Exploring Graduate & Career Options After 5-Year Masters

[EP]

Hi, I'm a junior undergraduate and I'm starting to look at graduate schools. My school offers an accelerated 5 year masters of physics program that I have to announce my interest in this year if I want to do it. My question is can get my masters now and then in 4-6 years come back and get my Phd? Would this cause much of a problem? And could I work full time and expect to finish in a relatively normal amount of time? What kind of schools could I get into after this elapsed period of time? The thing is there are certain career goals I have that I really only have a chance of doing while I'm young so I have sort decided to go for them now since I have the rest of my life to get Phd.

 

[Dr Transport]

I got my masters, then went out to work. I returned to a PhD program 2 years later without any problems. I worked as both a teaching assistant and graduate research assistant while getting my degree. Even spent 2 years working a regular full-time job along with getting my degree. (most programs don't like that but if they aren't paying you they really don't have a say in the matter, you have to eat and pay the rent.) It took me 8 years to get my PhD after all was said and done which really isn't out of the ordinary.

 

[EP]

Did it take you 8 years after going back or are you including you time spent on your masters? After you went back did you have to take many classes?

 

[Dr Transport]

I took 8 years after going back, I had to earn another masters on the way to the PhD. As for taking more classes, schools usually do not transfer much course work, I could only transfer 2-3 classes, the rest I had to retake. I also changed areas, I went from high energy theory to solid state theory along with getting a msters in optics. By having to retake a bunch of courses, I really learned them well and it gave me time to concentrate on my new courses as opposed to the others in my core classes who never saw Jackson or Goldstein or Reif etc...