How can I best decide whether I should study a Masters or a PhD degree?

Here's a slightly different, broader and more philosophical view (based on limited personal experience of course), with which I hope to make the case that the best way to make this decision is to be really honest to yourself about what your inherent personality is, what motivates you and what vision of yourself 5 years (or more) from now you would be most comfortable with. As people have noted above, a Masters degree from a good research-1 university (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_I_university) will provide you with all the latest knowledge in a field of interest that you can offer as skills to a future employer. On the other hand a PhD (correctly called so) is the opportunity to master the latest knowledge as you would during your Masters and go a bit further by creating new knowledge in a mentored environment. It is best to think of it as a creative or philosophical process built upon existing knowledge. Though this might sound cool to some, fact is that most processes of discovery are dissipative (or wasteful). As alluded to above, failed attempts are the norm and also the most informative part of discovery. [In some ways it is like having to find your way through an unknown jungle to an incompletely defined destination. You have to tweak your strategy and try again, rinse and repeat knowing that the odds of making it on the first try are close to 0. However, as you learn more and more about your surroundings (field) and the abilities of your tools, both the route and the destination become clearer. You develop intuition and a creative edge.] The fact that you have posed this question shows that you have at least some interest in the field of HCI and at the same time you are uncertain whether other interests (be it money, a stable lifestyle, whatever...) take precedence. Here are some questions to answer for yourself that may fortify your decision: 1) What is your personal level of risk tolerance, do you seek comfort in certainty or thrill in uncertainty. Which of these do you seek from your occupation. There are clearly fewer uncertainties down the MS path and more thrills and spills the PhD way. 2) Related to the above, you need to figure out what motivates you to work. Do you see it as a means to provide you with resources (money being a good one) to follow your other interests, or is it some other ideal? Are you naturally curious: for example were you a kid who opened up your toys and tried to figure/fix them or did you have someone fix them for you so you could go on playing? 3) Finally, taking into account all non-work factors (family obligations, possible alternate career paths and other interests etc.) imagine yourself 5 years from now in four scenarios: where you went for either MS or PhD and have either been content or discontent with the training you received and proceeded on to the next step. Which decision offers you more acceptable scenarios? The answers to these questions are bound to be different for every individual. In that sense I agree with an earlier post that these are just logical constructs for discovering one's own identity (an abstract idea hard to define logically), which will ultimately determine your decision.

For a Masters: - Will the money and time that you spend doing this degree raise your income and/or job possibilities enough that it will be worth taking on $40,000+ in debt and losing any current networking/jobs that you have? For a PhD: - To do a PhD is to undertake an entirely different life. While yes, you're more likely to have your education at least partially paid for, a PhD really only does one thing well - socialize you to be an academic in your discipline. Most of the faculty will intend to make you one of them. Furthermore, you'll need to study a very specific sub-dimension of a theoretical perspective. You're going to dedicate your entire career to it. It is really intense.

I wrote this for anotehr question () . I hope it helps you to make the best decision. ---- I am a CS PhD student at USC (just finished 4th year). Let me share my personal experience/take, hopefully that will help you. - Right after I got my M.S. (in CS) I had the opportunity to start my PhD, but I decided not do. I decided to have experience working in industry first and then decide. - I worked for around 3 years in three different companies. (One good experience, one ok experience and one not interesting experience) - I spent around 1 year deciding if PhD is for me or not. I was actively talking to relevant people and asking their opinions. I talked to many PhD students, many industry veterans and some faculty members. Finally, I decided to start my PhD. - Since I have started my PhD, at least once in a year I have had thoughts about quitting PhD. This period usually takes about 2-3 weeks and during that time I have doubts about everything! So, believe me I understand your question. - Based on the advice/opinions I got from people I talked during my "one year decision", experience I gained during 4 years of my PhD and also two internship opportunities I had (in a major tech company), here is my opinion:   a) Do NOT continue/start PhD if you do not LOVE (your) research. b) Do NOT continue/start PhD if MONEY is your FIRST priority. c) Do NOT continue/start PhD because you do not have any other option at the moment.   If none of the above applies to you: d) Do NOT quit because there is one good opportunity out there which pays well! e) Do NOT quit because you feel that your adviser does not understand you or because he gives you hard time. f) Do NOT quit because other people tell you there is no point in PhD, or because PhD is not their thing (to be honest, I do not think PhD is for 95% of people).   If you want to continue PhD, keep in mind that g) PhD is NOT about the final degree, it is about the journey. h) PhD is NOT (only) about your thesis and a specific field of study, it is about general skills that you gain that can be applied to all areas of your life (how to tackle hard problems, how to evaluate something objectively, how to motivate, how to market/sell your ideas/theories, how to learn from others ...)

How much are you in love with your field?  Unless you are very strongly driven, you will not finish the Ph.D. at a good university.  The saddest words in academia are, "Finished all the requirements of the Ph.D. except for a dissertation."  There are no other real requirements, and it takes exceptional drive (again, at a good university, not a University of Phoenix-type!) to get there. If you have any doubts at all, you should be going for a master's.

In HCI (though not exclusively) this pretty much comes down to the question of your career goal: do you want to be a researcher (PhD) or practitioner (MS)? Also, FWIW I disagree that you can "decide objectively" about this or any life decision. Good luck on whatever path you choose!

I decided to do graduate work after going to a few job interview that were for positions that did your normal mechanical engineering tasks. Although there is nothing wrong with those jobs and some are very good/exciting, I just couldn't get excited about them. I got up, left the interview and talked to one of my profs about graduate school. I think PhD's are for those who genuinely want to do research. Even if you plan on applying your PhD to a non-research position once you are finished, you will still need to enjoy your research. A PhD is too long and too much work to suck it up for 4+ years if you're not enjoying yourself. People don't drop out of PhD programs because they lack the ability, they drop out because they either hate the work or they can't get used to being wrong almost all of the time; which, then again, causes them to hate their work.

Get a masters to get a job. Go for a Ph.D to be forced to contribute something original. I think that experience is wonderful, and being called Doctor is a good ego boost from time to time.

As someone who completed a master program, I would suggest three questions to reflect on: Do you want to teach at something other than community college? Are you committed to at least finish your coursework? Did you get into PhD programs which set you up for success and academic rigor? You might also talk to people in the specific PhD and masters programs you are thinking about.  Ideally 2 or 3 from each, taking into consideration their choices and personality type as context to their answers and opinions of the program.  You might also consider talking to people who know you well who have been in those programs for additional feedback.