Law School or Master of Professional Studies

[soupbone]

I find both titles a little misleading but the description of the 2nd one (Public Health Preparadness) sounds like a great fit for the Disney type job since it is about emergency/incident management.

As for Penn State, you can't get much better general name recognition. Thanks mostly to Joe paterno and the Nittany Lions, but isn't that the case for most non-ivy league schools. We know them for their football teams!

I don't pay attention to school rankings too much but I believe that Penn State was ranked 15th for the Top 50 Public National Universities and 47th overall. Certainly the name recognition is there and Penn State makes sure you know that the degree is identical, the curriculum is identical, the transcripts are identical, and you can walk for graduation just like B&M Penn State students. I'm pretty much sold at this point I just want to narrow down which path to choose.

Geospatial Intel is interesting because it utilizes mapping and terrain to allow the person to better prepare their organization for incidents (Disney is VERY large as it references occupied land). Public Health looks good because it deals with epidemiology and public health concerns (Disney is obviously a huge "public" area). Lastly, I was also considering the Agricultural Biosecurity path because it deals with contamination of food supplies (Disney has a large Ag component since they grow a lot of their own food). All of these would fit large organizations like Disney. I referenced Disney because I've always wanted to work there but beyond that these paths would be useful to any large organization. This decision is almost tougher than the law school/MPS debate. A positive is that if you look at each curriculum you get to take courses that reflect each path so get a little taste of all the different specializations. cheersmate

**EDIT** I fell like I must point out a huge negative about the masters program....it's approx. $740 a credit hour! :puke: :ack:

I wonder if they justify this price because it's only a 33 credit hour program putting it in line with the cost of a 60 hour program. The program would cost roughly $30,000 if you include books and other fees. banghead

[perrik]

So as I've been getting all of my law school items in order I started thinking about pursuing a masters degree instead. Naturally since my bachelor's degree is in Homeland Security I've looked at several programs and found a few that interest me. PSU (Penn State University) has several very interesting MPS programs (http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/Maste...rriculum.shtml) but I have a few concerns. I question whether or not an MPS would be enough for entrance into a future Doctorate program. Other than the programs PSU offers look very unique for being in the homeland security path. Also the Penn State programs are 18 month online programs allowing me the flexibility to conduct my studies when I have time (like all online degrees).

In what field would you be pursuing the future doctorate? There are really two kinds of doctoral programs - practitioner and research. If the degree title is Doctor of Philosophy, it's almost certainly a research-oriented program; if the title is Doctor of (something other than Philosophy), it's probably practice-based. For example, a doctoral candidate at a school of education might be pursing the Ed.D (with the goal of going into academic administration) or the Ph.D (with the goal of entering research into educational psychology or curriculum evaluation or the like). Someone studying psychology at the doctoral level might be pursuing the Psy.D (to become a practicing psychologist) or the Ph.D (psychological research).

That said, there are many doctoral program applicants who don't have a masters in anything! For those of us with, shall we say, unconventional undergrad degrees, the real value of a masters is strong grades on an official transcript, samples of graduate-level writing, and recent letters of recommendation from tenured faculty members.

The Penn State program requires a final research project, which will be great for demonstrating to any doctoral program that you have high-level research and writing skills. Keep around plenty of copies of your final project. One reason I chose my particular master's program is that I could write a thesis as the culminating program activity, which should give me an edge when applying for Ph.D programs.

[soupbone]

In what field would you be pursuing the future doctorate? There are really two kinds of doctoral programs - practitioner and research. If the degree title is Doctor of Philosophy, it's almost certainly a research-oriented program; if the title is Doctor of (something other than Philosophy), it's probably practice-based. For example, a doctoral candidate at a school of education might be pursing the Ed.D (with the goal of going into academic administration) or the Ph.D (with the goal of entering research into educational psychology or curriculum evaluation or the like). Someone studying psychology at the doctoral level might be pursuing the Psy.D (to become a practicing psychologist) or the Ph.D (psychological research).

That said, there are many doctoral program applicants who don't have a masters in anything! For those of us with, shall we say, unconventional undergrad degrees, the real value of a masters is strong grades on an official transcript, samples of graduate-level writing, and recent letters of recommendation from tenured faculty members.

The Penn State program requires a final research project, which will be great for demonstrating to any doctoral program that you have high-level research and writing skills. Keep around plenty of copies of your final project. One reason I chose my particular master's program is that I could write a thesis as the culminating program activity, which should give me an edge when applying for Ph.D programs.

Thanks for the detailed response.

I'm still thoroughly confused at this point. The more I weigh the options the more confused I get. Law school gives me more independence when it comes to futur career choices than a masters which would limit me to a specific field.

Also, for my bachelor's I was required to complete a capstone so I'm familiar with the thesis/dissertation realizing the capstone is on a smaller scale. My capstone totaled out at 33 pages and over 8500 words and I received an A on it.

So, I sit here still confused as the day I typed this thread but I have very little time to decide. The masters/doctorate path looks like fun even if I choose just the masters because the Penn State program has many interesting options. I'm still undecided on which one I would choose although Public Health, Geospatial Intel, and Agricultural Biosecurity all look awesome. As far as doctoral programs I would rather take the practitioner path but I'm not sure how many exist in the homeland security/emergency management/law enforcement field. Hopefully I'll make a choice this week or at the latest next week. Thanks!