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I finished my master's in 2023 with a specialization in Physics. As part of my degree, I worked on a thesis in the field of Astrophysics, and initally had plans to pursue a PhD in the same. However, my family forced me to do an MBA due to financial constraints.

Currently, I am planning on working for a few years to save up and then make a switch back into academia, namely by applying for a PhD in astrophysics. I have two main questions:

1.) Given this plan, what are my prospects going to look like? Will my master's degree and thesis be sufficient to land me a decent PhD in the future, or will my time as a business manager be viewed as a bad thing and ruin my chances of a PhD?

2.) Another alternative is to apply for a fresh Master's degree in astrophysics, and then go for a PhD. Will this help increase my prospects of landing a good PhD program?

I'm mainly focusing on PhD and masters degrees in the Europe, but I would also appreciate your thoughts about PhD/masters prospects in other countries!

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  • Welcome to academia.se. This is a decent question, but it's very much about your own circumstances. Questions whose answers only apply to one individual are discouraged here. You might consider revising it to be more general, and applicable to others. With that said, I hope you get useful answers.
    – Flyto
    Commented Sep 16 at 20:38
  • Do you think your master's thesis was impactful and grades were good enough for a good PhD program otherwise? I suppose that with the MBA you could also bring valuable real-world experience into your later research. Who knows, maybe with a PhD and and MBA, you'll be at a good place later to lead an astrophysics startup... good luck!
    – Wouter
    Commented Sep 17 at 11:05
  • Was the masters with a specialization in Physics a separate masters from the MBA, or did you just do a lot of physics electives as part of the MBA?
    – Ray
    Commented Sep 19 at 14:47

2 Answers 2

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Yes, it is possible to switch back to academia and astrophysics, but this path is far from ideal. During the time spent and the effort required in management, you are likely to forget a lot of things. The field will move forward from where you are now. "Feasible" is actually a judgement call, but it is "possible".

More important, in some places where letters of recommendation are important, you are likely to lose contact with your academic mentors who would write the best letters. And they will start to forget you if you lose contact.

Additionally, your life style will likely change, perhaps dramatically, with additional needs financially that wouldn't be feasible to interrupt.

And, in some places like the US, "saving up" for doctoral study isn't necessary as most students serve as TAs which provide for nearly all fees plus a modest living stipend.

An MBA would be irrelevant, I think, to any decisions about admissions. It certainly wouldn't be a positive. And the time spent in business might cause some people to question your commitment. This latter can be overcome, I'd guess, but you will still be competing with people who have taken a more direct route to doctoral admissions.

But, you do what you need to do. If the pressure from your family is that they need your financial support then that may be unavoidable. But not ideal for achieving your goals.

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  • "An MBA would be irrelevant, I think, to any decisions about admissions. It certainly wouldn't be a positive." Is this specifically for the American system when you go straight into a 5-yeae PhD from a Bachelor's, or would it also apply to the European system where you do a 2-year Master's before you apply for a 3-year PhD? An MBA is a Master's degree, after all.
    – nick012000
    Commented Sep 17 at 2:23
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    @nick012000, an MBA is a professional, not an academic, masters. That is the difference. I doubt that even in Europe, any masters, no matter what field, qualifies you for doctoral admission. It might even be stricter in places like Germany.
    – Buffy
    Commented Sep 17 at 10:33
  • The MBA demonstrates that a student can start something semi ambitious and see it through. It may mean more than that, but an applicant would need to explain how and why in the application package.
    – Scott Seidman
    Commented Sep 18 at 11:36
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Maybe, if you do well and can tie your MBA to your proposed research project.

Taking a look at the requirements for a PhD at the University of Queensland in Australia, which follows the 3-year PhD following a separate Master's Degree model, it states:

An approved degree needs to be:

  • in an area relevant to your proposed PhD project and
  • completed no more than 10 years ago.

You need one of the following approved degrees to apply for a PhD:

...

  • Coursework master’s degree with an overall grade point average of 5.65 on the 7-point UQ scale which includes relevant research experience, approved by the dean; or

Presumably, an MBA would qualify as a "course-work master's degree".

It then goes on to state:

You'll meet the requirements for admission into a PhD in terms of 'research preparedness' if you can provide evidence that you've planned and executed project work and/or a body of research with some independence.

To demonstrate this, we'll ask you to provide one of the following:

...

Demonstrable industry or work experience where you can demonstrate that you have planned and executed a project, working with a high level of independence.

This shouldn't be difficult for anyone getting an MBA to do. You are a manager at the company you work for, right? There's generally not much point getting one if you're not, after all.

So, to qualify for a PhD in Astrophysics, you'll need to be able to justify why your Astrophysics research topic is related to the topics you studied in your MBA, but maybe you could justify it by connecting economic and statistical modelling to the mathematical modelling of galaxies or something.

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