Yes, they are the same. No, they are not the same.
They are actually the same executable (both /bin/{t,]csh). But the executable looks under what name it was started, and when started as csh, it will execute in a csh-compatible mode. I think the same works with bash, ksh, and sh: depending on which name they are started under, they can pretend to be a simpler shell.
Most likely, new users would enjoy tcsh more, since it is mostly a true superset of csh (I don't know whether that's completely true).
