Comment by mawhidby | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mawhidby | Hacker News Reader

I'm not really sure why the OP says that the Master's has more coursework than the PhD. At least in my Master's program at UMD, the PhDs have to take the same amount of classes as the Master's students. The only difference is that in the Master's, after you're done with your classes, you either write a thesis or a scholarly paper (for non-thesis based), and you're done. If you're a PhD student, you finish your classes, then you spend the next few years working on research towards your dissertation.

He might be referring to more work for an MS Comps, which is the non-thesis Master's. Instead of writing a thesis (which counts as 6 credit hours) you have to take 30 credit hours worth of classes, and half of those classes must be "MS Comps," where at least 50% of your grade in a class (at least here at UMD) must come from exams. I am doing a thesis-based Master's, so I guess you could say I am able to take all my classes just as a PhD student would - in that in most classes there is a research project due at the end of the semester on a topic of your choosing. This allows you to shape the course to your liking and interests.

For me, being a Master's student has afforded me just as many research opportunities as a PhD student; I just won't be here as long.

He means that the students finish up their coursework during their Masters program, so the PhD work is usually entirely research. Thus during your Masters program, you frequently don't get a good idea at all of how the PhD program is.

I'm not so sure that's what he means. If you look in the comments, the OP says "Ah yes. I should have pointed out that this article only applies to PhD programs in the US (in Computer Science). ... A UK PhD, for example, is rarely seen as equivalent to a US-based PhD, precisely because it is so short and does not typically involve coursework."

For the universities I applied to, you are still required to take classes in the PhD program. Even if you already have your Master's and decide to go for a PhD at another university, your class credits may not transfer (in fact, I was told at a graduate visit day at UMD that they don't accept credit from MS programs other than their own), so you might even have to do the required coursework all over again while going for your PhD.

Personally, I was able to find a graduate research assistantship my first semester here at UMD, whereas most of the incoming PhD students are in teaching assistantships. I feel like I'm getting a good taste of how research/the PhD program.

  >> I was told at a graduate visit day at UMD that they don't accept credit from MS programs other than their own

I don't know how common this is.

I know lots of people (probably most) that get their Master's at a different place than their BS, but don't know any that got a PhD at a different place than their Master's - maybe because as you say the barriers to moving are too high. People that aren't happy where they got their Master's don't get a PhD at all.

(My experience is with the U.S. system)

I think it varies a lot. In my PhD program I am not required to take a single class. Suggested to. You'll fail your quals if you don't, suggested to. But not required at all.

Interesting. If you don't mind my asking, where are you going? For all the schools I applied to, it appeared that the PhD programs required taking classes.

The situation is very analogous to undergraduate with advanced placement (AP) courses.

Any university is going to require you to get credit for, e.g., some introductory computer science sequence (CS1, CS2) to get a bachelors in CS. However, universities vary a great deal in whether they (a) require a particular AP score, (b) require you to take a local test to prove your knowledge, or (c) whether you can just talk to someone and convince them you know the material.

The difference at the PhD level is that in many cases, incoming students have the equivalent of ten undergraduate and graduate courses in the sub-area, rather than one or two. This means that students at less curriculum-oriented universities can largely avoid taking classes, even though classes are "required." People are mostly fine with this because the thesis is usually a much higher bar than core curriculum competency anyway.

Stanford CS PhD has few or no course requirements, or at least they did back in 2002.

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