>Thanks for the clarification. Now that you mention it, a good friend (best man's wife) got her master's and PhD in chemistry as a combined program. She said the master's degree was pretty much a non-event in the middle, since everyone was there for their doctorate.
>
>And then some of them went on for their post-docs. Ouch. I was more than ready to exit academia after four years as an undergrad.

Solomon told us recently that in his field, it's not unusually for people to do 3, 4, or even 5 two-year post-doctoral fellowships before finding an academic position. He's thinking hard about what he'll want to do when he finishes (which isn't any time soon, anyway).

Tamar