The Simplest Breakdown: Masters and PhD Theses

In this video, I share with you the difference between a master's thesis and a PhD thesis.

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▼ ▽ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 – the main difference
1:19 – reviewers
4:23 – length and depth
6:27 – how it makes you feel

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▼ ▽ Socials for shorts and reels

[OgamiItto]

It's about the library. A Bachelor's degree means you have demonstrated to a committee that you know, vaguely, what a library is and can be trusted, usually, to use it without chewing on the bindings or going potty on the floor and using the pages for ass-wiping or otherwise requiring an inordinate amount of supervision. A Master's degree is conferred upon writing (!) a paper that demonstrates that you are able to use the library well enough to find statements in its volumes that support your idea or assertion--or at least appear to. A Doctorate is awarded when you write a work that the committee can grudgingly admit is not too terribly out of place in the library.

[Heyuher]

"...no one will actually read" sad truth

[johnstirling]

My son has just completed his PhD in isotopic geochemistry and published a paper, very proud parents.

[ModdingByKaupenjoe]

Huh, I am just writing my Masters thesis in Computer Science and this actually motivated the heck out of me right now! Seeing the differences between your PhD and your masters thesis made me realize that I kinda don't have to worry about all of this too much. Man, what a relief! Thank you so much :D

[metalhat]

I am currently writing my PhD thesis, looking back at my masters it was easy back then.
I was able to monkey around in a lab for 6 months, trying things out to improve CIGS solar cells, which worked. I got large improvements which I found through experimentation. We even were able to write a paper and publish it. Which was great.

My masters is in Nanoscience, now I am doing a PhD in physics, developping new methodology in surface science analytics.

It is hard and from time to time I am a bit defeated. But I am writing my thesis, and a paper for publishing and going back to the lab for more experiments soon.
Looking back at my masters, that was easy, since the research question was simpler: find a way to improve those solar cells
While my PhD is harder: develop a new method, find ways to make it work.
Sometimes it is hard to find the motivation each day to get up and just do it.

I guess many feel the same way, and I hope you find the strength to see it through.

[theelonz]

I feel like Master’s level is of course original but not yet a novelty, as it is a piece of work to confirm established knowledge and what is found from the thesis can be utilized to critique literature in your chosen topic/field.
For PhD, it’s definitely novel as the research dives deep into new knowledge and provides a credible, peer-reviewed scholastic paradigm and prepares you for an academic profession if chose to.

[tonyosome]

My masters thesis a 248 page document was examined outside of my university, defended in a viva voce and I've been asked to covert it into a book or pull out several papers for journal publications.
I actually spent time in the film.
All I can say is, it depends on what and how the thesis is done.

[Kessra]

The size of the dissertation doesn't really matter. I've seen plenty of professors who preferred shorter ones as it spares them lots and lots of time reading through and back-checking it. I worked as assistant for an institute at my university while I was preparing for my masters degree and while being there I often heard complains that people writing walls of text when essentially the same could have been said in 3-4 lines. I.e. look at John Nash's dissertation which has 26 pages. Some mathematicians also have dissertations of roughly 30-40 pages as they prove certain theorems and the language they are using to explain their solution is pure math equations. So, it's not about the size, it's about the novelty of the content.

[noneofyourbusiness]

It is always interesting to look back and realize how much smaller all the previous hurdles used to be. I am currently writing a Master Thesis (drug metabolomics in crops) and looking back a Bachelor thesis looks much more relaxing and during writing the Bachelor thesis I looked back at my high-school thesis (in Austria we have to write a small thing called "Vorwissenschaftliche Arbeit" or "pre-scientific work") and I felt like I could write one of those in a week-end, not the months of time afforded to highschool-students. One grows with the challenges at hand I guess. ^^

ps: I really also get the pride part. When I finished high-school I was kinda proud, because I got the best marks in my grade you know its something. And when I entered university, there are some single exams or seminar-papers that I am more proud of than that my high-school diploma. The "higher up" something is in the tiered education system, the prouder I am upon achieving it, but that is normal I think. ^^

[davidprimo]

I just finished my Master's thesis to which I dedicated the last year of my life and I have feeling in between of what you said. I felt I could get much more with more time, but at the same time I didn't want to hahaha It wasn't something ground-breaking but was new and I feels like a great achivement. If I ever make a PhD, I'll probably feel prouder, but I'm content with what I have now.

[albaghdady]

I agree with you. There is no comparison between a Thesis and a Dissertation.
My PhD made me feel proud and excited about the future.
Whereas my Master did not have that feeling.
Thank you for sharing your journey on youtube.
Best,

[jackjohnson]

While writing my master's thesis, my PI told me that a master's thesis is basically a single section of a PhD thesis. That may have been a bit reductionist as my thesis was certainly longer and went into more depth than a single section from a PhD thesis, but I feel like the spirit of the statement gets the point across. After all I'd expect someone to have produced significantly more after 6 years of advanced research than I did in two years fumbling around the lab with my micropipette. However I will say that while my master's thesis was certainly novel, I had the benefit of being part of a multiple decade long project related to the molecular mechanisms of aging in plants and would have absolutely floundered without the help of my team.

[Akerfeldtfan]

Both my thesis and dissertation were original questions that were published. The real difference was the scope and scale of the project, one was 50 pages the other was 220. The level of independence and methodological sophistication was much higher on the PhD too. I also despised both my thesis and PhD by the end, none of the pride you discussed. Being so close to them meant I could see every flaw and worry and I felt like a fraud.

[LightFykki]

I like how this video starts like a proper research paper or thesis, with giving an abstract. Most videos on youtube will learn you at least half way in before even touching the main points hinted by the title and thumbnail.

[mariarosarodner]

I'm getting to my first year of PhD study and I feel a bit overwhelmed by all the theoretical reading, but yes I have learnt A LOT in this year. I completed my masters 15 years ago, and been working all those years in between. I liked what you said that it is truly representative of your life, because for me to do this research will also allow me to crystallize all my work experience from the past 15 years.

[adamchurvis]

Thank you, Doctor Stapleton, for your unique contributions to the world's future, and all the personal sacrifices you had to make in order to contribute such value. One day our descendants will make use in their daily lives of what you've done.

[scottkorman]

Your videos were just randomly recommended to me. I just started my master’s. Don’t believe no one will look at your thesis if it’s published. Last year in one of my undergrad class I found someone’s thesis that documented the history of a novel drug class really well.

[yarochkindmitry]

Well, my PhD thesis saved my mental health. I have been working on it for 10 years. It was a terrible mess of fragments. Lo and behold, some unpleasant event happens in my life. And the only way to overcame it was to edit my PhD. The more the text looked tidy, the brighter became my mood. I haven't received philosophy Doctor status yet, but I hope I will manage to do it.

[matzk]

Loved the comparison of meaning in the end. This is what every artisan or handymann is experiencing everyday, but a scholar could bei searching for his/her whole Life. An original and unique piece of Work.

[gkcadadr]

My biggest and ongoing grad school blunder is turning my master's thesis into a PhD thesis. Too late to fix now, but advice to everyone else here: keep it boring, be done with it, spend your full potential on the PhD instead.

Edit: I notice this may confuse the USians. I don't mean a formal conversion, I mean picking too big/ambitious a project for your master's.