During my master's studies, so far, I have taken quite many postgraduate-level courses (i.e. courses that are accepted as a PhD-level course for a PhD student at my university). Some of these courses were a part of my degree requirement, so I was obliged to take them, but few of them were my personal choices to take them. I am now wondering if this can be a positive point in the future in my CV, e.g. when looking for a job. In the transcript of records, it is not indicated anyhow that those particular courses were postgraduate level, except for a "P" in front of their names and that's about it, so even if I send my transcript to someone they probably won't realize those courses are PhD level courses. So was it really worth the trouble to take such courses which mostly took me twice as much time to complete? I am not talking about things I have learned from these courses, but merely talking about their benefit in the future when applying for a job or PhD program?
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You talk about "things I have learned from these courses" and "benefit in the future when applying for a job or PhD program" as if they are two separate things. By taking courses that stretch you further, look in more detail, go deeper into the scientific process, you will gain benefits that will come through on your statement of purpose and in your interview even if you never once use the word "postgraduate". – user2390246 Jun 04 '16 at 10:14
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@user2390246-You can apply for a BEd course simultaneously with this program if you want school jobs – Jun 08 '16 at 03:37
3 Answers
While it might make a small difference, I doubt that you will get all that much benefit from the courses based on how they appear on your transcript, even if they are annotated with information about their level. The simple reasons for this are that:
- Courses cannot readily be compared from institution to institution, and
- Even a high grade in a course doesn't really say anything about what you took away from it.
Instead, the main "resume" benefit you are likely to obtain from these courses is in their side-effects: higher-level graduate courses tend to give you opportunities that don't come in more stock courses, like doing significant projects (which sometimes even lead to publications!), giving class presentations, getting involved in research, getting to know faculty, etc.
Those are where I would recommend looking for benefit, and why it's often better to take less classes but invest more deeply in each at the graduate level.
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There are actually several benefits.
You don't need to wait for people to understand what those "P"s mean. You could just add a section to your CV named Highlighted Courses and indicate the grad courses explicitly.
If you are going to pursue a PhD, the message that "I have already took courses from PhD and I know what I am doing" is really a good message to give. It will put you one or two steps further.
Completing a higher level course (i.e. post-doc course in master's) mean you are a hard-worker and ready to take the challenges. This message might come in handy when you are applying for industry positions.
They indicate that you want to learn new things. You are not a person that sticks with the "maximum benefit with minimum effort" principle. You actually want to expand your borders. This indication puts you four steps further both in academia and industry.
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3.Completing a grad course in bachelor's mean You might have mis-read the OP's question. He was taking postgraduate-level courses during his master's studies. – Nobody Jun 04 '16 at 07:03
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@scaaahu that is true, I was to write "a higher level course" thanks for noticing. – padawan Jun 04 '16 at 07:11
It depends on what kind of job you consider applying for.
If you want to stay in academia, taking advanced courses is clearly an advantage. Not necessarily because they show up with a "P" on your transcript, but because you will have gained more knowledge, challenged yourself, and learned about non standard stuff. For a PhD application, as well as for the PhD itself, this will be useful.
If you want to go to the industry, on the other hand, chances are that nobody will care what courses you took exactly. The knowledge you gained from these courses is probably too specific to be applied in any industry job. Even if the course was listed explicitly as "postgraduate", to anyone outside academia, this will not mean much.
In short: If it is only the effect on your transcript that you are interested in, it is not worth taking twice the amount of time to finish the same work load. If you are interested in gaining knowledge and learn about advanced stuff, it is definitely worth it.
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