Teaching responsibility is mandatory in all CS PhD programs I&#x27;m aware of. The pressure is not as bad as other areas, but the deadlines can get very stressful, circumstantially I suppose. The flexibility doesn&#x27;t really exist: when going for a PhD, you already have a subject picked up, or a project responsibility undertaken, and probably very few ways of going about it because of where the funding&#x27;s coming from. It&#x27;s true that the responsibility of getting funding is limited, although some advisors will delegate writing the proposals to postgrads and just review those, taking up the time which you&#x27;d spent on your research.<p>That said, all my friends loved their PhD&#x27;s, and started hating their choice after they got it.