Masters Program?

[ouchitburns]

I am committed to defering for a year thinking that I would work in my field at one of the top pharma companies.

Recently, though, I was offered the opportunity to do an accelerated masters in chemistry (it is from a canadian school where a masters is not the end result of an incomplete PhD).

Does anyone have a sense of whether this would be valuable for IP or if working at the large pharmaceutical for a year (doing good research) would be as valuable?

It would be a hard year but I would be willing if it confered a real advantage.

[bamf]

I am committed to defering for a year thinking that I would work in my field at one of the top pharma companies.

Recently, though, I was offered the opportunity to do an accelerated masters in chemistry (it is from a canadian school where a masters is not the end result of an incomplete PhD).

Does anyone have a sense of whether this would be valuable for IP or if working at the large pharmaceutical for a year (doing good research) would be as valuable?

It would be a hard year but I would be willing if it confered a real advantage.

what is your undergrad major?

[ouchitburns]

Chemistry.

[BlueWhite]

If I were you, I would just go straight to law school.  I don't think either a master's or a year working would be more beneficial than having that extra year of practical training in IP law in a firm.  I've spoken to patent lawyers at one of the big Pharma companies, and they advised me to just go straight on to school because companies care about you as a lawyer, not as a scientist.  I don't think the master's would help that much because there are a good number of Chemistry Ph.Ds going to law school and from my experience working in industry, master's and bachelor's degrees are pretty much equivalent, so I don't know that a company looking to hire a lawyer would care that much that you had a master's.  You have some great law school options right now, and I think coming out of one of them and getting to work would help much more than delaying.