alright, so I wonder. If I wanted to go to another university, which strategy is the best to pick? I got to know on the internet that Americans don't do Master's degrees, but in Europe it is neccesary or a tradition. So I wonder whether to go to a different university for a Master's degree. However, it just lasts one or two years, and program differences between universities might be difficult to even out to follow the curriculum. It might also result in having to take a gap year if I change unis, which ... has its upsides and downsides. I am serious about wanting to do a PhD, so I wonder if not start from there. If not apply elsewhere from there. It could be more convenient. If I decide to do a PhD after all, because that's a few years ahead. And also, time passes, life passes. Little happens. It's frustrating A change for Master's might also leave me with an unclear PhD situation, because adapting to a new school might cause worse grades and reasearch opportunities. I very well have both at my current uni. But maybe the opposite, I don't know, it's a gamble.
I mean, in Europe unless you have a Master’s degree, it’s as if you didn’t have a degree. From what I know in America most people finish on Bachelor if they attend university. I am saying that in case someone would read it and be like “why the heck go to grad school? Get a job” No. i’m not going to land a job without a Master’s. That ain’t gonna happen in this part of the world.
I also wanted to add that changing the university might require a gap year, which has its upsides and downsides.
It depends on your major whether you need to go for a master's or not. Most law, medicine or IT graduates don't require one in order to get hired, unless you count the post uni internship/fellowship period. But if you're a psychology/literature/history grad I see why you'd need a master's to improve your chances of getting past being a teacher assistant or worse. I think getting your postgraduate degree abroad not only helps your resume stand out but makes you get out of your comfort zone and grow so much more than you would at your current uni. But that's just my two cents. Best of luck
It's kind of become the way here where an Associates degree means virtually nothing, a Bachelors is bare minimum, and a Masters or higher is preferred for a lot of professional jobs. So getting a Masters is absolutely doable in the states, and encouraged. For me personally the main downside of grad school is that it's often really expensive. From what I've heard getting an education in the US is ridiculously expensive compared to Europe. Fresh out of university, it is not uncommon for graduates to be carrying a student loan debt in the tens of thousands, sometimes even over a hundred thousand dollars if you go somewhere nice. But is the expense worth having a fulfilling career? Possibly. I would only say, if you're in Europe, weigh your options. Why do you want to attend school in the US? Are those reasons compelling enough to move to another country? Will the cost be realistic? It also depends on what you're studying too. We have some schools which are absolutely amazing, but it depends on your field, as to whether there is not something comparable in Europe. If you're in a good place and can get the education you need at your current university, why change that?
Like Kodo said, a masters is almost required in the U.S. these days too. An associates degree gets you absolutely nothing and just looks better than a high school diploma on a resume. The only degrees I know of where you can get a well paying job straight out of college with only a bachelors are engineering and computer science, maybe finance too if you make good connections. Most other things are starting to need a masters degree and a few years of work experience before getting paid a fair salary. There are also some career fields in the U.S. where you can barely do anything without a Ph.D or other doctoral degree. For example in any aspect of science a bachelors degree only qualifies you for a nearly minimum wage lab technician job, a masters degree gets you higher paying but still low salary research assistant type jobs or teaching, and a Ph.D is needed to become a 'real scientist' and get paid a livable salary (even then it's still low considering you needed a Ph.D to get there). Then there are the careers where you can't work in them at all without a doctorate, like attorneys, physicians, pharmacists etc. Also yea grad school is super expensive in the U.S. Masters degrees cost like $35,000+ in tuition on top of the $40,000+ you already paid for your bachelors, and if you need a professional doctorate you might as well just start lighting money on fire - law school is $150,000+ and medical school is $250,000-$350,000 and that's not even including interest.
In some programs, you can get a Masters on the way to a Doctorate. Which also leaves you the option of bailing with just the M.A. (or M.S.) if you want. In general, it seems (to me) that getting a Masters is a lot simpler: you do the course work, pass the exams, maybe write something and you're there. A Ph.D. is a much bigger gamble: finding compatible advisor(s), interesting research, making real progress in discovering something new, writing it up, defending it, etc. A lot of things can derail that progress. I'm a case in point, alas.
Sorry I was wrong about the Master’s! :O But yeah, my degree is in computer science... No, I don’t specifically want to study in the US, I’m just considering it as an option, however, I think it’s just too far. I don’t think I’d gain this much socially by moving to America. I meantioned America, because vast majoroty of English speakers and hence people on this forum are American. As for why change university, it’s mostly a social problem for me. People slack it off too much for my taste. Even though it’s a good school in objective terms. This lack of ambition kills me. A lot of people are not intellectually curious at all. If I changed schools, maybe I’d get to know more people at least. Or just try something new and have a more interesting life. The way it works here is that you do a Master’s degree first and only then you can pursue a PhD. Although it is possible to open the dissasertion earlier but you can’t get the PhD not having a Master first. The paper.
But yes, the American fees are the worst... if it were just a year, it’s a bearable sum, but paying five times this... it’s like half of what a person earns in their lifetime! :O if we subtract food and other daily use things.
Ha, the Ph.D. that I went for (and didn't finish, as per my caveat above) was in CS. (Compilers.) The others were EE and Math. What kind of stuff are you interested in? You do have to have a passion for it, to be able to push through the tedium and self-questioning.
High five, fellow computer scientist. Oh well, I'm stuck in beginner courses so far. I'm trying hard, but I don't have an idea what I could be interested in specifically. But I do suffer intellectual boredom. Data science is something I have a vague attraction to.
It does sound like your current place isn't stimulating enough. Number crunching with Python is a very thriving area right now. And will only heat up. Good luck!
