<p>What are the differences b/w each level? Obviously MS is more schooling and Ph.D is even more, but how about on the job side? </p>
<p>Eg: Is the only difference b/w BS and Ph.D the ability to become a professor and do research plus some extra pay?</p>
<p>a masters degree person will “think” on a different level than a BS student.</p>
<p>a PHD degree person will think on a different level than a MS.</p>
<p>they are not comparable, it’s like comparing a fighter pilot to someone who played a simulator as a kid and thought flying was cool.</p>
<p>In grad school, MS/PhD you specialize. In other word, you study more in depth a particular subject. So from BS to MS to PhD, you are concentrating more and more on a particular subject. BS allows you the general knowledge to allow you to work in a certain field, a MS often either prepare you for your research as a PhD or allow you to focus on a particular industry field.</p>
<p>I think I know what OP means.</p>
<p>BS and MS are virtually identical in job prospects. Sure some specific positions will want an MS over a BS, but in a larger sense there is no big difference. MS is just more advanced coursework over the BS.</p>
<p>PhD is a “license to do research”. If you want to be a professor, PhD is a must. But also if you want to do some high-level corporate research, PhD may be necessary (or at least a big plus). There are some PhD’s who work alongside those with BS or MS, however. If that is your final goal it may be a waste of time.</p>
<p>I have to disagree, fatpig, that BS and MS are virtually identical in job prospects. I won’t deny that there is some overlap but there are actually many jobs that require some research experience. MS is a lot more than just more advanced coursework over the BS if we are talking about research-based MS degrees. </p>
<p>I know some jobs might say BS required, MS preferred but others require a MS. There are definitely some jobs that would hire either, but there are also people hiring for some positions that want to see some research experience and higher levels of technical expertise.</p>
<p>As far as the number of jobs and job types available to each degree holder, the order goes like so:
MS > BS > PhD</p>
<p>Someone with an MS can basically be considered for any job that someone with only a BS can be considered for, but they also have a subset of additional jobs for which they are qualified that are not available to someone with just a BS. In other words, an MS opens doors for you without closing many (or even any) other doors.</p>
<p>A PhD, on the other hand, is an entirely different animal. With a PhD, you are opening an whole new array of career paths for yourself such as academia, pure and applied research and the more technical (and in my opinion, more “fun”) R&D positions. Conversely, with a PhD you become overqualified to work at a lot of jobs that you otherwise would have had as options with a BS or MS. The vast majority of BS-level jobs are not an option anymore and many MS jobs are not an option anymore. In other words, a PhD closes more doors than it opens.</p>
<p>The thing about a PhD is that if you get one, you need to be in it for the right reasons, i.e. the doors it opens lead to jobs that are vastly more interesting to you than the ones it closes. There is virtually no financial benefit to a PhD as compared to an MS in most cases.</p>
<p>On the bright side, despite there being a lot fewer jobs available to PhD’s, the employment prospects are actually better, even during this recession. This is largely due to the fact that while there are fewer PhD jobs compared to BS/MS jobs, there are comparatively fewer PhD holders compared to BS/MS holders.</p>
<p>^But if you get a B.S job with an M.S degree, wouldn’t you be paid the same amount as B.S holders anyway? I mean, why would the company hire and pay you more when there are B.S people available?</p>
<p>^Maybe, but theoretically they’d rather hire the MS and pay them the same. So usually the comparison is between a BS with 3-6-10 years experience vs. an MS with 0-3-6 years experience. So if you get the same job with the same pay, the MS will have gotten it without needing as much experience (theoretically). Sometimes the MS with 0 years in the real world gets the same pay as a BS with 10 years actual experience. These are generalities and ultimately it comes down to the attitude of the person (the hiring manager that is).</p>
<p>Also, if you have a PhD, you can easily get master’s or BS jobs by taking a lower wage and not telling the employer that you have a PhD. It’s not like you are not qualified for a BS job. The absolute worst PhDs are at least a Bachelors + 5 years of experience. The best PhDs can do the work of 100 BS holders. The reason employers don’t want to hire PhDs straight up for BS jobs is because they’re scared the PhDs will just leave after a while; this is easily gotten around by not telling the boss you have a PhD unless specifically asked. HOWEVER, you can’t get a PhD job with a BS by lying that you have a PhD (sometimes you can get away with it, but will be fired within days).</p>
<p>The financial benefit of a PhD is that people pay you to do it and you get to be called Doctor which may be of benefit in business. It also makes your marketing much more convincing to be selling something as a “Dr. X” than as “Sales rep. X”.</p>
<p>That is a really bad idea to withhold information from your employer like that. First, why spend the time getting a PhD just to go and get a job that a BS holder could use? That is a huge waste of time. Second, why start out your employment relationship with a half-truth?</p>
<p>Also, unless you are doing a job that deals personally with the customers like consulting, then having Dr. in front of your name is usually more of an ego thing than an actual business advantage. In technical circles, you will be judged more by what you do than what your title is most of the time.</p>
<p>“The best PhDs can do the work of 100 BS holders”</p>
<p>Defies logic. </p>
<p>A Ph.D. is not the “next step” in the “academic ladder”. Like Boneh3ad explained, it simply unlocks specific, specialized jobs; those jobs may or may not be interesting, rewarding, etc. In many cases, one may do Ph.D.-grade work (professionally or as a hobby) provided certain specific conditions are met (say, you want to dabble into theoretical physics? Find pencil and paper and get to work).</p>
<p>Thanks for all your awesome answers everyone!</p>
<p>The point is, a PhD can do things that no amount of BS can do. For example, a recent example is at the company I worked at. We keep finding percipitates in the polyethylene glycol samples, and our QC guy insists on rejecting it and turning it to the supplier; we can’t take a sample that’s obviously dirty can we? Everyone agreed with him. He was a mere BS. The issue was, if we did that, it would take us 2 months to get a new shipment and we can’t wait for that. My PHD manager takes 1 look at it and says “keep it”. Why? Everyone disagreed. He explained: QC samples are rarely taken from the bottom of the container. Instead, they’re taken where they’re most convenient - near the surface. If there was truly percipitates inside the polyethylene glycol, they would have settled to the bottom during transit and wouldn’t even be there in the QC samples for us to see. Thus, it must be our contamination that caused it. </p>
<p>Not ONE BS holder thought of this extremely obvious phenomenon. Further tests determined it was indeed true, and dust within our warehouse was the issue.</p>
<p>That one incident doesn’t really illustrate anything about a PhD holder vs. a BS holder. All it demonstrates is that this particular person was a better critical thinker and was less likely to jump to conclusions.</p>
<p>Could it be that the experience of getting the PhD allowed him to have better critical thinking skills? Is it a mere coincidence that no BS, regardless of experience, had thought of this, but the PhD did?</p>
<p>Honestly, while experience would factor into it, I consider that anecdote to be more of an indictment on the BS guys than the PhD guy. The PhD guy is just good. I know doctoral students and researchers who are worse engineers than BS engineers but that doesn’t mean it’s a trend.</p>
<p>However I think we can agree that at worst, a fresh PhD graduate is better than a fresh BS graduate, because they have 5 years more of experience.</p>
<p>It may also be true that a PhD graduate would adapt to new workplaces and new projects better than a BS graduate with 5 years of experience, since the PhD degree provides hands on, technical training that a BS graduate may not have gotten to do - many BS holders just work in marketing, technical support or move on to management before 5 years, while the PhD is at least doing technical work, if not in a cutting edge field.</p>
<p>Now comparing a PhD with little experience to a BS holder with 20 years experience is not so clear. But with equal age, the PhD holder usually has a significant advantage. Qualified for every job that the BS holder is qualified for, and many more.</p>
<p>That’s a fallacious argument, LastThreeYears. You assume both the BS-holder and the Ph.D.-holder were educated/trained under the same conditions.</p>
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<p>No, I don’t agree. The two are meant for totally different purposes.</p>
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<p>Now you are overgeneralizing. A PhD is only marginally better off for experience than a BS straight out of school because PhD experience doesn’t always translate directly into the workplace. Additionally, you can say that many BS holders just work in those areas, but that is not the majority. The vast majority still work in technical areas.</p>
<p>Well, I think it’s fair enough to conclude that a fresh PhD holder is more knowledge-filled than a fresh B.S. holder, assuming both don’t have any work experience, except, research.</p>
<p>However,there are works require advance insights in a particular subject, and hence M.S. and PhD are preferable. </p>
<p>But the majority of the works can be done by a B.S. assuming he’s responsible and a hard working person.</p>