest, and so long as there's an advisor there that can help you, you're able to do what you want. I'm currently pondering my undergraduate research. I THOUGHT I knew what I was going to do, but my interests have changed. They are similar, but quite different at the same time.
 
So what exactly are you concerned about?

If you think a phd is for you then go ahead and do it. The opportunity to do a phd is a tremendous privilege, and if you think you are up for the amount of work required (and it is an enormous amount of work) then go for it.
 
I suppose so, but the most important thing with a phd is you, and your supervisor. If you have a good supervisor who is experienced in supervising phd projects, whose work you respect and who cares about how well their students do then you'll be fine. If you have a good supervisor they won't let you fuck up.
 
It sounds like a great opportunity. My only advice would be to make sure one of your PhD supervisors is someoen who has had experience supervising a PhD student.

My PhD supervisor had only had like 2 before I came on board and she was terrible! Nice lady, just useless. So I was one of her guinea pigs. And I now co-supervise a student with her and she hasn't learnt from her past.

So just make sure that you have someone around you that is experienced.
 
You have to be 110% if you want to succeed. I had a friend who just graduated from law school, and it was tough...
 
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