Which GP did not claim it was. Also: besides being pedantic this comment mostly seems to be to put the writer down in some way, so applying the principle of charity here, what did you want to achieve with your comment?
There are outstanding master thesis, which introduced quite revolutionary concepts or algorithms. E.g., John Canny developed the canny edge detector within his master thesis. There are of course other examples...
One outstanding example is not much in the way of a proof.
A masters thesis is a few month's work from an untrained student going through an idea that's already being explored by the school's research group. A PhD typically involves far more deep independent work that's deemed relevant by at least one research institution.
I don't know what you need to be huffing to consider a master student at the final stages "untrained". A master is basically the highest form of schooling there is.
... except for a PhD. A master's is typically an admission requirement to a PhD - at least, around here.
In my experience, a master student's final project typically constitute their first foray into / encounter with academic research. So yes, untrained in that sense.
Around here, a training and education plan is required. Some institutions have a requirement on ECTS or another form of "study points" a PhD student must have gathered before defence.
The fact that you are paid doesn't preclude it being a traineeship.
> PhD is not schooling. It's a research job. You get paid to do a PhD.
No not really. A PhD student at most receives a scholarship, and currently at least in Europe has to undergo a curricular part comprised of a dozen or so courses. How does that not count as schooling?
If I'm not mistaken the only exception to the schooling requirement is if a student is able to publish a few research papers on a topic that are coherent and related to a concrete research topic that could support their thesis.
This is not the way it is in the Netherlands. You get a full salary and don't have any courses. You after all already did all relevant courses during your masters.
>>I don't know what you need to be huffing to consider a master student at the final stages "untrained".
I don't know what could possibly lead you to believe that someone just starting off his master's thesis has any experience whatsoever in research, and has any contact with any academic topic beyond the standard curriculum that every single one has to go through to get a degree.
No, not experienced. But a master degree generally includes research as part of the curriculum. There is a world of difference between trained and experienced.
While technically correct how does that relate to the dialogue above? A PhD is even deeper work in a niche topic than a masters, right however that doesn't contradict that the niche know how may become useful later.
