Piled Higher and Deeper
Long ago, my mother suggested to me that I was too smart for industry and should instead enter into the shiny ivory tower of academia. To a certain degree, she's got a point. Wading through endless concourses of the bullfunky that contractors, governments, and lawyers dish out isn't my favorite part about the civil engineering profession, but I'm pretty sure that I'd still enjoy the heck out of it. However, I've been inspired on multiple occasions by professors who don't actually work that hard and don't make bad money doing it. Professorship is one of the few professions where you're paid basically on your ability to be a genius, which I think suits me pretty well.
My master's degree is going to be in geotechnical engineering, which means that it would save me time and energy to get a Ph.D. in the same. Like most other things, not all geotech grad programs are created equal. There are also some places where I just do not want to live, ever. Inasmuch as Boston, MA and Northern California are two of these, MIT and Cal would not be viable options even though they have insanely good research programs. At this point, the three schools which I would be considering are the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, GA, the University of Texas in Austin, TX, and the newest addition, the University of Illinois in the Urbana-Champaign area of Illinois.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign academic logo.I've chosen to add the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign because of a textbook that I purchased for the master's coursework that I'll begin at Oregon State. I bought Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice by Karl Terzaghi, Ralph Peck, and Gholamreza Mesri. Terzaghi and Peck especially were at the forefront of the research that became modern soil mechanics and Mesri worked with them in earnest later in their careers. Well, Terzaghi was a guest researcher at the University of Illinois, Peck was a professor there for years before he retired and later kicked the bucket, and Mesri still does some research there at least in some capacity. The University of Illinois has a fantastic geotech group and the civil engineering program overall is ranked 2nd in the nation (behind the aforementioned Cal.)
Before I move on, allow me to say that I'm going to work in industry for several years before I even think about going back to grad school. Even if I can't get a job in geotechnical engineering, I'm still going to find something. I don't care if I have to work 35 hours a week at Taco Bell, I refuse to go back to school immediately following the master's degree. Considering that most of Dr. Benzeley's master's grads had jobs last August when I graduated from BYU, I feel fairly optimistic about my prospects. I also have the goal of getting licensed as an engineer which is probably more important to me than the 3rd degree. In order to get licensed, one has to have at least 5 (or 4 with a master's degree) years of experience working under a licensed engineer. In honesty, it'll probably be another 10 years before this is even applicable, but I have nothing but time to contemplate the future and my career goals, anyway.
If I do decide to get a Ph.D., I'm not going to try to matriculate during an economic downturn like right now, where demand for research is low and supply of cheap researchers is high. No, I'm going to try to ride a wave of economic prosperity, when there's plenty of government research money to go around and, comparatively, not a lot of people who want it, because they're all in industry, making money.
As a side note, the PhD webcomic is hilarious. They're also coming out with a movie that'll be screened at university campuses all over the country. Check it out.
More of the Same
At the onset of this blag post, you may or may not have wondered why I would consider getting another master's degree in mining engineering. If you've read this post, you know why, but for the rest of you, allow me to explain. I saw a show on the Discovery Channel a couple years ago about guys who blew up buildings for a living. Needless to say, I found this to be awesome and would not mind pursuing this as a slight career change.
Now, the guys who were on this show had Ph.D.s in mining engineering and had spent most of their years blowing up dirt for mining operations. Considering that I'm getting a master's in geotechnical engineering with a "minor" per se, in structural engineering, learning to blow up dirt and/or buildings would be right up my alley.
The programs that I think would be best for learning how the blow stuff up in a safe and professional manner would be either the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) in Rolla, MO, or the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY. There's a guy or two at each of these institutions whose blasting research would pave the way to a prosperous career blowing crap up.
Massive Bullsh*t Ahead
At a time or two, I've thought about getting an MBA in entrepreneurship and/or engineering management and starting my own civil engineering consulting firm. Considering how many engineering firms I've seen close their doors and lay off their staff in the recent months, this isn't at the forefront of my mind. I'm going to keep the door open on this one, but I don't plan on visiting much, or anytime soon. I also have no idea where I'd want to go for it. I've looking into the programs at BYU, Georgia Tech, and Purdue, which would all be options, but really I don't have much preference at this point.
So there you have it. My options and plans for a third piece of paper that I can hang on my office wall, and more opportunities for people to say, "Wow, your* smart!"
* Yes, I did that on purpose.
