Masters/Doctorate Question

[Palin]

Being a professor is a side job of being a researcher. No professor really teaches because they want to. College professors are there b/c universities offer them the chance to be funded and facilities to do the research they want. Colleges hire prestigious professors who are going to bring accreditation to their university, and make them teach. I worked in a research lab at UCF in Orlando and worked with a lot of PhD students and their teachers, and it became pretty obvious that the researchers hated their teaching obligations. They just wanted to research.

You can jump from B.S. to PhD, but I wouldn't recommend it. I went from a Psychology BS and applied to a bunch of PhD programs, but only got accepted for a Masters at Columbia (only lawl). In my first year I immediately realized it was a blessing in disguise. I realized I did not want to do 4-5 more years of schooling including the face-to-wall process that is a dissertation. It's safer to just apply for a MA and then go on to a PhD later in life if you choose to. You can always go back to school for your doctorate, but applying to a PhD program and then realizing halfway through you can't do it all is a waste of money and time.

[Osede]

That's all the fun stuff about being a professor. Depending where you are (assuming you want a decent pay and respectable position), you'll likely have to do research, be published, and do social service all on a regular basis to be considered for full professorship.

It is not so fun if you have not yet get the tenure. To get the tenure, it just not only about publication and teaching. But indeed, you had to get sufficient funding for your school before you are qualify to. And yet, getting a funding is not so easy nowadays, especially if you school is not rank top 50.

And if your department head is an ass, or he just being not liking you, then it is pain for your life.


but to OP, if you want to go for PhD because of income issue, how about getting into master program while working part time? All you need is just pick a right field right research topic for your master, a.k.a not involve too much into lab experiment master research. Unless you really can't get any part time job, then get into PhD program, drop out half and complete a master degree is also another choice. But this is only applied to those advisor who already get the tenure

[wop]

I hope you do know that getting masters or phd is practically useless right?
I hardly applied 5% of what I studied at uni in real life.

Get a professional qualifications after your bachelors is the way to go.