OK, there was a 30-minute period last night, around 10:00, when I got super pissed off and was glad that stupid little girl was not around for me to verbally lacerate and possibly physically maim/destroy, but fortunately (1) she was safely 20 miles away and (2) I have been so angry, so many times in work situations that I have reliable control over any urges to send emails that boil down to "fuck you, you fucking idiot." But the fact that the situation reminded me at all of taking research direction from the morons in the Texas Legislature was not a good thing (and was an over-reaction).
Good news: the organic food research report was turned in today and is not terrible - indeed, it would take some kind of miracle for us not to have done an unexpectedly good job. (I was not very satisfied with it, but there was only so much I could do short of violating the parameters of the project and personally doing every single thing.) Thank you to my readers who participated in the study.
Bad news: we still have to do a Power Point presentation to the class, which should be very easy to put together but will yet have its torturous elements.
Really, it's not totally this girl's fault (or of anyone else in my group, the rest of whom have been mostly easy to work with, though somewhat unreliable). In a group comprised of normal undergraduates, her efforts would not be quite so "Mommy, I helped!" (followed by Mommy wanting to slap child for messing with things). I even forgive them if they found my strong opinions annoying at times - though (1) I made every effort to not pull rank and (2) I was right, damn it.
But one huge take-away from this experience, and the course in general, is that I am so through with undergraduate classes. I have decided (provisionally) that this semester is going to be the last one (it will definitely be the last one for any non-quantitative classes, though I might find more upper-level undergrad math classes useful). The image that keeps coming to mind is a grown man in a kiddy pool. I need to get into a normal sized swimming pool soon.
Next week is spring break (yay, right?). The week after that, I need to meet with my professor to get some grad school advice, a key question being, "If I were to do a masters program preparatory to applying to PhD programs in consumer behavior, what would be good types of programs to look at (that are not MBAs!)?"
Despite my saying disparaging things about masters programs in the past (which is a prejudice that I blame on my professors at Rice, perhaps misinterpreted statements from some people I know who I will not out publically Robert, and my own elitism), it is looking increasingly likely that my opportunities for success will be significantly improved by finishing a masters program prior to doing a marketing PhD. I do not know this for a fact, and I do not believe that there is any concrete evidence available to me to be sure of it, but based on everything I have been able to discover, the business PhD programs prefer people who have already done graduate work.
This is not to say that it is an actual requirement - indeed, you can find information that tells you that the idea that a masters degree is required is a "myth." But none of the "alternative" paths to the business PhD I have found look like me, which is to say: bachelors degree, work, PhD program. And all of the current graduate students (by which I do mean 100%) I have seen on the dozens of program web sites I have looked like either have a masters or went straight from a bachelors program (usually with an honors thesis and all the bells & whistles) to the PhD program, and the BA-PhD students are very rare.
So I have been trying to accept the idea that doing a masters degree first is not a kind of failure of either nerve or talent but is instead the path that the vast majority of business PhD students take. It also has some substantive advantages (and disadvantages). (More on this later.)
I do not actually believe that my path is going to lead to a terminal masters from Doubly-Directional Barely-Populated-State University, but a pre-doctoral thesis-based masters in experimental psychology at the University of State - Major City has become more likely.
I apologize in advance if anyone trying to find real information to clarify the mysteries surrounding applying to marketing PhD programs with or without a masters degree happens to blunder across this post in a web search. I have reached a ridiculous point of circularity myself, in which my own blog is among the top 50 searches for all kinds of terms related to these issues.
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3 comments:
As the holder of a Terminal Masters degree from a University of Directional Statename, far be it from me to disparage Master's degrees in general.
University of State - Major City works, as long as it isn't "University of Alaska - Fairbanks" or some such. As for "Double-Directional barely-populated state university, it is good to add the barely-populated bit, in that you are at what was Southwest Texas State University only 5 years ago. Also, it is better than "Random geographic descriptor - word state- University".
Gosh, thanks, that makes me feel so much better.
Obviously I don't know much about requirements for getting into a great PhD program. But it sounds like working on a thesis-based Master's degree would be more satisfying than taking a collection of undergraduate courses. And it sounds like you have reason to believe it will help. So, yay! I'm all for it.
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