The Undergrad vs. G rad Experience How Much Different Are They?

Salim Roig Senior Reporter

When people get their Bachelor’s degree at Embry-Riddle, they are most likely to get a job after graduation as they bid college goodbye forever. However, some people stay behind to get their Master’s degree, or even their PhD.

Do they do it because they believe it would help them get higher paying jobs down the line, or do they simply wish to challenge themselves academically?

Once they start their post-graduate program, is it much more difficult than undergraduate programs or is it just another few years of the same things all over again?

Is being a grad student vastly different from an undergrad, or is it all the same? In order to answer these questions, I’ve interviewed three students who are all currently enrolled as Master’s students in Aerospace Engineering.

The students stated that when they first entered the Master’s program at Embry-Riddle, one sharp difference they noticed from the undergrad courses is that the way the classes are structured. The classes tend to focus more on specialized topics; as opposed to undergrad courses that focus on broader topics based around one’s degree. They stated this is due to the Master’s program mostly functioning as a way to prove that one could conduct research, and create their own thesis. The classes are focused more on understanding the course materials on a conceptual level, instead of studying the processes of various course materials.

When it comes to the class difficulty, the students said that Master’s programs tend to be a case of give or take. While the class materials may be harder to understand on a conceptual level, the professors, themselves, can to be less harsh when it comes to grading. As a result, you’ll feel less restricted by work as compared to undergraduate courses. It appears that in terms of academics, being a Master’s student is a great way to study the subjects you are passionate about in your degree.

When it comes to the social aspects of being a Master’s student, it’s a give or take situation. You will be attending classes surrounded by peers who share the same academic passions as you, but there will be significantly fewer students per class. This means that as a result, you may feel that your friend groups have been reduced to a quarter of what they used to be. To remedy that, you will also be able to work closer with others on projects more often than you did in your undergraduate classes. And though you may not have as robust of a social life as you had as an undergrad, the quality of friendships is still there.