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There are many factors to consider before deciding between pursuing a Ph.D. and a Masters degree. A Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) is a terminal degree. It is in effect a recognition that you have have mastered and have produced signficant original contribution to a body of human knowledge. A masters degree on the other hand is aimed at increasing your breadth of knowledge in a particular area.

Career Options
A Ph.D. degree prepares you for a career in research - be it in Academia or in the Industry. Professors in most reputable universities are expected to hold a Ph.D. degree. As is the case with researchers in Industrial labs. Industrial Labs that hire Ph.D. holders in computer science include Microsoft Research Labs, IBM Research Labs, AT&T-Bell Labs, etc. A masters degree on the other hand is a much more hands on training for the industry. It will prepare you to meet the industry problems with an improved perspective as compared to an undergrad.

Funding Opportunities
Most Ph.D. candidates are funded from Day 1. Whereas as a masters student it is often harder to obtain employment within the university. Professors prefer to fund Ph.D. candidates rather than Masters students simply because the Ph.D. students will remain in the university for a longer time and will hence be able to produce much more significant work along with the professor.

Choice of Universities
The number of students chosen for the Masters program is significantly more than the number of students taken on every year as Ph.D. students. This coupled with the fact that professors will have to allocate a part of their funding for Ph.D. students, makes it a lot more easier for students to obtain admissions for the masters program at their choice universities.

Previous Experience
If you have significant research experience either during your undergrad or with industry experience, and you are certain that you will enjoy a career in research, then a Masters degree will hold limited appeal as it doesn't quite polish your profile as much meet the requirements of a research career.

Personal Commitments
A doctoral degree will take anywhere between 4 and 7 years to finish whereas a masters degree can be finished in a year and a half to 2 years. Many folks will not be able to undertake a commitment for such long time intervals. Also to be noted is that most universities offer a Masters degree to the students after 2 years (once they finish their masters course requirement). So even in the tragic chance that you have to drop out of your Ph.D. program, you will still have a masters degree.

Other strong reasons
I personally consider choosing to pursue a Masters degree a less risky option. Folks who dont have a very strong academic past might choose to pursue a Masters degree at a lesser known university in the US before applying for Ph.D programs at better universities. Also, if you are still unsure about whether you are cut out for the research career, you can choose to do a Masters degree to get a wiff of the research career before you decide.

While I have by no means exhaustively covered the guidelines for choosing between a masters and a doctoral program, I hope this will help you start thinking in the right direction. Also, please do leave a comment if there were other factors that influenced your decision.

Tags: Ph.D, Masters, Graduate, Education