The difference of Course Work as MS and Ph.D

[yamamotomiechan]

Can somebody answer my question?

I got accepted at University of Wisconsin-Madison as MS.

I think I will go there.

However, I have a question about the difference of the course work between MS and Ph.D.

In U.S.A, there is no border between MS and Ph.D.

I mean that undergrad students can go directly to Ph.D course. This is totally different from my country.

In my country, students who wanna get Ph.D have to get MS first.

I will get Master, but I also want to get Ph.D in the future.

So I will take course work as Master.

There is a question.

When I get accepted as Ph.D in some university after getting Master degree, should I finish course work again in the Ph.D course?

So it seems that getting Ph.D after MS takes much more time than getting Ph.D after undergrad.

[nvseal]

I can’t speak from experience, but I believe the primarydifference between a masters and a phd is the dissertation. Some mastersdegrees have thesis options similar to phd dissertations (and they can be justas long too) but from what I have generally seen, masters theses are meant todemonstrate mastery of a field or subject area while a phd dissertation ismeant to actually contribute to the state of the art. Moreover, a phd isgenerally more research focused while a masters is more course work focused (dependingon your degree option of course, a thesis option would naturally have less classwork). I doubt you would have to retake coursework in a phd which you alreadyhad for your masters, especially if you got your masters at a reputable program(such as Wisconsin-Madison). But again, take that with a grain of salt since I’mnot in the know. I doubt schools want to waste their phd students’ time on workthey have already had. Already having a lot of the core course work out of theway may even make you a more attractive candidate to some schools since youcould get straight into research faster.

[CPol]

Can somebody answer my question?

I got accepted at University of Wisconsin-Madison as MS.

I think I will go there.

However, I have a question about the difference of the course work between MS and Ph.D.

In U.S.A, there is no border between MS and Ph.D.

I mean that undergrad students can go directly to Ph.D course. This is totally different from my country.

In my country, students who wanna get Ph.D have to get MS first.

I will get Master, but I also want to get Ph.D in the future.

So I will take course work as Master.

There is a question.

When I get accepted as Ph.D in some university after getting Master degree, should I finish course work again in the Ph.D course?

So it seems that getting Ph.D after MS takes much more time than getting Ph.D after undergrad.

There are some programs in the U.S.A that do require you to have a masters prior to enrolling in PhD programs, although they are few. The course work difference between MS and PhD greatly depends on which program you are talking about. The point of the PhD as I see it is research. Masters is more similar to undergraduate studies in that there is a focus on class, granted if you are getting funding then you will most likely be do research while obtaining masters. The higher ranked universities (Top 5-ish) put really really heavy emphasis on research for PhD so I think there would be a bigger difference between their strictly masters program and strictly PhD program. The way I see the straight to PhD programs here is a blend of the two. The first 2 or so years you blast out most of the course work you will do and then spend the remaining years mostly on research.

I don't have any experience with grad school yet, but from what I have seen looking at professors CVs/Resumes and such, those who received a masters degree at one place and a PhD at another did not have a 6year gap between receiving the two. The norm seems to be receiving PhD 3 to 4 years after Masters. I would also think that if you come with a masters they should allow significant course credit transfer assuming it was from an accredited university and assuming they thought the classes were on par with their own. So if I had to guess I would say you don't have to worrying about throwing away a year or two obtaining your masters only to have to go 5 or 6 years after that to get a PhD, but again this is only a guess.

[adinutzyc]

In most of the schools I have visited there were people who were accepted that already had done the coursework for the Masters, so the question that came up, pretty often, was whether or not they had to retake all the classes they had already taken as part of the MS. The answer was that no, not all classes have to be retaken, since some of them can be transferred, but there would still be classes to be taken, since for the PhD, even at that university, you would have to take about 5 more classes than the Masters, and also some of your Masters classes will not transfer.

There are some MS programs that do have a dissertation, depends whether it's a coursework-based Masters or not.

In my opinion, doing an MS before the PhD in America is a waste of time, when you know you want to go for a PhD. Most PhD degrees allow you to get an MS on the way, and you do that while not paying a dime (well, you don't go to a PhD if you don't get funded, at least not in Computer Science), but actually getting paid. And by wasting time I mean finishing the same degree (PhD) in 7-8 years instead of 5-6 (it does depend on the school though). My country doesn't do PhDs directly after undergrad either, but they seem quite common here... and since I couldn't afford a Masters and a PhD was my ultimate goal, I decided to try that, and got in and got funded.

Of course, coming from a foreign country (I did my undergrad here) might make it more difficult to apply directly for a PhD, when many of the activities you had/recommenders are unknown to admission committees (so I do understand).

[frenzydude]

In my opinion, doing an MS before the PhD in America is a waste of time, when you know you want to go for a PhD. Most PhD degrees allow you to get an MS on the way, and you do that while not paying a dime (well, you don't go to a PhD if you don't get funded, at least not in Computer Science), but actually getting paid.

I cannot agree more with you and I was in the same situation as an international student. I did my undergrad in my home country and applied for PhD directly. Apart from the obvious benefit of funding, it will save me atleast one year. 4/5 years for direct PhD as compared to 2 + 3/4 = 5/6 yrs for PhD after MS.

However, for the original poster, if you just continue towards PhD at UW Madison, you won't waste that one year as you would be familiar with much of the stuff and can complete both MS and PhD within 5 years.

[explorer-c]

4/5 years for direct PhD as compared to 2 + 3/4 = 5/6 yrs for PhD after MS.

I think that's an overly optimistic estimate. In most top schools, the average PhD completion time for CS (for all students, both with and without masters) is around 6 years.

[adinutzyc]

I think that's an overly optimistic estimate. In most top schools, the average PhD completion time for CS (for all students, both with and without masters) is around 6 years.

Agreed. 5 years at least, people that finish in less usually had a Masters to start with, so took less classes in the first few years.

[yamamotomiechan]

Thank you so much for many opinions

It seems that I also have to take some course works after getting MS.

But getting MS might reduce the number of course work in Ph.D.