<p>Hey guys, I really want to know whether are US colleges (ex. MIT, Harvard and Berkeley) fine if you tell them you want to complete your PhD in four years when you apply for their graduate school? If supposing I have only enough money to fund myself for four years, will I be at a disadvantage if I tell them I can only attend their graduate school for four years? Will this affect my chances of getting in?</p>
<p>Just to confirm, the norm of doing PhD in the US is five years right?</p>
<p>I think that entirely depends on the program and the area of study. Many programs will fund you if they can, at least in part. Some PhDs take much longer than 5 years to complete, sometimes because you are expected to teach while you’re writing your dissertation.</p>
<p>Don’t expect to plan on finishing your PhD in four years. What if your research doesn’t work out and sets you back a year?</p>
<p>Besides, most programs are funded for 5 years anyway.</p>
<ol>
<li>You are not going to finish a PhD in 4 years, even a biological sciences PhD.</li>
</ol>
<p>Now that that’s out of the way, when would you presume to tell “them” that you intend to complete in 4 years? In your statement of purpose? In that case, yes, you are nailing the coffin of your chances shut. You have to convey the idea that you are committed to taking as long as it takes to finish, and while they don’t want you languishing around for 15 years, intending to finish in 4 years or less is unrealistic. They will take it as a sign that you don’t understand the pressures and customs of the PhD program.</p>
<p>If you want to discuss it after you enter, that really depends on your advisor. The average time to degree in my PhD program is 7.5 years. I want to finish in 5. Given my specialty and my research (most other students do international fieldwork; I’m a psychologist who does domestic work) that was realistic for me, so I discussed it with my advisor and he was amenable to helping me get through. But I made it clear that I was definitely willing to do the work and to stay on for 6 years if it were necessary. I didn’t imply at all that I would drop out after 5 years if I weren’t done, or something. But if I had told him I wanted to finish in 4 years, he would’ve flat-out told me I was being unrealistic.</p>
<p>Also, don’t attend a PhD program unless they fund you. If they fund you they will typically find you for 5 years.</p>
<p>You finish when they determine that you’ve finished. You cannot dictate or predict how long it will take you to complete the necessary research and write a dissertation. Along the way, your advisor will tell you to look into certain areas, address issues, expand to include something you haven’t previously thought of. That’s the way it works. Although some advisors seem to delay their graduate students, most do not because it reflects well on them when their students have completed a rigorous, thorough dissertation in a timely (5-6 years) manner. Unless you enter a subpar program, your program will NOT give you the PhD because you think it’s time or because a scholarship has expired. They must maintain their standards or else risk the reputation of the program. (Note: if you are making satisfactory progress toward the degree, they will likely find a way to fund you for a fifth or sixth year.)</p>
<p>Absolutely do NOT mention any timeline for finishing. You should instead outline your research interests and your career goals.</p>
<p>Some PhD programs are actually set up as 4-year programs (e.g. the math PhD programs at Princeton and MIT). I don’t know what field you are in and what’s common there. </p>
<p>About funding: ideally your program will fund you. If you cannot get a stipend for living expenses, you should at least get a tuition waiver. Graduate students without departmental support sometimes get a part-time teaching job at a nearby college. That’s not too uncommon in math; again, I cannot speak for other fields.</p>
<p>Business PhD programs run on 5 years mean/median. That’s the only other datum I can come up with.</p>
<p>When I applied to PhD programs, I had the same thought. But, for most programs you’ll find that, if it can be done at all, to complete a PhD in 4 years, you’ll have to do a rushed or slipshod job. I would not mention it, as it would convey a lack of commitment to the process.
Moreover, if you don’t have 5 years to give to a Ph.D. you should most likely reconsider your decision to pursue one.</p>
<p>You should definitely not say that in your application. I would not accept someone that says that because I’d assume they don’t really know what they are talking about (what if your research takes you longer than that? You don’t even have a dissertation topic!). </p>
<p>You are not going to finish the PhD in 4 years and get a decent job afterwards. There are programs designed to last 4 years, but those are very rare exceptions, and many people in those programs take at least 5 years.</p>
<p>And in some fields, the norm is more than 5 years (Humanities)</p>
<p>There’s no reason to say in your application how long or short you think the program will be, so just keep your mouth shut on this point. You will have a better sense of your timeline once you’re actually in the program and doing research. You will not, I assume, be funding your own program anyhow, so your own resources will at most be supplementing your fellowship/assistantship.</p>
<p>What is true is that time to degree varies enormously depending not just on the field but on the urgency with which the student wishes to finish. In my humanities field, for instance, average time to degree is about 9 years. However, once classes are finished, the time people spend writing the diss varies wildly. Many folks, by this time, are working part- or full-time so they are not spending their lives in front of the computer or in the library. Others delay the defense in order to position themselves better on the job market by publishing some of their work.</p>
<p>One thing that’s important to remember: it’s not the degree itself that matters; it’s the process you go through to get the degree that does. A PhD in itself means nothing. The research completed to get the degree will be what opens (and closes) employment opportunities.</p>
<p>Every PhD program has the potential to graduate a student in four years, and some even start pressuring students to wrap it up once they pass the 4.5 year mark. But they will not bestow the degree unless the student has met the standards for research and dissertation.</p>
<p>I am confused by a couple of things.</p>
<p>a) are you applying from an undergraduate degree? Or from a Master’s degree? That should make a difference to your fundamental question. My daughter was admitted directly from undergrad in to CS PhD track programs (theory, but not binding.) So I think it is a given that the first 2 years are Master’s work (as usual in the U.S.), then there would be another 4 to 6 years, unless I am mistaken.</p>
<p>b) Also, the Phd program in maths and sciences are commonly funded, as far as tuition waiver, health insurance, and a living stipend for serving as a TA or RA. Different schools can make better offers or not. Even after your guaranted school funding runs out, you can be funded by a professor’s progect that is independent of the school, such as a U.S. govt agency like NSF or Military or private sector.</p>
<p>
I am under the impression that CS PhDs take 4-6 years in total, including the preliminary coursework for a Master’s.</p>
<p>@b@r!um: if someone did a master’s elsewhere before entering a PhD program, then it’s likely that the new university’s PhD program would require a certain amount of course credits before qualifying that student to write a dissertation. That usually does add another 2 years, although some programs are more lenient in this regard than others. If a student entered a PhD program directly or applied to the same university’s PhD program (in the same department) after first earning a master’s, then the master’s coursework generally counts toward the PhD credit requirements.</p>
<p>If you know you want a PhD and if you are qualified, it’s much better to enter a PhD program from the start instead of getting a master’s degree first.</p>
<p>Momwaitingfornew, I am not sure how your comment relates to mine. I was pointing out that CS PhDs usually take 4-6 years in total, including coursework, rather than 4-6 years of disseration research plus two years of coursework. The latter I think is what BrownParent was suggesting, but maybe I misunderstood that post?</p>
<p>Sorry! I didn’t read BrownParent’s and your posts carefully enough.</p>
<p>Just to clarify: you do not have to do a Master’s first before entering a US PhD program. Most PhD students complete the requirements for a Master’s after two years of course work, thus ensuring that, if they don’t finish the dissertation, they’ll have at least one advanced degree.</p>
<p>Some students do their Master’s first because 1. They aren’t sure/don’t yet know that they’ll want to pursue a PhD or 2. They need to raised their GPAs or other academic credentials or 3. They don’t know that they can enter a PhD program without having a Master’s degree.</p>