I can’t speak to job opportunities for geoscience master’s students, but I can say that it is less common for MS students to be paid or have their tuition covered than it is for PhD students. For a PhD student, it is usual for a school to (formally or informally) promise to support them for 4-6 years through a combination of fellowships, research, and teaching assistantships - though in some cases there may be an undergrad GPA requirement (eg. 3.0) to get fellowships or longer-term funding promises. Master’s programs, not so much.
You should carefully conifer if you can afford to pay the tuition without going deeply into debt. If not, and if you don’t have a clear idea of some lucrative job you could snag with the degree that you can’t get without it, you should at least wait until you have heard from all the programs you may have applied for. Many people choose to work for a few years before applying to graduate programs, which can be helpful both in paying off undergraduate loans and gaining a clearer idea of what kinds of research/careers one is most interested in. If this professor is really interested in working with you, you should stay in contact with her. If you the program accepted you this year, they would probably accept you next year too, especially if your prospective advisor has found some funding and can advocate for you. EM On Mar 1, 2016, at 7:50 PM, Alexander Sousa <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello. > > I have just been informed of my acceptance to a Geoscience/geobiology > M.S. program with a great advisor on the east coast. The only catch is a > total lack of funding as of now. The professor pulling for me has told > me she has a few pans in the fire for securing funding but that they are > all somewhat unlikely and that given the burden of 27,000 tuition that > she does not expect me to matriculate. > > My question to all of you kind and intelligent Ecologgers is: Should I > take this position or should I wait? > > Here is some background to help you understand my situation: > > I am an aspiring researcher/professor of astrobiology or some such > related field (geomicrobiology, extremophile microbiology etc. with a > bachelors degree (2.74 GPA) in biology from BU and a current teaching > position at a local high school. I intend to obtain a PhD as soon as > possible (although maybe that is a poor plan) > > I have about 3 years of collective experience in labs ranging from > biogeochemistry to extremophile microbiology and am hoping to be > published in the coming months. > > My GRE scores are: > > 162 in the verbal reasoning putting me in the 90th percentile > 159 on the quantitative reasoning putting me in the 75th percentile > 4 on the analytical writing putting me in the 56th percentile. > > I am also taking 2 graduate courses at local universities as a non- > matriculated student and expect to do well in them. (ArcGIS & Chemical > oceanography) > > > My largest unknowns are; my lack of real understanding as to what sorts > of employment opportunities exist for me to recoup my expenditure in the > short term and the mysterious nature of the graduate funding machine... > > The real question is... should I wait until next cycle and try my luck > again, hopefully with better results since my grades from my grad > courses will now be in and my publication should be completed. OR is the > nature of these things pretty ephemeral and should I just jump on this > opportunity and recoup the loans later? (The Bureau of Labor Statistics > projects great growth and median salary for geoscientists at a masters > level.) > > > WHAT DO YOU THINK!!!??? > > thanks so much everyone!
