Hello,

Yesterday was my birthday and I took part of the day to reflect on my life (the rest was spent researching and then hanging out with my awesome wife!).

I received my B.S. in Computer Science with a minor in math. Programming is by far my biggest passion. For the last two years of my B.S. I was employed by the Mechanical Engineering department at my university (connection through a friend). I started by doing programming work, but then was gradually pushed to do more hands on work with actually setting up the experiments and eventually just completely taking over projects as other people left (mechanical, electrical, programming, everything).

I wanted to do a PhD, but my school did not have a PhD in Computer Science. They did, however, have a PhD in Mechanical Engineering which my boss from the ME department suggested that I do. At the time, I felt that it would be good to get exposure and experience in another field. Most people thought I was crazy, and now two years in to the program I am starting to feel the same way. It is not that the material is hard, I am getting A's in all of my classes and do better than most people with ME undergraduate degrees in those classes. My whole thing is that I just don't enjoy any of the things I do except for the computer science related tasks. I am just not interested in researching the mechanical topics and I think it really shows. I want to get a programming job when I am done and I just don't think it will help to have gone from a B.S. in CSC to a PhD in ME, I feel like people aren't going to take me seriously and it is going to make life even harder for me in the end.

My school does offer an M.S. in Computer Science/Robotics (which is what I was originally going to do). What I want to do is to drop from the PhD program in ME and go for the M.S. in CSC. The M.S. in CSC states that if students want to go for a PhD, then after completing the M.S. in CSC/Robotics that they can pursue the PhD in ME but through the CSC department meaning a CSC/Robotics related project. That way, I can get the M.S. in the field that I really want to be in and decide if I really do want to still do the PhD. If so, I think my resume will look much nicer to have B.S. in CSC, M.S. in CSC/Robotics, PhD in CSC/Robotics.

I worry that by switching I am going to burn some bridges (although I still have close contact with the CSC department even though I switched to ME). I also worry that I will be viewed as a failure for not completing the PhD. Sorry for all the rambling, just really stuck here and looking for advice or input from anyone!

Thanks.

I'm afraid I don't have any advice, but I can wish you a happy birthday!

Hopefully someone will be able to offer some input...

Thanks for the reply and good wishes.

I've spoken with my advisor about my feelings as well as administrative faculty to find out about all of my options. Although disappointed, he was very understanding as he said that he has realized I am substantially more enthusiastic about computer science than I am with mechanical engineering. So to make the best of my time spent in the ME department, I am just going to turn one of my projects (had multiple, as I'm sure most GRA's do) into an M.S. and I basically just have to write the thesis and should be done be the end of fall semester. During that time, I am taking courses towards a Computer Science / Robotics M.S. and will complete that degree about 1.5 years from now. My school is letting me apply some of the relevant classes towards my CSC MS (e.g., robotics) that I took for the ME degree. So I will end up with a B.S. in CSC (math minor), an M.S. in ME and an M.S. in CSC / Robotics. I think that should set me up very well to get a good job in a computer science related field. If I later decide that I want to do a PhD in CSC then I have a great looking resume for other schools that would actually pay my way (my school just did GRA/GTA and tuition remission, what a joke for a PhD program).

So I am pretty happy camper right now. Unfortunately, I don't have funding anymore so now I have to look for a part time job in the mean time. If anybody needs some programming work done for very good rates then I would be more than happy to chat with you.