Bach to Doc

whiteskies

Has anyone went from Bachelor's Degree Program to a Doctoral Program ? If so what was your experience?

I know someone who has done it and I have thought about it. I don't think it's very common, oddly enough. Seems like admission is pretty competitive. Someone suggested applying to 20 schools because you might get into one.



Sincerely,

WhiteSkies

nelson8403

Aren't the bachelor to doctorate programs the same length as Masters Doctorates? The ones I've seen are 60 credits long and you get your Masters along the way somewhere. It is much more competitive and I'm not sure what kind of Doctorate you're looking for, but the IT field may be so new that they don't offer as many.

Danielm7

Like any other educational choice, what is your end goal? Unless you want to be a researcher or a professor I can't imagine a doctorate is needed, or even requested, by any other job, ever. For what it's worth, most of my coworkers don't even have a BS degree, having an MS is pretty rare, going above that could very likely not be worth it.

si20

My experience is this: I worked in IT for 5 years before quitting work to do a BSc full time for 3 years. I missed working in the industry, so after Uni, I got a job. 6 months later, I found the environment was too slow, the manager couldn't run a bath, nevermind run a corporate security centre. I was desperate to go back to University. I couldn't afford the higher fees so I looked at PhD programmes that were funded. I had a bunch of interviews but the vast majority of PhD projects are worthless (just my opinion). There will likely be one project which makes you think: "WOW!" - but most are just a PhD project for the sake of doing a PhD project.

Instead of jumping to a PhD, I decided to do a MSc course WHILST working....(I created a thread on this, check it out). My friend however, started doing a full-time PhD, got bored and decided to do his PhD part time and work full-time. The dropout rate for PhD's is very high. You need to be very sure it's going to benefit you before you embark on it.

whiteskies

Greetings,

I see that several of the Universities that offer the Ph.D in Information Technology require/recommend a Masters Degree first. All that really means is that if you had to have a 3.2 GPA with a Masters you'll probably need like a 3.4+ without a Masters to be competitive. Some schools want a higher GPA and some schools you HAVE to have a Masters. One of the other requirements is to take the GRE Exam, resume, 2-3 Letters of Recommendation (preferably from College Professors). Every college has different credit requirements, not one size fits all. I think that someone like myself who has been in IT will have a "leg up" on Billy who has been in school since his 4 year degree. Granted Billy might have other "legs up" on me in other ways, maybe his GPA was higher, maybe the Dean of the School who plays golf with admissions wrote him a reccom.At George Mason University for example if you don't have a Masters you have to take more courses:

PhD in IT Admission Requirements - Volgenau School

I think from a financial standpoint it'll be beneficial to go straight for the Doctorate. It is like Certifications, the highest Certification matters the most. If you have CISSP is A+ on your resume really going to be the deciding factor if you get the job? Probably not. If you have GCIH or OSCP is Security+ really going to be the deciding factor if you get the job, probably not. My goal......well if I am going to pay/owe 25-50k for tuition it might as well be the highest degree possible. I think I want to be the best, I want to stand out, I have the urge for more ..educational wise. I like school I love school.

Yes, I know several people who are doing well without degrees.