Respect for a master’s in physics

With regard to Toni Feder’s story about physics master’s degrees (Physics Today, April 2019, page 22 ), I am glad that the degree finally seems to be getting some respect. I received my master’s 30 years ago from a PhD-granting research university. Although I had been accepted to continue toward my PhD, I intended from the beginning to pursue only a master’s and then look for teaching positions. I remember being told, “That and a dime will get you a cup of coffee,” and I often received unsolicited advice that I would be useless to the profession without a PhD.

Partly on the suggestion of my adviser, who counseled me to think about the goals I’d had when I entered graduate school, I accepted a one-year position as a visiting lecturer at a nearby branch campus. That job led to a tenure-track position at a nearby community college the next year. There I had a professionally and materially satisfying 27-year career teaching and doing research.

For reasons mostly my own, I did eventually complete a PhD and a postdoc and have recently found myself as a lecturer back where I got my MS. I hope to stay until I retire. I have no regrets about what I’ve done and how I did it and perhaps just a bit of pride in how much I accomplished with my master’s degree, despite what I was told.