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Is Masters worth it ?

Hey guys, I am a current student at kingston university. My initial goal was to do pharmacy at university. But after finding out that I wasn't strong with chemistry. I thought I would struggle. I ended up doing a degree in pharmacology and now I'm in my last year looking at a 2:1 when I finish. I am considering of doing a Masters in Drug Discovery and Development. But I have heard that a lot of jobs in the industry will still prefer experience even if you have a Masters. Therefore I was wondering is there really any point in doing masters. My worst case scenario would be wasting all the money I have saved and not get a job at the end of the day.

Reply 1

alleycat393

For career progression in research you will need a higher degree but yes work experience counts for a lot. I'd say if you can do the masters now and get it out of the way go for it and then build on your work experience. See if you can do an MRes or a course that lets you do a project in industry. That'll help you to build up a network.

Reply 2

DrSocSciences

Different scenario, but yes, for me, Masters was worth it. To resume career after having children.

Reply 3

zombiejon

A Master's will give you a bit of a head start compared to a BSc/BPharm. However, you have to factor in the time it takes to get the Master's degree.

Most of the posting's I've seen for drug development consider a Master's to be worth 2 years of experience.

However, like what alleycat has said, a higher degree will be necessary for promotions. There will be more opportunities for a Master's holder to advance in the ranks versus a someone with only a Bachelor degree.

Reply 4

frozen_fire

Doing a master's (particularly an MRes) can be highly worthwhile because it gives you a depth of research experience that isn't usually possible within the confines of an undergrad degree. If you decide to do a PhD afterwards, a master's is ideal preparation and would put you at an advantage during the application stage. For a career in industry however, I agree with you that time spent working for a pharma/biotech company might be more beneficial experience than spending a year in an academic lab.

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Reply 5

abshir95

Original post by zombiejon

Yeah you are right. The only issue is the cost. I just got an offer from UCL but I decided to take a different course anyway. I chose Drug Discovery because It was a topic in which I was curious about and a topic that I did not study in detail during my degree. But I have always been interested in Cancer, I have applied for an Msc Cancer Therapeutics at the Barts Cancer Institute in Queen Marys. The tuition fees are a bit cheaper and they offer some of the students to work at the institute or they fund them for Phd.