Will top universities accept me to their Graduate Program?

Master's vs. PhD for a Program Evaluation/Impact Assessment Career

• I'm halfway through a two-year master's degree in an applied social science field, and would eventually like to work as an evaluator for a non-profit or the government. Should I pursue a PhD on top of the master's? After graduating from college and working for about six years, I returned to school for a master's degree, and am about to start my second (and final) year. My program is focused on applied social science research. The coursework is only tangentially related to my past professional experience, so most of what I'm learning is new information for me--statistics, quantitative/qualitative research, program evaluation & assessment, survey methods, etc. I'm also working at an assistantship and summer internship, both of which are relevant to my program of study. So far, I've been happy with the program and classes, but I'm starting to worry that a master's alone won't be enough for me to advance in my future career. When I graduate, I'd like to work in program evaluation or impact assessment for a non-profit, cultural institution, or the government. I've looked at job openings in these fields, and am somewhat concerned about the number of listings that require or prefer a PhD. Of course, this doesn't apply to every job I've seen. Some will accept either a PhD or a master's plus a few years experience, and some only require a master's. I know the standard advice is to steer clear of PhD programs unless you want to be a professor, but I'm starting to wonder if--for applied research careers--I might be shortchanging myself by stopping at a master's. I guess I'm worried that 10 or 20 years down the road, my career will stagnate and I won't be able to move beyond a certain level without the doctorate. I would enjoy taking more upper-level graduate classes, and am confident that I could do the PhD without debt (at my current institution, at least). However, I have to admit that I'm less enthusiastic about writing a dissertation. Although I have some ideas about potential dissertation topics, it's hard to stomach the thought of spending 2-3 years working mostly alone on a project only a handful of people are likely to read. I tend to prefer working with others, shifting my focus between multiple projects, and analyzing or solving practical problems. Moreover, I'd be 33 or 34 by the time I graduated with a PhD. This seems late to be jumping into a relatively new career. That said, if the lack of a PhD is going to seriously hinder my job prospects, I think I'd be foolish to avoid it. So...how should I proceed from here? Graduate with a master's degree, skip the doctorate, and spend my time gaining work experience instead? Keep going for the PhD? Consider returning for a PhD in a few years (even though I'll be in my mid-late thirties by then) if it turns out that having only a master's is indeed a career hindrance?

• Answer:

  it's hard to stomach the thought of spending 2-3 years working mostly alone on a project only a handful of people are likely to read I know this is the stereotype, but if it turns out like this, you might have chosen the wrong topic. Especially since you're interested in immediate problems and solutions. Speaking from what I've seen in social-science-ish cognitive psychology/neuroscience, many students' theses are simply 3+ of their published (or submitted) papers as chapters with some transition pages, supplemental material, an intro, and conclusions. Articles certainly get read if they're in middling-or-better journals. shifting my focus between multiple projects Out of everything you've said, this is the biggest roadblock I see. But then, like above, you can be interested in multiple aspects of the same problem, publish on them, and string them together with a bit of narrative. Do you have a PI in your program that you want to work with as an advisor, and wants to work with you? If you do, I don't see anything stopping you (other than the opportunity cost of (starting salary - stipend)*5ish years).