Mrunal continues his series about the differences between MS and PhD - this time concentrating on the differences in funding scenarios between the two.

PHD is a long term commitment. Mostly in 99% cases students get admits from university if he shows a potential to be a PHD candidate and some professors finds him worthy to be working in his group. Professors control the funding. Professors have control on everything. They design the syllabus, teach, design labs, design exams, homeworks. They receive grants from different sources like industry, Government, national laboratories. The grants in US universities mainly arrive from Governments. National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), National laboratories are some of main sources which fund the professors to carry on the research. Some part of it comes from Industry. The professor has to utilize this budget on his students. Thus he sponsors the students and funds their education. He pays their fees. He gives them stipend for monthly expenditure. So it is like a mini job where you have schedules, deadlines and are paid. So a PHD student gets admit only if some professor finds him good enough, so that he could get him in research that he is doing.

The situation varies in case of MS students. MS students do not contribute much in terms of research as their time is spent in doing the coursework for initial 2 years. So many times funding is an issue for MS Students. The available funding to MS students is in terms of Teaching Assistants where you assist professors in conducting labs, grading assignments, solving difficulties of students etc. This is a very good learning experience. This funding comes from the department and not from the professor. Many MS students depending on their potential do get funded by professors and work as research students. It varies from student to student.

Many times student switch from MS to PHD program if they find the atmosphere encouraging and feel they could commit to the work. A lot of factors go into taking this decision. Professors always look out for good students and encourage MS students to go for PHD.

This is a different process, than what we find in India. In India only IITs work in this way. But the scale to which this kind of operation is done in IITs is also minimum. MS is a good process to understand all these details. It gives you enough exposure and food for thought, that you can take some decisions about your future and the direction in which you would like to move.

The process makes you more wise and mature. This exposure is what that matters because it makes you aware of so many different perspectives.