We were discussing about MS Vs Phd in this post.

Professor Jayant Haritsa gave his views about it here.

Dont you think it would great to hear the views on this topic from an MS student who is contemplating on Phd.. Here we go!

Bhaskar Prabhakar is now pursuing his masters in Mechanical Engineering in Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is officially working with the energy institute at PSU. Bhaskar was the Best Outgoing Student of NIT TRICHY – 2007. Bhaskar might go for a Phd. He hasnt decided yet!

Without futher ado, Over to Bhaskar on MS vs Phd.

Personally, I feel one should consider MS or PhD if and only if he is interested in doing some meaningful research in life and wants to contribute to the world knowledge base. If coming to the US is the sole intention, MS might turn out to be the easiest way, i agree, but then will not be the right choice. The reason why I say this is because you can get done with your masters even without doing research at many universities, or what they claim to be a non-thesis option. This is basically course work, which might be an extension of what was covered in the undergrad level, or might be a bit more in depth and sometimes more rigorous. But then, just doing course work without any practical application or coming up with stuff on your own (research-though it might sound a misnomer) is of no use from what I see.

Coming to MS vs PhD…First and foremost, I would say never commit to a PhD without going to a particular univ, the reason being, things might seem very glamorous from India when posted on the world wide web, but the essence of it lies when you really taste it..in simple words, it is good to start off with a masters, evaluate yourself, if you are worth a PhD, look around for what interests you and what in the department you can do and then commit..this seems to be the best option to me..I have seen lots of people committing to a PhD right from the start and have quit after a few years not liking what they are doing, its quite practical that this can happen to any one..first of all, do what you like and then start liking what you are doing..

Secondly, a masters degree is just an eye opener, it is quite broad because you really dont get to specialize in anything( may not be true always, I have seen lots of masters students being Gods in some areas), while a PhD is more focussed into one particular subject. In other words, you narrow down your focus into a smaller domain and work for more time till you have substantial results.

Having said that, it is wrong to claim that a PhD candidate is area specific. it is important to know that a PhD candidate works on many projects, in multiple dimensions before he can churn out his own results. This makes him a good know-er of many subjects too.

Masters is a quick degree, while PhD is more time consuming..Many people say, PhD students have lost social bearings, I will agree partly and disagree too..it depends!!!!!

Coming to who does PhD? A person who is looking to work in academia or wanting to contribute to research in a big way does a PhD, while a masters student is looking to get done and hunt for jobs in industries, where not much of research is called for.

Coming to salary and preference, obviously a PhD candidate is preferred over a masters one due to the depth of knowledge, but pay wise both remain more or less the same.

I hope i have cleared some of your questions…

Thanks Bhaskar. That was helpful. Readers, hope this clears some of your doubts about MS and Phd.

Jayant Haritsa’s views on MS Vs Phd.

A couple of random points (caveat: as you will see below, i am heavily biased towards a traditional notion of academics):

1) Firstly, we should not make value judgements between Masters vs PhD in the sense of one being superior or inferior — it is more an issue of what *you* would like to do in the remainder of your technical life.

If you are the type who prefers to work in teams and is keen on developing immediately useable systems, then pursuing a Masters would make good sense. On the other hand, if you are the type who likes to work alone and secretly wishes to pursue an irresponsible life and be paid for it, then doing a PhD may be an attractive proposition.

2) I personally am not in favor of PhD thesis coming out of large systems projects, based on the following reasoning - a PhD should gear you up for carrying out *independent* research and is in a sense, a process of *self*-realization. However, often in a large group project, you get either lifted or pulled down or channeled by the group objectives and members. So you really don’t get to figure out your *own* abilities due to the external modulation. Ideally, a Phd should prepare you for the loneliness of academic life

Further, in large systems projects, sooner or later, getting the software out usually becomes more important than the concepts themselves – but to me the quality of a PhD is defined by the fresh *conceptual* breakthroughs.

3) The reason often given for an industry stint before or during PhD is that you get to grips with “real problems”. My view is again that of the pure mathematician – who cares? The “real” just means that it may have *short-term* applicability, but in practice, most PhD thesis find their way into the real-world in the long-term. To give you a recent example – Mike Stonebraker is now using some of the scheduling ideas from a thesis of fifteen years ago in the Streambase prototype.

Do a Phd when you are at the peak of your mental powers, which is *right now* - don’t bother so much about whether it is “industry-relevant”, as much as “did I have fun thinking about the problem and did I come up with elegant solutions that I am proud to show my mother”.

4) Finally, in my view, ideal Phd is one where *you* come up with the problem, work alone (modulo advisor) and single-handedly write a definitive thesis on the issue.

Hope you enjoyed this episode of Coffee With Experts! Previous episodes of Coffee with Experts is here.

Refer to Prof. Mor Harchol-Balter’s guide for application to PhD (link:http://www.cs.cmu.edu/education/admissions/doctorate/)

In a nutshell, MS is like furthering your education, learning advanced topics and carrying out more complex projects than at undergrad level. After that, you get job as software engineer in some firm (higher salary than undergrad and better quality of work in US) As a PhD, you can work in a university or in some research lab or as system architect in some firm. From admission point of view(for CS), it’s very difficult to get admission for PhD compared to MS. But aid is almost guaranteed for PhD and almost never available for MS. Some universities like, wisconsin-madison has integrated MS/PhD program. So, its one common pool of applicants and everyone who is admitted is for PhD program and gets aid. He can drop out after MS.

Apping Process

From my experience -

1. GPA and university reputation are most important for admission to any university.

2. Your best chances are in the universities where your seniors have been in past.

3. Have a good resume. Don’t have it more than a page as far as possible. No admission committee member has time to read long resumes. So, longer you write more “boring” you become to him. Achievements in programming contests get special attention(depending on the level of competition)

4. SoP: I doubt if anyone reads it, but make a good statement of yourself. Be objective! No articulate language. One page as far as possible….but 1.5 page is OK. Talk about yourself, your experience in the field and why you want to join graduate school and why join the particular university and briefly mention career plan

5. Reco letters: I know most of you will be required to write your own reco letters….so here are some tips. I believe, after GPA this is most important thing. References based on your industrial work don’t matter. Admission committee wants to know about your skills in academics. If the person can comment on your abilities and skills, then it may be OK.

Reference letter should always focus on specifics: “person took course XYZ with me and secured score of 99.99 out of 100 and was 2nd in class of 100 students. He did so and so work under my supervision. He did this and this in that project. Achieved so and so in that….and that work is up for publication now….in so and so conference. I have supervised students in past who made to graduate schools at MIT, CMU, Stanford and I consider him to be at par with them….I consider him to be in top 100% of students I have supervised….or in top 200% of students who make to places like….. “

This is the reference letter, people are looking for! Focus on specifics….don’t write, “he is hardworking, ambitious….I found him very social….NOOOO!!
No one wants to read that kind of stuff……Include a line about communication skills. It is important.

If you are writing more than a letter… make sure all those styles are different….. people here *DO* recognise that students write own references in India and tend to discount those.

6. Choose universities carefully. Some of you asked for universities and selecting them. It is very difficult for me to comment on choice of universities. I repeat, chances are best where your seniors have been in past. It hardly matters, in my opinion if the university is 30th ranked or 50th for MS. If you are going for lower ranked universities, apply to places where there are jobs like, California or Boston or washington state.

Remember, every university has different priorities and has different procedure and criteria for admission.

First Posted at Coffee With Sundar – http://coffeewithsundar.com