Post by barefootcontessa on May 22, 2012 13:28:33 GMT -5
When I started, the department required 48 hours of course work, which is 16 classes. Given teaching and grading responsibilities, we could really only take 3 classes a semester, so it was close to three years of coursework (they have since reduced number of credits required). At this point you get an MA and then start the diss. Finishing in six years was pretty quick, with eight years well within normal. A lot depends on your topic. If you did heavy field research (interviews, archives, etc.) it takes a lot longer than if you do a data-base project. It took me nine years.
I am a phd drop out (least with a masters). Most people took 5 or 6 years. 4 years was the shortest period. Course work took about 2.5 years of full time study. After that you had to do a mini-project, take your tests (similar to orals), then you could do your proposal and start your thesis.
I'll answer for my husband. It took him seven years to complete his social science PhD at a top five. This was straight out of undergrad (perfunctory MA issued along the way after year two once you finished coursework and passed generals), full-time and with full funding (e.g. no outside work).
I think that his program has an average time of around 6-ish years, with not many finishing under that and a significant chunk going well into 7 and 8. And their time to degree is significantly under the national average in his field. If your work was more quantitative modeling and/or theoretical in nature, you would tend to finish much more quickly than if your work (as my husband's did) required fieldwork, building a dataset, establishing a regional specialty/multiple languages, etc.
Now, how long it takes to land a tenure-track job (if at all) is a whole other depressing question. Thankfully my husband got one tenure track offer the year he finished and thankfully one 'yes' is all you need. Oh man, was that a long seven years for both of us...
My MA was 2 years, then I completed my PhD in 4 more years. I was the second in my cohort to graduate---most people took 5 years to do the PhD but my dissertation was an expansion of my thesis.
Year 1 and 2 of the PhD are coursework and (maybe) comps. Year 3 is usually comps Years 4+ are dissertating
You *could* do it in less time, but you probably wouldn't get a job. In my social science field, you need at LEAST one forthcoming publication to be considered hirable by most places. Since the publication process can take forever, you sometimes need to slow your own progress down while you're waiting for reviews, etc. For example, I once sent in a paper and waited 13 MONTHS for the first round of reviews. It took me around 4 months to make the changes they suggested, then I waited another 9 months for the second round of reviews to get a conditional acceptance. That's 2 years just waiting to get one publication approved AFTER I'd already completed the paper. If I'd just gotten a rejection (and not a revise and resubmit) after the first 13 months, I may have had to start the whole process over again.
Post by NachoProblem on May 22, 2012 18:20:19 GMT -5
I'm a 5th year getting a PhD in cell biology. I hope to finish sometime in 2013 which will be the start of my 7th year... I came straight from undergrad though so no time spent on a master's.