Pra jee, you may be right but it does not mean that if you don't go for all five years you will lose MS and Ph.D. No matter what package, it can be broken into MS and Ph.D. depending on how many courses you took and what requirement you fulfilled. Hence, your comment is not fully reasonable. And no_quiero jee, can you give me some examples that Ph.D. will pay much higher than MS. It all depends on what industry you are in.