second masters or jump straight into phd?!?!?
I am so confused any advice would be appreciated!!
About me:
I studied computer science with mathematics at the University of Sheffield. I did a 4 year integrated masters degree. I graduated in 2018. Since then I worked as a QA engineer and tutored. I have been completing a data science certification recently, to transition into the data science career ( i thought this would introduce analysis and research and I wanted to apply that into the domain of cognitive psychology).
However, in doing this I have realised I actually want to go into academics and research.
I don't have qualifications in psychology/neuroscience. (apart from a psychology a level)
Should I do another masters but in the area of cognitive psychology followed by a phd, or can I go straight into a phd?
Doing a masters in the related field first:
- ease back into research and education
- get foundation knowledge in the area of research
- enables me to figure out the particular research I want to do for a phd.
- if after the masters i decide I don't want to do a phd then I can go back into the career world but with another master (potentially have more career options available)
- but more costly
- and it would add an extra year
straight into Phd:
- less money spent
- no extra year taken to do masters
- do I have enough background qualifications to do the phd research in cognitive science?
- maybe i can take some online courses to get a background and still apply for a phd?
- can i get into UCL, Oxbridge, Warwick with my background?
- I'm not exactly sure of the research topic I want to study.
I would be applying for 2022/23 entry.
And so i have a full year before starting my studies.. I am currently self-employed as a programming educator...
what can I do this year to work towards my goal?
That was a lot of information! Any advice would be appreciated!! Thanks in advance
About me:
I studied computer science with mathematics at the University of Sheffield. I did a 4 year integrated masters degree. I graduated in 2018. Since then I worked as a QA engineer and tutored. I have been completing a data science certification recently, to transition into the data science career ( i thought this would introduce analysis and research and I wanted to apply that into the domain of cognitive psychology).
However, in doing this I have realised I actually want to go into academics and research.
I don't have qualifications in psychology/neuroscience. (apart from a psychology a level)
Should I do another masters but in the area of cognitive psychology followed by a phd, or can I go straight into a phd?
Doing a masters in the related field first:
- ease back into research and education
- get foundation knowledge in the area of research
- enables me to figure out the particular research I want to do for a phd.
- if after the masters i decide I don't want to do a phd then I can go back into the career world but with another master (potentially have more career options available)
- but more costly
- and it would add an extra year
straight into Phd:
- less money spent
- no extra year taken to do masters
- do I have enough background qualifications to do the phd research in cognitive science?
- maybe i can take some online courses to get a background and still apply for a phd?
- can i get into UCL, Oxbridge, Warwick with my background?
- I'm not exactly sure of the research topic I want to study.
I would be applying for 2022/23 entry.
And so i have a full year before starting my studies.. I am currently self-employed as a programming educator...
what can I do this year to work towards my goal?
That was a lot of information! Any advice would be appreciated!! Thanks in advance
For PhDs it really depends on how your background matches the specific topic, rather than the general field. So if you are applying to PhD projects in very computational/data based areas (incidentally I gather Edinburgh is probably the strongest department for this kind of research - Cambridge also has work in this area) you may well be fine. For more experimental work you may be expected to have some background in the area so you know the methodologies required.
Note also for a PhD generic concepts of "prestige"/league table rankings etc don't really apply, and it is really dependent on the supervisor, project, and strength of the research group. Often the "best" researcher in that area to supervise a PhD may not necessarily be at the conventionally highly ranked undergraduate unis. Also as noted at PhD level it is much more specific and so certain departments may be strong overall but have no/limited research in your particular area. You want to go somewhere there is a amount of research (and researchers!) in your specific area (not just general field - so if you want to do computational neuroscience work, look for big research groups in those areas).
Note also for a PhD generic concepts of "prestige"/league table rankings etc don't really apply, and it is really dependent on the supervisor, project, and strength of the research group. Often the "best" researcher in that area to supervise a PhD may not necessarily be at the conventionally highly ranked undergraduate unis. Also as noted at PhD level it is much more specific and so certain departments may be strong overall but have no/limited research in your particular area. You want to go somewhere there is a amount of research (and researchers!) in your specific area (not just general field - so if you want to do computational neuroscience work, look for big research groups in those areas).
Thanks for your reply! Very useful points you've made, in particular about choosing a suitable phd, uni, and supervisor.
In terms of specifics, I can say I want to research the impacts of particular states of the human mind on decision-making.
Would I need to be more specific than that to be considered for a Ph.D.?
Do I need to know exactly the research I want to conduct?
Can a supervisor help with refining the research focus?
However, I don't know about neurology and decision psychology academically.
I haven't carried out much research before. My dissertation was to program a Sequent Calculus for Predicate Logic using Haskell.
I know that some research groups in the area do involve an amount of computational analysis.
I feel that doing a masters first would give me more confidence, practice and ability to select the appropriate PhD...
But I'm not sure....
In terms of specifics, I can say I want to research the impacts of particular states of the human mind on decision-making.
Would I need to be more specific than that to be considered for a Ph.D.?
Do I need to know exactly the research I want to conduct?
Can a supervisor help with refining the research focus?
However, I don't know about neurology and decision psychology academically.
I haven't carried out much research before. My dissertation was to program a Sequent Calculus for Predicate Logic using Haskell.
I know that some research groups in the area do involve an amount of computational analysis.
I feel that doing a masters first would give me more confidence, practice and ability to select the appropriate PhD...
But I'm not sure....
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