Thoughts on Begining a Master’s Program

I received an email from Andrew, my nephew-in-law, this morning asking about my experience as a graduate student so far. Specifically, he asked,

Just wondering how you are doing? How is your program and such?

Usually this kind of question elicits a very short response along the lines of,

Good! I’m having fun and doing well.

Today the response was unusually long and opinionated.  I felt I answered his question honestly and to the best of my ability.  As you’ll read, I have had some disappointments as I started the master’s program.  I still am dedicated to my goal of earning a master’s degree, so don’t read into this email too heavily.  Instead I wanted to give my raw answers because I think they will help those looking into a master’s program.  The following is my response to Andrew’s inquiry.  Thanks go to Andrew for prompting me to record these thoughts and feelings.

Your questions are not easy to answer.  The short answer is I’m doing great and like getting paid to go to school.  I think you want a little more detail than that, so let me  try to distill some of my thoughts and experiences.

I felt uncertain as to what direction I wanted to take with my career  during the last semester at BYU.  I still felt uncertain when I  graduated, so I thought it was a no-brainer to take the offer to get a  free master’s with a fairly generous monthly stipend.  I thought that  the master’s program would help me figure out my career path.  I don’t  think that this is the right approach to a master’s program.  I  believe that I would be getting a lot more out of the program if I had  confidence in a career path.

The geography program is dwarfed by the geology program at the  University of Arkansas.  Both programs are in the Department of  Geosciences.  This is unfortunate because it makes the geography  students feel like the proverbial red-headed step-children.  All  departmental emails and notifications are meant for geologists.  Most  of the outside speakers and job interviewers are from energy companies  looking for geologists.  This casts doubt on my chance for networking  with a more broad spectrum of fields.

BYU really does have a great undergrad program for geography.  My  current classes are basically review and are not extremely  challenging.  That said, the quality of education here is really  great; I’ve just covered the material before.

Even though I got to know my adviser a little before I started  classes, I still feel like we have slightly different expectations.  He is heavily slanted toward remote sensing while I feel drawn more  toward GIS.  At BYU GIS is a legitimate subject of study, while here  at the University of Arkansas I have been told that it should only be  a tool for your “real” research.  I believe this is true to a degree,  however I also believe that there is a legitimate need for people who  are experts in GIS that aren’t ethno-botanists or geologists or  whatever the physical geography one chooses to study.  Because I am  not a physical geographer I feel that I am an incomplete student, or  one that hasn’t really discovered what he’s passionate about.  I’m  just passionate about different things than everyone else here.  This  is kind of related to my first point.

My workstation at the University of Arkansas

One of the best things about the program for me is my work.  I get  paid to research NDVI patterns in the Middle East (Fertile Crescent).  Even though it’s a physical geography topic, I am focusing more on coding and GIS models.  This is also my thesis.  I am lucky that I am literally being paid to work on my thesis.

So, these are my thoughts and grievances up till this point.  All of these could have been mitigated by a few simple things I could have done.  1. Decide if you want to get a master’s degree.  If yes, commit yourself to it. Really make it your goal.  Don’t just go along for the ride like I did.  2. Research master’s programs around the country.  Each master’s program will have a bias toward one aspect of geography (or geology in my case).  I would recommend ranking schools with independent  geography departments above those with geosciences or similar departments.  3. Research the course offerings.  If it seems like there are a lot of interesting courses, that is a good thing.  I know, this sounds like a “no duh” thing, but here at the University of Arkansas I am a little worried that I won’t be introduced to a lot of new concepts in my classes.  4. Get to know some of the professors at your top school choices.  First, before contacting them, get to know their work and interests.  A lot of schools post this info on their websites.  When you contact them, let them know you are a prospective master’s candidate and are very interested in their field of study.  Tell them your interests and requirements of a master’s program and ask their opinion of their program with respect to your interests.  Ask some specifics like how many students are currently working on their master’s at the school.  5. Don’t settle for less benefits than waved tuition, and unless you want to work in the industry while going to school, a graduate assistantship (research or teaching).  I think these are really common.  Sean has a teaching assistantship while I have a research assistantship.  He has to help teach the lab portion of a class while I work on a coding GIS model to analyze NDVI of the Fertile Crescent over the last 30 years.

There you have it.  I’m sure things will continue to change and evolve as I go through the program, so feel free to ask my feelings any time.

Do you have any questions about anything in this post? Leave me a comment and I’ll try to answer.