<p>^Ouch, are you sure? A friend of mine got his biochem PhD in 4 years at a top school (I want to study the same thing for PhD) and he said it was hard but didn’t mention insane things like working around the clock like that. However, it could be he’s an outlier or something. As for coursework, I’m planning on taking a ton of graduate courses in college, so hopefully I could accelerate that a bit. I also heard (not confirmed) of a guy who got his math Phd 1.5 years after his bachelors, but I guess that’s different.</p>
<p>Is the coursework a great deal of the time it takes to finish the PhD, or is it just the dissertation? If it’s the coursework, would getting a master’s first help, as I have multiple friends who got a MS in one year after college, and a couple who graduated with BS/MS? Or would that not help; is the PhD coursework even more advanced?</p>