<p>I've been wondering about this for a while. Why does it take so long to get your doctorate? I heard it takes, roughly, five years. That's longer than most bachelor programs. And when people say you have to conduct research, uh, what? What kind of research? And I can understand certain research in sciences, but what about something like, say, Art History? Can someone fill me in, or point in the right direction to a website that explains the process?</p>
<p>you have to do a LOT of research and put together a thesis as thick as a book generally (unless you want your PHD in art maybe). Anyway, it's a giant project and on top of that people are trying to live on their own, working part-or full-time, so it winds up taking a while.</p>
<p>you can actually get a PhD in six months, online, stress free, guaranteed.</p>
<p>all you have to do is provide your social security number</p>
<p>well look-e-here, the chauvinist himself decided to ask a real question for once.</p>
<p>Because REAL research of high quality does not happen overnight?</p>
<p>Bachelors - 4yrs
Masters - 2 yrs
Phd. - 2 to 4 yrs.</p>
<hr>
<p>= 11 years (at the minimum) for happy learning.</p>
<p>IMHO, you might as well become an M.D.!</p>
<p>You don't need a Masters to get a Ph.D. Many people complete Ph.D.s by the time they're in their mid twenties.</p>
<p>Or someone correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
<p>No thats true - a masters isn't necessary for a doctorate. And also remember that M.D.'s and J.D.'s are doctorate degrees. (that don't require a massive thesis!! :))</p>
<p>When doing a Ph.D, you are not only doing a dissertation. In fact, one's dissertation doesn't usually start until the fifth year (or so). Most students do coursework; yes, graduate school also has its "core requirements."</p>
<p>So, smart guy, how many classes/semester hours do Ph.D candidates take per semester?</p>
<p>
[quote]
how many classes/semester hours do Ph.D candidates take per semester?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>A full graduate courseload is considered to be three graduate courses, weighing in at 9 total credit hours per semester. </p>
<p>I've taken three graduate courses, and the workload is immense.</p>
<p>Usually the graduate coursework for a PhD is 3 years. Along the way, people may earn a masters. </p>
<p>Then you study for and take comprehensive exams, often three 8-hour exams over broad fields. If you pass these, you have a 2 hour oral exam with 5 professors. </p>
<p>Then you prepare a proposal (often called a prospectus) for your dissertation. This describes previous research in the area and explains what you are going to study and how you are going to do it. Then you have a prospectus defense, again about 2 hours with 5 professors. </p>
<p>Finally, you research and write your dissertation and then have an oral defense of about 2 hours with 5 professors. At the same time, you need to pay rent, eat, etc., so you probably will need to work as a teaching assistant or research assistant at the same time. </p>
<p>Non-science dissertations often involve research by such means as interviews, surveys, study of unpublished papers from various archives, and statistical analysis. The shortest are by mathematicians who create original mathematical findings, such as proofs; these theses are around 25 pages of equations. Social science and humanities theses probably average 300 pages.</p>
<p>
[quote]
And I can understand certain research in sciences, but what about something like, say, Art History?
[/quote]
There is a lot of research in Art History. I, for example, am currently studying Egyptian influences in Minoan sealstones. In my graduate level art history class, I'm studying Greek vases and how they are attributed to certain painters. Research into details like hairstyles and musculature enables scholars to attribute vases to a particular painter (or set of painters).</p>
<p>
[quote]
I heard it takes, roughly, five years.
[/quote]
In the science, yes. PhD programs in the humanities usually take longer. It'll take me 7-9 years to get my PhD, mostly because of the large amount of coursework involved.</p>
<p>No offense, but I think you're the exception and not the rule. I've looked at several websites for Grad programs, and they usually have a five year cap on the program. It doesn't say, "take as long as you want to take." They usually say Ph.D candidates have five years to finish.</p>
<p>No offense, but you are probably misreading the web sites. If you see a rule that you need five years to finish, it's almost certainly five years after you have taken comprehensive written and oral exams. After the student passes those exams, the student is called a doctoral candidate or, more colloquially, ABD (all but dissertation). Programs in the humanities and social sciences often have rules about when one needs to defend the dissertation after becoming ABD. . . and if you have a good enough reason, people can get waivers and get some additional time. </p>
<p>jaso9n2 -- I think the PhDs reading these sites know about the rules that govern earning that degree in their fields. In my case, it took six years to completion and I was the second in my entering class, just 2 weeks after the first. In other words, six years was FAST. The one in my entering class who took the longest took about 10 years after starting, a long time, but then again during that decade he not only did the coursework and exams but had to learn Chinese well enough to do research with the language and he lived in China for over a year to do his dissertation research. This is a very different kind of track than doing work in a lab that is run by one's dissertation adviser and then writing that up as one's PhD thesis.</p>
<p>One of my dad's friends from MIT completed his PhD in statistics in 2 years. He's Department Chair for Stats at UC Irvine now, though... and my dad always said he was the smartest person that he had ever met.</p>
<p>From what I've heard, Departments at MIT usually are more relaxed in terms of course requirements. i.e., people who know their stuff are often able to take qualifying exams instead of having to fulfill excess graduate course requirements.</p>
<p>^That guy who did it in 2 years probably had a masters in math before enrolling at MIT, but even so 2 years in pretty amamzing, imo.</p>
<p>Lots of people who go on to math PhD programs finish the equivalent of a masters before they finish undergrad. I'm doing the equivalent of a masters with just my classes from sophomore year, and that's in addition to three other classes I have to take to meet general requirements.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
There is a five-year time limit for the completion of the Ph.D.;
this period begins with the defense of the prospectus. Three
and a half years after the prospectus or the first January three
years after they defended (whichever comes first), students
will be expected to submit a complete draft of their dissertation
to their advisor for initial review.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p><a href="http://www.eeb.yale.edu/people/grad.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.eeb.yale.edu/people/grad.htm</a></p>
<p>Note that many of the students are in their 6th or 7th year. As I said before, a PhD in the humanities usually takes longer than that. In fact, I have four years of coursework before I can even <em>begin</em> my dissertation.</p>