Applying for PhD vs Masters (CS USA)
Actually, in the US, applying for a doctoral degree is almost always preferable to applying for a masters. The reason is that doctoral admission almost always comes with some sort of funding and masters admission seldom does.
The advice is to apply to several institutions that cover a fairly wide range of &quot;rankings&quot;. If you apply to only one or two programs you are unlikely to be successful because of the competition. If you want a PhD &quot;eventually&quot;, do that now.