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STEM Academic Advising
Advice: Doing grad school abroad and getting a masters instead of PhD
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[QUOTE="gwnorth, post: 6859338, member: 602805"] Actually I've been seeing this quite frequently from students on Reddit especially in fields of Neuroscience, Counselling Psychology, and CS AI/ML where it appears that having a master's degree first is almost a necessity even for domestic applicants. I think that you need to consider that maybe the landscape of grad admissions is changing. You mean [I]US[/I] [I]terminal master's programs[/I] are not so strong. I don't think you can make that assertion about master's programs from universities in countries where it is typical/requisite to get a master's before applying to a PhD such as what the OP is talking about. So now the question becomes for students applying to US PhD programs with [I]international master's degrees[/I], is it helpful? I can't quantify that but anecdotally it seems fairly common for international applicants to US PhD programs based on what I'm seeing on Reddit (with the caveat that I know that posters on Reddit are not a representative sample). Often times their profiles are extremely impressive and they appear to be very successful in obtaining admission to top programs. I mean if you were a member of an admissions committee and had the following 2 applicants to evaluate, which would you choose: BSc from a mid-tier US university strong undergrad GPA undergrad thesis a few grad level courses average to strong LORs a couple of research experiences which might include an REU an nth author publication poster presentation MSc from a highly ranked international program a high master's GPA undergrad and master's thesis more grad level courses strong GRE/PGRE/ELP scores strong LOR's more extensive research experience including an internship at a prestigious industry lab several 1st author publications conference presentations The master's student far exceeds the basic requirements for admission to a US PhD but such is the nature of competition to top programs. US BSc applicants [I]are[/I] competing against international applicants with master's degrees, often from prestigious institutions. The fact that they will most likely not receive any credit for their master's degree and need to repeat coursework in the PhD does not appear to be a deterrent to international applicants. In fact one Physics professor at Cambridge in his advice to master's students tells them that they should apply to the US for a PhD after completing their master's degree. Now how much leverage the OP would have from a master's from a top university in South Korea, I don't know. [/QUOTE]
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Advice: Doing grad school abroad and getting a masters instead of PhD
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