Not done with Masters yet???

Dear You,

I did explore the possibilities of applying for a direct Ph.D program and the possibities of doing Masters at one school and reapply for a Ph.D thereafter. I believed the former would just save me the ordeal of religiously going through the entire applying process again and might save me a year for one could easily couple the research work for both Masters and Ph.D at one time. I never really thought applying was a tough process and so, I was not apprehensive about applying for a 'Masters Only' stream.

Grad school, I thought, was all about research. In fact, that was what I was told during the orientation here. Unlike fields like Biology and Biological Sciences, where one gets 'hands-on' experience in doing research work at the Undergrad level, EE demands a lot of waiting. In fact, most EE guys almost end their career without exactly working in the labs designing circuits personally. Thanks to the complexities and cost of realizing VLSI/MEMS design on the devices, the need for simulation prior to deploying it on the chip is a must. And most schools world over train students in these software tools and the guys almost always end up with a job designing everything on the computer screen. A few decide to get to the labs for research and proceed further in academia. I happen to be one of them.

Winding up the course requirements as fast as I could, I felt I was all set to approach the professors here for being part of their research group. But everyone seemed to have a different perspective about 'Masters Student'. Few professors who work down in the Clean rooms and who live with the electrons, consider the time frame of one year is too less to do a Masters thesis. They believe that it would take them nearly a year to teach us the trick of working with devices and it would be improper to even talk about graduating with a Masters in the known period of two years if we wanted to go 'hands-on'! Never was I aware of this mindset of the pundits. Almost always, when I approach a professor with the research request, he would talk with me for over an hour, even If I disturb him during his lunch or during his work on some paper. Everything would go so smoothly untill the question "Where did u do your Masters?" I would reply that I am still doing it and I had been talking all about research and thesis at Masters level for which he would almost always say "Not done with a Masters yet???"!! Then he is sure to give a pessimistic nod, get back to his lunch or paper as the case may be with a clearly evident feeling that he wasted precious energy on a useless soul who is STILL NOT DONE WITH MASTERS!!!

I would'nt have been let down so easily had one professor told me this. I really started worrying when invariably every other Professor had pretty much the same to say. They could not bring themselves to waste a year on students who are just going to run to jobs after Masters. Inspite of me telling them that I had plans for a Ph.D and will be doing it immediately after Masters, I find them insisting me that I change over to Ph.D in the same university and commit a good five years for research there. Others simply dismiss my defense saying that they have seen scores say such and just run at jobs after Masters!!

Bachelors of Engineering seemed to be a study that almost everyone values and appreciate the four years that has gone into its making. Doctor of Philosophy is considered most valuable by professors and the learned pundits of the field and they seem to understand the importance of the precious five years invested in research. But I wonder if Masters is living upto its reputation at all! It just seems like people want to get over this minuscule time frame of two years and just clear the scene!! It just seems to be a last minute addition to the resume before searching job overseas! It doesnt seem to brigde the gap between a Bachelors and a Ph.D degree. Probably in the timeline of professors and post-docs, these 2 years seem really short that they have stopped respecting it. The world just expects me to cross over this 'Masters' phase as soon as possible and commit myself to a Ph.D to earn any kind of respect among the professors!! And as we all do what has been taught to us, I see no respect building up for Masters in the future as well. I may, in fact, become one of the many to join the herd in asking poor, budding researchers with a sharp mark of disrespect on my face, the same old irritating question I am tired of. "Not done with a Masters yet???"

Definitely,

Me.