What does it mean to go to a grad school?
If you heard about “grad school,” and if you are not sure if grad school is right for you, maybe asking the following questions to yourself might help.
- What do you want to do/where do you want to be in 10 years, and will grad school help you to get there?
In the field of Aerospace Engineering, even with just the BS degree, we can get fun jobs with good pay. However, graduate school experiences will equip you with even more knowledge and skills, so your career options can expand. So, first, think of what you want to do in the near future, find people in those positions/organizations, and ask what capabilities (and possibly degrees) they look for. That will help you to identify what grad degree (or no grad degree) is necessary to get to where you want to be.
Some people decide to pursue graduate degrees after working for a few years, as their career goals change. Some people decide to leave a grad program in the middle, obtaining a job offer of their dream and realizing that grad degrees are not necessary. You make the best decision at the current point in time. Things change as your life progresses, and that will be perfectly OK!
- Will you enjoy a salary bump?
With a MS degree (often 2 years), the starting salary improves, to the extent that you can quickly recoup the income you missed while attending grad school.
With a PhD degree (additional 3-5 years), the starting salary will NOT increase (much) from the one you get with a MS degree (uh-oh). However, you will obtain career options involving research, technical consulting, and more.
For your reference:
- Penn State Engineering Salary Spotlight | Penn State Engineering (psu.edu)
- COE – Annual Earnings by Educational Attainment
- 2022 ACS Detailed Field of Degree and Median Annual Earnings (census.gov)
Also, please note that tuition and stipends while attending a grad program can be covered through assistantships and fellowships; please read on.
- Do you still feel like learning, especially narrow and deep?
After a few years of intensive learning and hard work in your undergraduate program, do you still feel like learning more? If you found a topic you like, if you enjoyed your undergraduate research experience, or if you are in the position of “the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know,” you might enjoy graduate school experiences.
How does graduate school work?
Most MS & Ph.D. program are structured as follows:
The grad school requirements generally consist of 1) coursework and 2) research. The overall course load is less than in undergraduate, but each course may be more demanding at the graduate level. Depending on the program, students often take 3-4 classes per semester in the first year(s) to complete the required classes, and then reduce down to 1-2 classes per semester to focus on research work.
If you pursue an M.Eng., you should expect to take a few more courses than in the M.S. and instead of writing a thesis, you will likely have a capstone project or course, similar to undergrad but explored to a deeper level. You may be able to complete an M.Eng. in 1-1.5 years depending on your semester course load.
- How to choose which grad school program to apply to?
Online searches will provide much information about research work happening in various labs across the world. If you are not sure where to start, you can talk to your academic advisor, your department faculties, your internships/REU supervisors, our alums (keep an eye out for details from Dr. Stewart on our alumni mentoring program), or any folks you know who have thought about grad programs.
- How to apply to grad school programs?
Each program has a different application format, so it is best to check per program.
Here are some comprehensive summary about a common format of application packages.
For the research statement, I personally recommend to include 1) your career goal, 2) why participation in this particular grad program/lab research will help you get to your future goal, and 3) how you, with current skills/background, will contribute to the program/research. It will be a plus to add evidence (presentations, publications, awards, any impact your work has made, etc.).
- Cost?
As noted above, you can seek a research assistantship, teaching assistantship, or a fellowship to cover the tuition and the stipend. The stipend should be enough to cover basic living expenses, but probably not too much more.
Research assistantships pays for students to conduct sponsored research within labs; the research for the sponsors can overlap with their own thesis work. Teaching assistantships pay for students to support teaching. Fellowships have various requirements and limitations, but in general allows students to conduct their own independent research with support from faculties.
Once you identify lab groups of your interests, around the time when you submit application packages, you can contact the labs to introduce yourself (attach your resume), let them know you are applying, and to ask about any research opportunity (aka a research assistant position). In parallel, if you like, you can apply for fellowships, either on your own or together with your (future) lab group; a few major fellowship opportunities are listed below, but there’s more. The contact of teaching assistantship opportunities will be the department.
- Amelia Earhart Fellowship (zonta.org)
- NSF – Graduate Research Fellowship Program
- NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO)
- National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program
- DoD STEM Scholarships & Grants – SMART Scholarship
- Other Fellowships, Scholarships and Grants (nationalacademies.org)
