IF you are going to do a masters, do a thesis. When I was job hunting prior to my PHD, I had a lot of interviewers ask me what I did my THesis on and what did I TA. I know there are a lot of worthwhile non-thesis masters, but if you do a thesis, you always have the experience of doing some research which will open your eyes to other options you may not have considered. Without it, its going to be pretty difficult to defend your understanding of the research process. Not impossible, but difficult.
Malcolm McCallum On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 3:31 PM, Sean <[email protected]> wrote: > Having graduated with an abysmal GPA from Colorado State University back in > 2000 ( wildlife > biology 2.7), I have found it very difficult getting into graduate school. > Two winters ago I > completed two graduate level classes at Oregon State: Forest Wildlife > Management and a > graduate Statistics course. Unfortunately just a B+ on the statistics but A > on the wildlife. Of > course I have a ton of field experience going back 14 years in lots of > different taxonomic > groups. Having just turned 36 I'm at my wits end trying to move forward. > So I am soliciting > advice. Would a non-thesis program like the field naturalist program at U. > of Vermont be > worthwhile? Frankly at this point I want to get into something permanent. > I'll always engage > my naturalists interest regardless of the employment I have. If I do > something unfunded (such > as non-thesis) I would really need to have good employment prospects coming > out of it. > Sage words of wisdom are welcome! I'm completely open to any and all > advice. My ideal > situation would be a thesis based M.S. on any of the many taxa I have > experience with (birds, > butterflies, amphibians, bats, plants etc). > > -Sean -- Malcolm L. McCallum Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry School of Biological Sciences University of Missouri at Kansas City Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology "Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - Allan Nation 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
