[MCS]

Hello,


Cliffs Notes intro: I recently left my PhD program voluntarily to seek employment. I entered in August 2001 and left a month ago. I have a masters degree that I picked up in May 2005.

I'm wondering how to handle/explain this on a resume.




My concerns are:

--If I put something like "former PhD student" in the Education section, it might give the impression I basically flamed out of or couldn't handle the PhD program and that's why I got a MS. Same thing applies if I make a note like "former PhD research" in the part where I talk about a project I did over the last year.

--If I put nothing at all about my PhD work, the employer might wonder why it took me nearly four years to get a masters when I have been at Georgia Tech the whole time. Also, I worked as a TA through this summer and I have a part-time job right now, so at least I don't have a total employment gap, but it might seem unclear or weird how I've been a TA at Georgia Tech even after getting the MS.

--I feel like having passed the doctoral comps with flying colors is pretty good, so I kinda want to put it under Honors. Also, PhD coursework is substantially harder than MS work, and I wouldn't mind conveying that I can handle highly difficult thinking, but I don't really know how to explain this.

Any advice? Thanks a lot.