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Doing a masters while working in Spain

jan-herlyn.com

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Re: Doing a masters while working in Spain

#61

Post by abdullahkhalids »

retired wrote: post #44
SiempreViernes wrote: post #40

> Culture-wise, the professors at the university were also very different than what I was used to in Germany. [...] My thesis advisor, Alicia Ageno, for instance, had a meeting with me about every two weeks and sent me relevant papers and advice on a subject that was not her current research topic anymore. This makes german supervision sound pretty abysmal! Maybe that's why the thesis project I had with a German prof…

Doing my thesis in The Netherlands I got guidance on my thesis three times. Once during the start to get an initial baseline of what is expected of me, once halfway through as a quick call to see if everything was going according to schedule and once when I had the concept ready. If you need someone to hold your hand every other week perhaps you shouldn’t go into academics. You should be operating autonomous at that…

This is a weird viewpoint. Most academic work in STEM fields is collaborative with 2-100 other scientists or engineers. This is because it is well realized that 2 people talking can do many times better work than two people working alone.

Your supervisor should at different times, as appropriate, wear the collaborator cap or the examiner cap. During the course of your project, he should be your collaborative advisor who helps you flesh out ideas and improve them. At the start and end, he should be your formal examiner.

This is how I have seen most Masters (and PhD) projects proceed in Physics in North America.

Re: Doing a masters while working in Spain

#62

Post by kinow »

I'm finishing a masters here in Spain about HPC (uploaded the thesis last night). It's a joint program by two universities from Galicia (USC/UDC). I paid about the same the author did. The programme is great, loved the professors --- I contacted them after the class and the interactions were helpful/interesting. Like in the author's case, my master had a lot of practical work (which is good, being in computing/HPC). But the workload is *really crazy*. Assignment pretty much every week, with overlapping deadlines.

There's something here called "second chance", which I don't remember seeing this in Brazil. My wife did a masters at University of Barcelona and they also had a second chance. In every subject if you fail, then you take the exam or submit some assignments to get the required grade. Some students realised they wouldn't get a good grade, and preferred to skip the exam or assignment, just to get a better grade on the second chance to graduate with a good score/honours/etc.. I found that interesting, but I focused more learning things that would help me at $work and tried to avoid stress (I was probably the oldest student in my class, 40+ yo).

Re: Doing a masters while working in Spain

#63

Post by jmspring »

mishellaneous wrote: post #29
jmspring wrote: post #3

We will be hopping over to Italy/France/or Croatia in the next year or so. Work will not be the motivator, but we both have options. In the states during late covid, I thought the downtime would be good to do a second masters in something unrelated to working in software. I chose a remote program with a univeristy here in the states, I did the first year, but it reminded me that studying - especially a program unrela…

so you go to university just for the joy of learning? to be clear, i think that's cool, and i might try it at some point. but how do you deal with the fact that university, in practice, is not "for the joy of learning"? for most people there, students and professors, it's more like "just a job". and this does have an effect. colleagues that only want to pass the test and are watching out for their careers (or even wo…

I nearly triple majored (or a minor) because I took Lit classes for fun when doing my Bachelors. Due to the impacted nature of that school now, I don't think it would be possible to duplicate what I did. Sometimes, for me, having a bit of structure helps focus on an interest - undergrad it was literature (beyond other courses, work, and being social - not sleeping much was I guess helpful at the time).

When I spent about 8 years living in a remote area with a lot of old mines, etc. exploring rocks, having a mining claim, etc was interesting and it was not directly related to work. So, trying Geology made some sense because I had an interest.

Yes the near Lit minor and my second Bachelors (chemistry) were literally for fun - but there was a roundedness to not just staring at computers all the time.

Different people have different interests and approaches.

Also costs when I was doing the initial schooling wasn't as bad as it is now (a TAing job, working in a lab, and maybe some part time tech support) covered most bills. Rent, tuition, and other expenses were under 10k for the year - even at a UC - yes this was awhile ago. My step-daughter is looking at closer to $30k a year (give or take) for a CSU.

Re: Doing a masters while working in Spain

#64

Post by jmrm »

This makes me want to join again to uni and finally get my degree, but man, I haven't enough time to do that and also have some "myself" time.

Leisure time is a human need btw, I learnt it too late after a burnout.

Re: Doing a masters while working in Spain

#65

Post by david-gpu »

retired wrote: post #58
david-gpu wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Master's thesis is not for somebody aiming for academia. It is a requirement for graduation. Rather different from a PhD.

In The Netherlands all Masters at a university are to prepare you for an academic career.

What are PhDs for, then?

Re: Doing a masters while working in Spain

#66

Post by badpun »

retired wrote: post #50
badpun wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my country studies are free, which means humanities (like "world literature") are full of young people who had no idea what to do with themselves, so they chose a major in something vaguely interesting and not very demanding, mostly so that they get to extend their youth by a couple of years (as parents will often support them while they get their degree, which means not having to work).

I’m guessing Nordics?

Poland.

Re: Doing a masters while working in Spain

#68

Post by david-gpu »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #67
david-gpu wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are PhDs for, then?

just one level higher?

For people who are already in academia and want to be more academic? I don't get it.

This notion that Masters are for academia is so contrary to my experience altogether. They are not even associated with research, in my experience. What I have seen is:

* BSc: General professionals.

* MSc: More specialized professionals.

* PhD: Baseline for research, but more often than not just doing even more specialized work than folks with MSc.

* Postdocs: Actual researchers, including but not limited to academic careers.

Re: Doing a masters while working in Spain

#70

Post by KptMarchewa »

david-gpu wrote: post #68
KptMarchewa wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just one level higher?

For people who are already in academia and want to be more academic? I don't get it. This notion that Masters are for academia is so contrary to my experience altogether. They are not even associated with research, in my experience. What I have seen is: * BSc: General professionals. * MSc: More specialized professionals. * PhD: Baseline for research, but more often than not just doing even more specialized work than…

It's just plain Bologna process here.

You would not do high school without primary school, right?

The way to get a PHD is to get an bachelor's degree first, then masters degree.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process

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