Hacker News Reader

Unlike Europe, in the US, most PhD applicants do not have a masters. 10 years ago, most had not even conducted substantial senior projects (e.g a semester or year). Though increasingly senior projects / undergraduate "theses" have become more common.

View on HN

In my opinion, that's not a good time to really know you want to pursue academic research. A masters gives you a little taste at least and allows to show aptitude. Doing a student research assistant job, working on a thesis, maybe even a paper submission, diving deep into specialized courses. Then you can know if it's for you as well as the PI can know if it's for you. Straight from a bachelor and them interleaving the phd with coursework is a bad model I think, but of course I'm from Europe so it's what I'm used to.

In the US, usually you do a summer research program if you want to be a PhD student, so you can get a taste of research.

At most universities as well, if you decide the PhD isn't for you, there is always the option of leaving with a Master's. Because you get free tuition and a stipend, you also come out ahead of if you had gone straight for the MS (which you generally would pay for).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com