> Both take at least five years.<p>Europeans do it in 3 or 4.<p>> In a PhD you have a scholarship and a tutor that tells you what to do.<p>Salary is usually contingent on applications, work, etc.<p>After the first half, the PhD should be directing the project, not the tutor.<p>> A PhD is safer. If you don’t do so well, you are going to get the title anyways.<p>A PhD is only a PhD if you make it to the endgame. You can fail quickly or slowly in an infinite cornucopia of ways.<p>> In a PhD you learn a lot about an specific subject.<p>If you have two brain cells to rub together, you learn just as much about yourself, people's motivations, etc. as you do about the domain.<p>> If what you want to do is to change the world, go with the PhD.<p>A PhD is at best learning to do research, not much else, and at worst, a poorly paid programmer or lab tech. Changing the world is thing altogether.