If a school offers both Master's and ph.D program, which one is easier to get in?

Question

I went to the grad school info. day at our school. I asked the people from different schools. They all told me that ph.D programs are harder to get in. Is it true? Are there really that many people who wants a ph.D in science major?Thanks!

Answer 1

Depends on what you mean by "harder". If you're talking about the percentage of people accepted relative to the number that apply, I'd guess that it is a pretty similar ratio between master's and doctoral programs. If you are talking about the quality of the competition, Ph.D. is probably MUCH harder. ...and there are far fewere Ph.D. programs than master's programs at US universities.

At the university I attended, they admitted between 5 and 10 doctoral students per year...they admitted between 50 and 100 master's level students. The university I'm at now doesn't offer a Ph.D. in my field...but they do offer one in several other fields. For example, in educational psychology, they typically graduate about 2 or 3 students per semester at the doctoral level...about 30 to 50 at the master's level.

The entrance requirements for a doctoral program are usually much higher than at the master's level. For example, at the school I attended, you could be admitted to the MBA program with a GPA of 3.0 and a GMAT score of about 500...to get in to the Ph.D program, you had to have a 3.5 and a GMAT score over 600 (and that's a graduate GPA not an undergrad GPA...the one student I know of that was admitted to the doctoral program straight out of undergraduate had a 4.0 and a GMAT of nearly 700!).

Answer 2

There's another twist to this. Schools frequently support (i.e. assistantships, fellowships, etc.) to Ph.D. students, but NOT to M.S. students. If you apply for the Ph.D. program and decide you don't like it, you can switch down. It takes longer, is harder, and is more expensive to go the other way.