Help me plan my future!

[milleson]

*attention whore warning*

I'm currently one semester into my masters degree program, and out of the blue, my adviser recently offered me the opportunity to stay on for a PhD. I'm kind of shocked by his offer, seeing as how he recently (like two weeks ago) turned down the request of one of his other students to stay for a PhD.

I have always insisted that I wanted to stop with a masters degree. (I don't want to end up overqualified for jobs in industry.) However, his offer seems to good to be true. My adviser and other members of the faculty insist that I'm up to the task, but the whole thing leaves me scared shitless.

Oh yeah, I've been working with this guy for the past 3 years. So I guess his offer wasn't completely random, but it sure seemed that way at the time.

Help! Random insights welcome.

[Bjork]

a PhD in what exactly?

[milleson]

Geology.

My focus is in reconstructing paleoenvironment/paleoclimate (from ~300 to ~250 million years ago) using lithostratigraphic, mineralogical, and geochemical proxies.

In english, I look at ancient soils and and rock deposits to determine what climate was like and how it changed over a period of the earth's history. The time period I'm studying covers an icehouse to greenhouse transition and focuses on detecting changes associated with the melting of continental glaciers.

There's more, but its highly unlikely that anyone actually cares. :o

[kaiser soze]

drop out and make a living selling finger paintings (y)

[Dorothy Wood]

rock doctor!

[monkey]

There's more, but its highly unlikely that anyone actually cares. :o

quite the contrary, please continue. hehehe.

[Bob]

rock doctor!

down, down, down, down!

*dolphin noises*

[Dorothy Wood]

I knew I could count on you, bobbaloo.

[ms.peachy]

Personally, I could not walk away from such an offer, as I would spend the rest of my life wondering 'what if'.

[na§tee]

it really depends on your future ambitions.

i don't know much about your discipline, but normally a masters is the best way to get into advanced graduate programmes/positions in areas like science and engineering. i work for a university and most of the people i am writing stories about (look! our student has won the super-special prize in X for the Xth time!) are masters graduates who have entered elite training courses/companies. they find it best to get practical experience for a few years, and the really lucky ones get their workplace to sponsor their phd studies (on the condition they stay working for them, of course) if they want to get into a particular niche.

a phd tends to make you an expert in a highly specialised area. the university will of course receive money/prestige the more phd students they have. do you have any plans to enter academia? of course a phd is pretty much a given for that, but i'd think carefully as it is a lot of time, money and effort and you don't want to be pigeon-holed or over qualified. employers will value years of commitment to their company and experience over a phd. you won't necessarily leap-frog over people with a masters plus work experience employment-wise.

your ability isn't in doubt - the people in the faculty think you're up to it and you do too, but i wouldn't do something just because you can.

personally i think there is a huge temptation to stay at university whether it be from the transition to undergraduate-masters or masters-phd because it is safe and comfortable and familiar. i think it really benefits students and professionals to take a couple of years out between years (years!) of study like that, get some practical experience, and then return if it's still on the cards a year or two later, refreshed and 100% sure it's what you want to do. you're a better student because of it.

[mate_spawn_die]

i'm not a good life coach. sorry.