This blog post is about how to decide between a Master’s and a doctoral program.
You can read about graduate school in the post entitled What Is Graduate School? and about some considerations before attending graduate school in the post entitled Is Graduate School Right for You?
Remember Hamlet? To Be or Not To Be? Yes, But Not Such a Fatal Dilemma!
If you are determined to pursue graduate studies, your next step is to figure out if you want to complete a Master’s or a doctoral degree. How do you make this decision with a Bachelor’s in Spanish? In a Foreign Language? Or any other degree in the humanities? There are several factors that you should consider. In my view, one of the most important is determining your goal after you complete a higher degree.
Some students in the humanities know that they want to do research. They aspire to teach at universities and are attracted to academia because they want to follow the path of those professors who inspired them. For them, pursuing graduate studies is the next logical step. In other cases, students decide to follow this path because they do not know what to do or think that they have not yet acquired the skills to make them successful on the job market.
The reality is that you do not need a Master’s or a PhD to build a successful career or have a meaningful life. Also, you do not need to make this decision right now, under pressure, or without the information that you need. In the same venue, you can always change your mind.
In this post, I focus on having a degree in Spanish or a foreign language. Keep in mind that these are suggestions. Ultimately, you are the one making the decision based on your particular circumstances.
Do a Master’s if...
... you are planning to be a teacher, a translator, or a professional with language proficiency, such as an interpreter, or a cultural ambassador. Although the purpose of a Master’s degree is not to improve your language skills, a Master’s program can help you to be a strong candidate for positions of leadership or that require a high degree of language proficiency.
For example, let’s imagine that two candidates are applying to teach Spanish at an elementary school. It is likely that the candidate with a Master’s has more teaching experience or training than the one with a Bachelor’s degree. The candidate with the Master’s will be perceived as more experienced and definitely would be in a better position to negotiate a higher salary or work towards becoming the principal someday.
Do a PhD if...
...you are interested in doing serious research in a lab, archive, or library and in publishing your research in academic journals or presses. At this point, you might have identified an area of interest, which can be a period, a literary topic, or a region. You also care about reading and writing more than the people you know. You can always have a career outside academia that allows you to do these things, but for a PhD they are essential.
Do the PhD if you are absolutely interested in pursuing the degree with the awareness that you might not land a tenure-track position or might take years to get one. DO NOT BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE SPECIAL! I have met incredible, brilliant, hard-working people with good mentors and contacts who never got a tenure track job. The opposite is also true. Despite the seductive narrative, academia is not a meritocracy...very few organizations are... I cannot think of one...
If possible, explore other possibilities outside of academia while you are pursuing a doctoral degree. Get in the habit of learning about hiring trends, and, more importantly, acquiring new skills. Aim to learn a new skill as a way to cope with the challenges of writing your dissertation.
Final Considerations
Once you make this decision, spend some time learning about different programs: cost, requirements, years, financial aid, courses, faculty members, and resources. You can find this information on the program’s website.
You can also contact current students in the program to gather more information. Be mindful of the conflict of interest in speaking with people who are part of the program. As a prospective student, these conversations are more recruitment strategies than a candid opinion about the program. Campus visits are similar to the early stages of a romantic relationship; everyone (including you) wants to show their best self!
If you have the resources, apply to several programs without getting paralyzed about the outcome. At this point, you can control submitting the best materials you can, but not the decision of getting admitted to a program. Having several applications would minimize your fears of rejection.
Are you going considering doing a Master’s? A PhD? What is attractive about these degrees? How can they help you achieve your professional goal?