ATOT Physics graduates, help me out here!

[Eeezee]

I'm a first-year physics graduate student. I'm having a great time in my courses, but I didn't enjoy my research over the summer very much... and that is potentially the research that I'll be doing for my six years as a PhD graduate student.

I'm finding that leaving after two years with a Masters is becoming very alluring. Do any ATOT members have a masters in physics? I'm interested in what king of careers are still open to a masters and whether the pay is significantly less than I'd get with a PhD. I'm finding that I enjoy teaching more than research, would I be able to teach a community college or something with just a master's? I could get any high school position already, but I'd really like to teach at the college level if at all possible.

And what other careers are out there for my degree? I'm having trouble finding resources for this kind of information.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Why not talk to an old professor? I'm not a physics major, but am taking it right now as it's required. My professor worked with some major company researching the turbulence that submarines go through and things like that. I have no idea the pay, but if he was there for most of his time after graduating with his PhD, so I'm sure it wasn't too shabby. He changed to becoming a professor because "he could."
And as for the community college thing, I believe you could. My grandpa was qualified for a position at the local CC next to him in Daytona, but he chose to teach at the local high school instead because it was closer. He graduated from Syracuse with his masters, not PhD.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: Eeezee
I'm a first-year physics graduate student. I'm having a great time in my courses, but I didn't enjoy my research over the summer very much... and that is potentially the research that I'll be doing for my six years as a PhD graduate student.

I'm finding that leaving after two years with a Masters is becoming very alluring. Do any ATOT members have a masters in physics? I'm interested in what king of careers are still open to a masters and whether the pay is significantly less than I'd get with a PhD. I'm finding that I enjoy teaching more than research, would I be able to teach a community college or something with just a master's? I could get any high school position already, but I'd really like to teach at the college level if at all possible.

And what other careers are out there for my degree? I'm having trouble finding resources for this kind of information.

With a Master's degree, you can usually teach at the high school (with higher pay than undergrad degree), community college, and associate professor (at a 4 year university) levels.

To teach high school physics, you will need to get your teacher certification.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: Eeezee
I'm a first-year physics graduate student. I'm having a great time in my courses, but I didn't enjoy my research over the summer very much... and that is potentially the research that I'll be doing for my six years as a PhD graduate student.

I'm finding that leaving after two years with a Masters is becoming very alluring. Do any ATOT members have a masters in physics? I'm interested in what king of careers are still open to a masters and whether the pay is significantly less than I'd get with a PhD. I'm finding that I enjoy teaching more than research, would I be able to teach a community college or something with just a master's? I could get any high school position already, but I'd really like to teach at the college level if at all possible.

And what other careers are out there for my degree? I'm having trouble finding resources for this kind of information.

With a Master's degree, you can usually teach at the high school (with higher pay than undergrad degree), community college, and associate professor (at a 4 year university) levels.

To teach high school physics, you will need to get your teacher certification.

you really dont have to have your teching cert to start teaching, alot of schools are hurting for science teachers and will hire yo uwith just a BS or MS and let you start and work on your cert as you go, actually not a bad deal

ill prob get my physics masters at some point, however im enjoying working ATM, cant give you much advice, but if you can change your reseach that would prob be a good thing

 

[arcas]

With a MS, you could probably teach at some community colleges or even at smaller universities. Similarly, some smaller computer science departments will also bring in folks with MS in CS to teach if they're having trouble filling a faculty position. I doubt you'll ever achieve any form of tenure with only a MS so your job will always be insecure.

Honestly, a MS in physics isn't worth much more than a BS to the private sector. A couple grad student friends of mine who went the MS route had an awfully hard time finding a job. Hell, it's hard finding a job with a PhD unless it's in the "right" area of physics. PhD in condensed matter/solid state physics? Semiconductor companies will trip over themselves to hire you and you can pretty much name your salary. PhD in particle physics? You're probably going to be stuck in post-doc hell for years to come.

One guy finally found a job halfway across the country as a tester for a lab equipment company. Not particularly exciting or well-paying work but he was getting desperate.

I don't mean to rain on your parade but this is a good time to make sure you have a second option in case the physics thing don't pan out as well as you'd hoped.

 

[Anubis]

eh i got a good job doing process engineering and data sampleing/predictions with just a BS in physics, no area of specility, if i got my MS or PHD i would make quite a bit more here, move up on the food chain as it were

 

[Gibsons]

I'm assuming you've got a very strong math background, which means you could maybe look at some actuarial/analysis jobs. Pretty far removed from physics, but the pay can be good.

 

[sjwaste]

I don't have a physics degree at all, but I will chime in and say that if you can add some business education to that, it will enhance your marketability. You might not work in a typical "physics" type job, but for instance, a lot of folks with engineering degrees double in business and come out and work in Six Sigma as black belts. The pay is pretty good and the work is fairly interesting, applying a method to remedy the classic "gut feel" business decisions.

I have a BBA in Economics and feel that I had a lot more options than my BS and especially BA counterparts from the economics program (my school awards all 3). A lot of organizations want to flatten out and increase efficiency by hiring business folks who can actually do something (programming, applied math/physics/engineering, etc) to solve problems after they're done throwing darts at the solution board (those really dont exist, but that's basically a good illustration; see also jump to conclusions mat).

Oh, also, patent law is an option. If you leave after 2 years with your MS, spend the next 3 in law school, you come out a year ahead of the PhD and can enter a very lucrative (because of the short supply of qualified attorneys) patent bar. Hell, I'm considering going back for more science credits (did the math already in undergrad) just so I can sit for the patent bar exam. I'm in law school now, at night, doing the above mentioned activities at work during the day, and it seems like it might be a good route.

I got off on a tangent here, but hopefully I helped just a little.

 

[Eeezee]

Wow, such horrifying responses! I hope I'm not screwed. Is particle physics really that undesirable? It's still a physics PhD; it still demonstrates that I'm a great learner and a hard worker. Clearly a nanomaterials lab is going to want to hire a PhD condensed matter physicist, but a particle physicist should be able to go many places. Actually, I've heard there are a lot of particle physics PhDs on Wallstreet. In the end, it's mostly the same thing; your'e analyzing numbers and writing computer code.

sjwaste, patent law sounds interesting. Is law school really only three years? Any more details you have on this subject would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to PM me (or maybe I'll PM you if you don't see the post).

 

[sjwaste]

Yep, law school's 3 years full time, 4 years at night. I go at night. This is in the USA, btw. Feel free to PM with questions, I'm glad to help.

 

[Fritzo]

The only Masters ATOT members have is in debating.

The "Master-'Baters" are what we call them.