Cautions on physics master’s degree

On the benefits of a physics master’s degree, I must add two cautions to Toni Feder’s story (Physics Today, April 2019, page 22 ). After I completed my MS in physics in 1991 from a public university in North Carolina, my undergraduate alma mater, also a public university in the state, refused to recognize my MS as preparation for further graduate work. The physics department’s then graduate admissions officer told me to not even bother applying because I would not be accepted. Of the universities I approached in my home state, only one, a private institution, said it would recognize my MS degree.

A master’s in physics is good preparation for teaching. However, too many institutions, even community colleges where teaching is ostensibly the focus, list a PhD as either a preferred or required credential for introductory, undergraduate, nonresearch teaching positions. They favor applicants with PhDs over those with their master’s despite the accreditation guidelines, at least in my part of the country, being identical for community colleges and four-year colleges and universities. That bias exists because institutions either don’t fully understand the accreditation guidelines or willfully ignore them to boast in marketing materials about having so many PhD faculty members. The job market is flooded with PhD recipients whose training is in research, not teaching. Master’s degree holders need to be aware of that problem.