After spending 16+ years in school, and you still feel like needing more schooling, then a master’s program may be suitable for you…
This is the “super-undergrad” view of master’s study. Another way of looking at your journey as a master’s student is to consider it as a “pre-Ph.D.” Whether you want to get a Ph.D. later or not, you can build yourself into a capable engineer and an independent researcher in 2-2.5 years of time. If you take this latter view, the time spent on your master’s degree may become the most consequential period in your career. However, this would only come as the result of hard working and wanting to make a change.
The first challenge for a master’s student is the transition process. Life as an undergrad was quite structured. You come to classes, do homework, prepare for (one after another) exams, keep yourself fed, clean, and healthy, and squeeze in other things you want to do. Your schedule is largely dictated by the curriculum, the professors, and the computers. You don’t have to plan much; just responding to endless deadlines, and having things done on time, you would probably do well in school. The grad school is different though. Initially, about half of a master’s student’s time is spent on classes. The other half? Not so well defined (well, research is a pursuit of truth…). Just like you were giving the responsibility of managing your free times when going to the college, now you are giving the freedom (just another way to say responsibility) to manage half of your (potentially) productive time. Can you make it actually productive? Without the constant pressure of homework and exams, will you still learn as fast and as focused as you could? You will be giving guidance on research directions. The projects and papers do have deadlines. Beyond that, you will be responsible to manage your day-to-day research activities.
The second challenge for a master’s student is the transition process. When you were doing a class project, you would be pretty sure that the project was feasible, and the knowledge needed to complete it was mostly discussed already in the class. Now, you will be swimming in the ocean of human knowledge and trying to solve open-ended problems. Do you have a sense of direction? Can you find the right tools for the right task? More experienced people will be there to help you, but you need to be venturous, diligent, and resilient.
The third challenge for a master’s student is the transition process. The projects are getting a bit bigger now. Big enough that a few all-nighters no longer matter (e.g., writing a thesis). You are going to have to learn the slow and steady way towards success. Finding milestones (e.g., finishing a literature review) and base camps (e.g., submitting a paper) become important. Not kicking things that you tend to not like (synonyms of not good at) doing down the road is also important. You have to fight the principle of least effort with willpower!
The fourth challenge for a master’s student is the transition process. You wanted to be surrounded by smart, thoughtful, and knowledge people? Now you get your wish. When you hear people talking about things that are way over your head, what would be your response? Join the discussion, ask them to explain, and let people help you! When you feel ignorant, it’s probably the time you are learning.
A bit of structure for IRL master’s students (an experiment starting summer 2022):
- 1st 6 months – identify a paper topic and complete the literature review for the paper. Present it to the lab.
- 2nd 6 months – identify the thesis topic and complete the literature review for the thesis. Present it to the lab.
- 3rd 6 months – complete and submit a conference paper. Present it to the lab.
- 4th 6 months – complete and defend the thesis. Work on a second paper if possible.
- 5th 6 months – fall back if needed.
A few heuristics for IRL master’s students:
- Aligning the thesis topic with an ongoing project and IRL’s general research vision makes life simpler.
- The thesis writing must be an individual effort, but the research is not. Good collaboration makes everyone better off.
- Converting your written paper(s) into chapters of your thesis makes thesis writing a lot less stressful.
P.S. I wanted to go to grad school since when I was a kid. This was partially because I admired scientists and partially influenced by my uncle. He told me that when I become a grad student, I will get to work in a lab, and only on things I like to do. This turned out to be not entirely true. I did manage to get into a good grad school for my master’s study, and it made a big impact on me. I met many smart people and learned (collectively with them) that none of us can outsmart the rest of us. Each of us has some talent distributed in very different ways. Each of us has some serious flaws distributed in very different ways as well. I guess understanding those was a part of me growing up. After I got my master’s degree, I felt liberated, for two reasons. First, I was no longer so confused about what I could do (unlike when I graduate from college). I felt I could be useful in some ways. Second, I was confident I could always find an engineering job with a salary that can keep me alive, but I didn’t have to. This gave me the freedom and the power to try things that may not pay back. I became a life tourist.