

Has anyone done a Ph.D. in CS, IS, or a related field part-time? - jgunaratne

I&#x27;m curious if anyone has worked towards a Ph.D. while employed and, if so, what advice do you have? Career-wise I&#x27;d like to get an applied research position in an industry research lab, not a faculty position at a university. I&#x27;m currently employed as a software engineer and my employer will pay for tuition (since I likely won&#x27;t be taking a graduate assistant position).
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joeclark77
From what I've seen, PhDs in IS (aka MIS) are typically full-time; the
professors are interested in having research assistants who will help them
produce publications during and after the PhD. Also, IS departments are very
small compared to other departments within the b-school. If an IS department
only takes on 1 or 2 new PhD students per year, you would have a hard time
convincing them that you're their best bet. Some business schools, however,
have "DBA" programs which are doctoral programs geared toward tuition-paying
students.

I would not assume that my generalizations apply across the board, and
certainly not count on them applying to engineering schools, i-schools and
other programs.

What part of the country are you in, by the way? That's probably going to
determine your options.

