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Difference between Master's and PhD

C

chuckywang

Lifer
To anybody who has experienced both:

What is the main difference between a Master's and a PhD degree? They seem similar to me. One can require a thesis and the other requires a dissertation. Can anyone comment on this? Thanks.
 
One is completed in 1-2 years and the other takes 3-10.

A Master's thesis does not require nearly as much work, research or effort to defend as a PhD Dissertation. Furtermore, a lot of PhD programs will give you a master's after you complete the schooling part of the program (which takes ~2 years)
 
PhD dissertation is way harder than a MS thesis. They're not on the same level. PhD dissertation must provide your original contribution on methodology that was not already done by others, while MS thesis can be focused on application (applying existing methods to a problem, not inventing new methods).
 
Master's = This isn't so bad.

PhD = I've been up for 26 hours already. I think I'll call it a day if I get to 36.

<-- Bitter PhD student who should have written his papers earlier this term.
(The answers above, are, of course, much better, and you should listen to them--however, this serves as my rant, and your bump)
 
Most PhDs won't make up the difference in salary over a master's degree for the extra time spent in school. It depends on what you want to end up doing. If you want to teach at the university level, then salary is obviously not important to you - and you need a PhD. If you want to get specialized in industry, then most often a master's is good for this, as it won't pigeon-hole you either.
 
The difference between a Master's and a PhD is like the difference between high school and college, or college and grad school. As you progress a lot more is expected of you. At least for me, the work/competence required to get the PhD was MUCH higher than that required to get a Master's.
 
Originally posted by: yellowfiero
Most PhDs won't make up the difference in salary over a master's degree for the extra time spent in school. It depends on what you want to end up doing. If you want to teach at the university level, then salary is obviously not important to you - and you need a PhD. If you want to get specialized in industry, then most often a master's is good for this, as it won't pigeon-hole you either.
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This is true. Just in terms of typical total accumulated salary over a lifetime, someone with a masters will catch up with someone that just has a bachelors (who starts working right after college. However, a PhD will never catch a master's, but after several years, the PhD will have much more say in what type of work he/she is doing. i.e. direct a lab or something like that, in the case of physical science or engineering.
 
Originally posted by: yellowfiero
Most PhDs won't make up the difference in salary over a master's degree for the extra time spent in school. It depends on what you want to end up doing. If you want to teach at the university level, then salary is obviously not important to you - and you need a PhD. If you want to get specialized in industry, then most often a master's is good for this, as it won't pigeon-hole you either.
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Your first sentence is probably often true. But even in industry, many (and increasing) positions require a PhD (or prefer a PhD although in this case they often take MS with at least 3-5 yrs more experience). Also a PhD can do the work of a MS, but the opposite direction doesn't hold true.

As an example, the top consulting firm McKinsey only recruits PhD and MBAs for their consultant positions. Starting salary: 140K or up.
 
Originally posted by: KoolAidKid
The difference between a Master's and a PhD is like the difference between high school and college, or college and grad school. As you progress a lot more is expected of you. At least for me, the work/competence required to get the PhD was MUCH higher than that required to get a Master's.
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The part about college and grad school is pure BS. I go to Columbia for my masters in comp sci, it's barely harder than my undergrad classes i took in Stony Brook, my state university. In fact, i'm taking Analysis to Algorithms, which i took in stony brook and it was actually harder there. I agree that PhD is a whole 'nother level though. But masters? Come on.
 
Another way to look at this is that a Masters is a glorified bachelors degree. You take a couple more courses, you do a little work and write a couple of papers. Once you get into industry, this basically becomes the equivalent of you need less training and supervision than a bachelors student would.

For a PhD, however, you have to prove that you can go find your research on your own and solve the problems. You then have to back up everything you did. A rather royal pain in the ass which is also involved with the joy of your committee members torturing you with things like qualfiers, comprehensives, reports, changes, suggestions, defenses, and corrections becuase they had to do it when they got theirs! It has to be the biggest legal damn hazing in the world! (ok, end bitterness as I'm trying to finish up)

The big difference comes once you join industry. With a PhD you are expeted to take a lead and to be able to learn, figure out, and teach yourself anything you need to know on you own. No one holding your hand or leading the way. In fact, you are expected to lead the way for others.
 
you get your masters if you want to be a step up in your field (you get to supervise projects, become project managers etc.)

PhD is if you want to do research in your field. you usually become a university professor and get someone to fund your research
 
Originally posted by: kaymin
Originally posted by: KoolAidKid
The difference between a Master's and a PhD is like the difference between high school and college, or college and grad school. As you progress a lot more is expected of you. At least for me, the work/competence required to get the PhD was MUCH higher than that required to get a Master's.
Click to expand...

The part about college and grad school is pure BS. I go to Columbia for my masters in comp sci, it's barely harder than my undergrad classes i took in Stony Brook, my state university. In fact, i'm taking Analysis to Algorithms, which i took in stony brook and it was actually harder there. I agree that PhD is a whole 'nother level though. But masters? Come on.
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Well, that may be more indicative of your school than the degree itself. My master's classes are much harder than my undergrad classes were, at the same school. (Johns Hopkins)
 
Depends, in engineering, Master's degree is a Bachelor's degree with iceing - IE, pretty much do the same work as BS. but with 5K-10k$ more salary, and a lil more say. phD is 5-10K$ more than Masters, and you have more responsibility - you can call shots, people trust your opinion esp if it is in your field.
 
it's harder to go into the industry with a PhD. most PhD students want to do research and end up with professor positions.
 
Originally posted by: Albis
it's harder to go into the industry with a PhD. most PhD students want to do research and end up with professor positions.
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I heard when PhD sutdents graduate, they can easily find jobs in the industry that pay 1 million dollars.
 
^ that is total BS. The highest paid professor is $110k in the US. Compare that to the stupid college football coaches who gripe about their million dollar contracts.
 
Masters: 1-2 years. ~30 credits, about 22-30 of those will be classes. The rest is thesis that in many majors is optional. If you do research and write a thesis, you can expect it to be maybe 100 pages long (varies quite a bit).

PhD: 4-8 years. ~90 credits, about 45 of those will be classes. The rest is a glorified thesis called a dissertation. Dissertations tend to be ~250 pages long (varies quite a bit).

Once you have a masters, you pretty much have all the classwork done, just another year of classwork is needed. The rest of your time is spent doing more thorough research.

A PhD tends to average about $10k more per year than a masters (varies from field to field). But you lose the salary from 3-6 years when you could have been working. For me, I lost ~$80,000 for taking 2 more years to get my PhD (I was paid well as a student, just not as much as I would have if I worked). That $80k with interest will eventually be made back with my extra $10k a year salary, but it'll take quite a long time for me to do so.
 
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