Graduate student
A graduate student (also, grad student or grad in American English, postgraduate student or postgrad in British English) is an individual who has completed a bachelor's degree (B.A., B.S./B.Sc., or another flavor) and is pursuing further higher education, with the goal of achieving a master's degree (M.A., M.S./M.Sc., M.Ed., etc.) or doctorate (Ph.D, Ed.D, D.A, D.Sc, D.M.A, Th.D, etc.) In the United States, graduate education can also refer to those pursuing a post-master's Educational Specialist degree or post-master's Certificate of Advanced Study. The term usually does not refer to one in medical school and only occasionally refers to someone in law school or business school.
Admission to a masters program generally requires a BA in a related field, with sufficiently high grades (usually ranging from B+ range and up, though this requirement may be significantly higher in some faculties), recommendations from professors, and, for some fields, demonstrated ability in a foreign language or languages. Some schools require samples of the student's writing as well as a research proposal.
Admission to a doctoral program requires a masters in a related field, sufficiently high grades, recommendations, samples of writing and a research proposal. In rare cases and in some fields only, outstanding students may progress directly from an Honours BA to a PhD.
Both masters and doctoral programs may be by coursework or research or a combination, depending on the subject and faculty.
Applicants from countries where English is not the primary language are required to submit scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
Grad students must usually declare their research goal or submit a research proposal upon entering grad school; in the case of masters degrees, there will be some flexibility (that is, one is not held to one's research proposal, although major changes, for example from premodern to modern history, are discouraged). In the case of Ph.D.'s, the research direction is usually known as it will typically follow the direction of the masters research.
Masters degrees can typically be completed in one year but normally take two. Doctoral degrees require a minimum of two years but frequently take much longer. Graduate students often work as teaching or research assistants.
Funding is available for some Ph.D. courses. There is more in the sciences rather other discplines.
Many doctoral programs, and some master's programs, require students to pass one or several examinations in order to demonstrate their competency as scholars. One such test, called a Comprehensive Examination ("Comps"), often required in the first year of study, is designed to test background undergraduate-level knowledge. Passing this results in staying in the program, while failure (after a second try) results in dismissal, often with a "consolation" master's degree. In addition, during the first year many graduate students must also perform teaching duties; see "Funding" below.
Doctoral students generally spend roughly their first two years taking course work, and by their second year, students begin pursuing research. Many master's and all specialist students will perform research culminating in a paper, presentation, and defense of their research. This is called the master's thesis (or, for Educational Specialist students, the specialist paper). Many US master's degree programs, however, do not require a master's thesis, focusing instead primarily on course work.
In the second and third years of study, doctoral programs often require students to pass more examinations of their competency. Programs often require a Qualifying Examination ("Quals") or General Examination ("Generals"), testing students' grasp of a broad sample of their discipline, and/or one or several Special Field Examinations ("Specials"), testing students in their narrower selected areas of specialty within the discipline. Again, passing such examinations allows the student to stay, begin doctoral research, and rise to the status of a doctoral candidate, while failing usually results in the student leaving the program or re-taking the test after some time has passed (usually a semester or a year). Some schools have an intermediate category, passing at the Master's level, which allows the student to leave with a Master's without having completed a Master's thesis.
For the next several years (typically 3-8 years, though a rare few finish more quickly and some take substantially longer), the doctoral candidate primarily performs his or her research. The typical doctoral degree takes between 5 and 10 years from entering the program to completion, though this time varies depending upon the department, thesis topic, and many other factors. For example, astronomy degrees take 5-6 years on average, but observational astronomy degrees take 6-7 (due to limiting factors of weather) while theoretical astronomy degrees take 5. Though there is substantial variation among universities, departments, and individuals, humanities and social science doctorates on average take somewhat longer to complete than natural science doctorates. The presence of a supportive spouse, helpful academic advising, light or absent teaching requirements, and many other individual factors, can shorten a student's time to completion of the degree.
Foreign graduate students outnumber American-born students in some US departments, primarily in the natural sciences. Women, ethnic minorities, and individuals with disabilities are also underrepresented in graduate study. While this trend has been studied, it is endemic not only to graduate school but to all the levels of the American educational system. Therefore no easy solutions are available and "fixing" this trend will take time and effort on the parts of many individuals and institutions.
In the humanities, however, there is generally not enough grant money to go around so the majority of assistantships are TAs. A large number of humanities grads take out loans for their earlier years of coursework and write their theses while holding down a full-time job.
Foreign grads are typically funded the same way as domestic (US) grads, although some funding sources (such as many NSF fellowships) may only be awarded to domestic students. Despite similar funding, international students often find it hard to make ends meet. Reasons include high costs to visit their familes back home, support of a family whom are not allowed to work due to immigration laws, and large fees: visa fees by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, surveilence fees (such as Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems, or SEVIS[1]) by Congress and Homeland Security.
Canada
Admission
Life
UK
Admission
Admission to do a research degree requires the sponsorship of a professor. Admission to do a masters degree depends upon having an undergraduate degree, generally in a related subject. Life
Undergraduate degrees in the UK are generally at a higher level than undergraduate degrees in the US, perhaps equivalent to the Master's degree. Funding
It is very hard to obtain funding for postgraduate study in the UK. There are a few scholarships for masters courses but these are rare and dependent on the course and class of undergraduate degree obtained. Most masters students are self-funding.US
Admission
Admission to graduate school hinges upon successful completion of a Bachelor's degree, good grades, usually good GRE or other standardized graduate test scores, often letters of recommendation (especially for doctoral programs), sometimes previous research experience (generally just for doctoral programs), and sometimes cronyism ("it's not what you know, it's who you know"). Popular (e.g., Ivy League) schools will often use cutoff scores on the standardized tests and transcripts to weed out applicants. Other schools require a professor at that school act as sponsor for an applicant to be accepted. Applicants from countries where English is not the primary language are also asked to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Life
Grads generally declare their degree goal upon entering grad school. Programs will often permit successful master's students to continue toward a doctorate, and students leaving a doctoral program before completion of the dissertation ("ABD" students) will often be awarded master's degrees. Funding
In the sciences, grads generally are funded by either a TA (teaching assistantship) or RA (research assistantship) which waives their tuition and provides barely enough pocket money to cover rent and food. Some students receive fellowships from various organizations, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), but few in the sciences go without funding. Unionization
There is an increasing movement at US graduate schools for unionization of grads. The United Auto Workers (UAW, "United Academic Workers") is one of the unions that represents graduate employees. Universities' administrations typically feel that unionizing is counter to the graduate students' primary status as a student, while the union organizers feel all employees have an inalienable right to unionizing. Among the graduate students themselves, the sentiment is mixed, and several union votes have failed, while others won only by a slim margin. Some even argue that while unionization may be beneficial (for example, many unionized graduate students have won higher wages and various benefits), the choice of which union to join is inappropriate. At the schools where graduate students are unionized, which positions are included vary; positions may include teaching assistants, research assistants, resident directors (typically grads), resident assistants (typically undergrads), and continuing education instructors, but do not typically include fellowship recipients. Afterwards
In America, Britain and Canada, successful doctorate earners can look forward to a life in academia, as they continue on to a series of post-doctoral (post-doc) positions before claiming their first tenure-track faculty spot. Individuals who choose to or involuntarily stop at the Master's often go on to industry or other graduate schools for the doctorate, but when the job market is unattractive, they often find themselves over-qualified for half the available jobs, and under-qualified for the other half. Primary and secondary teachers who earn their Master's can look forward to greater job security and pay.External link