February 1, 2009 at 21:58The beginning of a scientific career (part 3)
Having dealt with higher education in the form of undergraduate and graduate programs, you can go to the first step on the path to a real scientific career - to enter graduate school.
First you need to clarify that the attitude towards graduate school in Russia and abroad is slightly different.
In Russia, graduate school is often regarded as a kind of "completely higher" education, which is prestigious, but which does not automatically give a person the status of a scientist. Accordingly, not all graduates of Russian graduate school go to universities. Quite a few graduates leave for firms or somewhere else outside the laboratory.
In the West, bachelor's, maximum, master's education is almost always enough for employment “in the world”. A completed postgraduate study is required exclusively in a scientific career (or in those rare cases when a private company is actually engaged in any research activity).
Perhaps this is due to the fact that Russia provides for an even higher level of education - doctoral studies, which are clearly not required when working outside the university. In the West, the end of graduate school and obtaining a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) marks the end of education. And the dean of the faculty, and any professor is the carrier of this degree.
In Russia, the PhD degree corresponds to the “candidate of science”, and the degree of “doctor of science” is awarded after doctoral studies.
Thus, Russian postgraduate studies, although formally preparing scientists, in my opinion, are not perceived by society exclusively in this capacity. On the contrary, in the West, there is no point in going to graduate school if you are not going to pursue a career in science. Accordingly, admission to graduate school almost always implies a further university career (and in many respects determines the attitude of other people towards you; for example, the presence of a PhD degree can even hurt when trying to get a job in industry).
Now about how to get into graduate school. As I mentioned, the higher the step, the more opportunities. The postgraduate position is already considered a "job." As a graduate student, you can not only have good chances for free education, but also very real opportunities for scholarships. The lists of available PhD Studentships are regularly published on a variety of websites, ranging from university sites to thematic bulletin boards such as jobs.ac.uk or Scholarshipnet.info .
But just at this stage, the specific inverse factor of the “native” student appears on the scene. Ads published on open boards attract a lot of people (which is not surprising), so when sending documents to an open competition you always find yourself in a good company of competitors :) At the same time, I suppose, very strong candidates may turn out to be rivals. In the end, what to expect from a student going to a master's program? He’s a good student, he wrote some website, won a certificate. A candidate for graduate school may have in his luggage both scientific publications and a solid resume.
In fact, most people entering graduate school do not have to go through the crucible of rigorous selection. In the native university (or friendly to it) there is always a program for training graduate students. As in Russia. At the same time, admission to it is carried out through "internal" channels, and usually it happens even easier than ours - no entrance exams, an oral agreement, a written request to enroll in graduate school and (if relevant) scholarship documents.
Usually a fairly simple scheme works. Choosing a supervisor for a diploma (master's) work, a student can immediately play with a distant eye, directly asking about the possibility of further work in graduate school. Usually this is perceived with enthusiasm, and if the relationship with the leader has developed, the master's work naturally flows into graduate school. It is advantageous for a leader to take a friend he is sure of. A graduate student can help a supervisor in his work; accordingly, nobody wants to take a cat in a bag as an assistant. A high percentage of defenders also plays a big role: they will take the one who is more likely to defend themselves.
Thus, it seems to me personally that the easiest way is to “cling” to a magistracy. Often, our students go to graduate schools, even having a Russian higher education, because they can’t immediately get into graduate students. There is another argument in favor of the magistracy. The fact is that postgraduate education is structurally different from master's. In contrast to the lecture-practice-exam cycle, one has to deal with research, publications, and other things that are not encountered at the master's level. Thus, a person who immediately enters graduate students faces two problems at once: adaptation to Western education and the environment, as well as “pouring” into a new kind of activity. Masters, for all its “Bologna”, in the end comes down to the usual lectures and exams.
However, I am not trying to turn anyone away from a suitable opportunity to enter graduate school. All difficulties are surmountable, the competition can also be “broken”. You can even try to “break through” the factor of “your student,” if you try to directly get to know one of the suitable professors at the desired faculty. Suppose you are going to write a diploma on the subject of X. You are looking for a faculty where they are engaged in something similar, find a relevant person there and explain the situation. Like, I’m doing X in the magistracy, I’m interested in whether you can continue your research activities. With a certain amount of luck, you can become quite “your own” :)
However, I feel like I'm already talking. I see that this time there was enough room to talk only about admission. Next time we will discuss the postgraduate study process.
By the way, if there are requests, I can somehow (oh, find the time) to tell me why I like the European “Bologna” education in the magistracy. At least from personal experience.
First you need to clarify that the attitude towards graduate school in Russia and abroad is slightly different.
In Russia, graduate school is often regarded as a kind of "completely higher" education, which is prestigious, but which does not automatically give a person the status of a scientist. Accordingly, not all graduates of Russian graduate school go to universities. Quite a few graduates leave for firms or somewhere else outside the laboratory.
In the West, bachelor's, maximum, master's education is almost always enough for employment “in the world”. A completed postgraduate study is required exclusively in a scientific career (or in those rare cases when a private company is actually engaged in any research activity).
Perhaps this is due to the fact that Russia provides for an even higher level of education - doctoral studies, which are clearly not required when working outside the university. In the West, the end of graduate school and obtaining a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) marks the end of education. And the dean of the faculty, and any professor is the carrier of this degree.
In Russia, the PhD degree corresponds to the “candidate of science”, and the degree of “doctor of science” is awarded after doctoral studies.
Thus, Russian postgraduate studies, although formally preparing scientists, in my opinion, are not perceived by society exclusively in this capacity. On the contrary, in the West, there is no point in going to graduate school if you are not going to pursue a career in science. Accordingly, admission to graduate school almost always implies a further university career (and in many respects determines the attitude of other people towards you; for example, the presence of a PhD degree can even hurt when trying to get a job in industry).
Now about how to get into graduate school. As I mentioned, the higher the step, the more opportunities. The postgraduate position is already considered a "job." As a graduate student, you can not only have good chances for free education, but also very real opportunities for scholarships. The lists of available PhD Studentships are regularly published on a variety of websites, ranging from university sites to thematic bulletin boards such as jobs.ac.uk or Scholarshipnet.info .
But just at this stage, the specific inverse factor of the “native” student appears on the scene. Ads published on open boards attract a lot of people (which is not surprising), so when sending documents to an open competition you always find yourself in a good company of competitors :) At the same time, I suppose, very strong candidates may turn out to be rivals. In the end, what to expect from a student going to a master's program? He’s a good student, he wrote some website, won a certificate. A candidate for graduate school may have in his luggage both scientific publications and a solid resume.
In fact, most people entering graduate school do not have to go through the crucible of rigorous selection. In the native university (or friendly to it) there is always a program for training graduate students. As in Russia. At the same time, admission to it is carried out through "internal" channels, and usually it happens even easier than ours - no entrance exams, an oral agreement, a written request to enroll in graduate school and (if relevant) scholarship documents.
Usually a fairly simple scheme works. Choosing a supervisor for a diploma (master's) work, a student can immediately play with a distant eye, directly asking about the possibility of further work in graduate school. Usually this is perceived with enthusiasm, and if the relationship with the leader has developed, the master's work naturally flows into graduate school. It is advantageous for a leader to take a friend he is sure of. A graduate student can help a supervisor in his work; accordingly, nobody wants to take a cat in a bag as an assistant. A high percentage of defenders also plays a big role: they will take the one who is more likely to defend themselves.
Thus, it seems to me personally that the easiest way is to “cling” to a magistracy. Often, our students go to graduate schools, even having a Russian higher education, because they can’t immediately get into graduate students. There is another argument in favor of the magistracy. The fact is that postgraduate education is structurally different from master's. In contrast to the lecture-practice-exam cycle, one has to deal with research, publications, and other things that are not encountered at the master's level. Thus, a person who immediately enters graduate students faces two problems at once: adaptation to Western education and the environment, as well as “pouring” into a new kind of activity. Masters, for all its “Bologna”, in the end comes down to the usual lectures and exams.
However, I am not trying to turn anyone away from a suitable opportunity to enter graduate school. All difficulties are surmountable, the competition can also be “broken”. You can even try to “break through” the factor of “your student,” if you try to directly get to know one of the suitable professors at the desired faculty. Suppose you are going to write a diploma on the subject of X. You are looking for a faculty where they are engaged in something similar, find a relevant person there and explain the situation. Like, I’m doing X in the magistracy, I’m interested in whether you can continue your research activities. With a certain amount of luck, you can become quite “your own” :)
However, I feel like I'm already talking. I see that this time there was enough room to talk only about admission. Next time we will discuss the postgraduate study process.
By the way, if there are requests, I can somehow (oh, find the time) to tell me why I like the European “Bologna” education in the magistracy. At least from personal experience.