<p>Sure it is faster… by a semester or two. The thing is, gstein’s anecdote about a guy doing a non-thesis MS in order to not waste research on a thesis is a different situation. I compared it to a direct-to-PhD route saying that I doubt it is even as fast as that. It may give you a semester advantage tops if I had to guess.</p>
<p>For the most part, the first two semesters of a traditional MS degree are used getting acquainted with grad life, learning general research principles, becoming familiar with your own lab and its practices and nuances, and juggling classes. It isn’t really until after that that you start making any progress on a thesis. Taking a non-thesis MS will likely cut out the one to two semesters worth of thesis research of that traditional MS route, but then adds probably one semester worth of classes and intense studying for the final examination to make up for it, so you may come out with a net gain of a semester versus the traditional route. However, at the very best, you may break even with the direct-to-PhD route. My gut feeling tells me that you still would be beaten by a semester or so by the direct route, though.</p>