re: How long does a PhD take to accomplish once you have a Masters

One day a fox was trotting through the forest when he came upon a rabbit in front of a cave. The fox noticed the rabbit wasn't frightened at all, and seemed to be focused on writing something.

So the fox walked up to him and asked "Mr. Rabbit, aren't you afraid I will eat you?" The rabbit responded, "No, and I'm rather busy."

The fox wasn't satisfied with this and pressed on. "Mr. Rabbit, if you aren't afraid of me then may I ask what you're writing?"

The rabbit responded "Oh, I'm working on my dissertation. It's about how rabbits eat foxes."

The fox laughed loudly. "Surely you have that backwards!" The rabbit responded "No, it's quite correct. Come into my cave and I'll show you." The fox, always looking for a laugh, followed him inside. A few minutes later the rabbit returned out front without the fox and resumed writing.

Repeat the above scene with a couple of larger animals (say a wolf and a gorilla). After the third one we look into the cave. There's a pile of fox bones, a pile of wolf bones, a pile of gorilla bones, and a very large lion picking his teeth.

The moral of the story is that the topic of your dissertation doesn't matter, nor how long it takes, nor your coursework. What matters is picking the right faculty advisor.

In the sciences, and engineering, you don't go for a masters then a PhD, you are either in PhD track or you are not. My MS thesis wouldn't have counted toward a PhD...the classes would have, but the project is wholly different.

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In the sciences, and engineering, you don't go for a masters then a PhD, you are either in PhD track or you are not.

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Not necessarily true depends on what path you choose for master's then PhD.

I went into stats after bachelor's and was looking into computer science for PhD, perfectly acceptable would have took 3-5 years...

But frick academia and their publish or perish bullshite

ETA: also depends on if your advisors encourage you to branch out to different schools for higher ed.

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I was going to say it depends on if your advisor is a a-hole and intends on keeping you in indentured servitude for their own benefit or not.

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I got to know a number of Chem PhD students at LSU, and I was amazed with how some students were essentially held hostage. Many are promised 3-4 years from starting the program, but barely get out in 5+ because their advisors squeeze ever semester they can out of them for research purposes.

What I saw advisors do to PhD students at Clemson should be criminal.

It was mostly the Chinese professors too. Just kill kids for years and years.

So much depends on your field of study, your advisor and your committee.

Your research must be of a type that adds to the field. It must be new material. Completing the course work can take one to two years. Unless you are aggressive with a good research advisor, you might bean "ABD" - All but dissertation student who never finishes your research and dissertation. No dissertation, or if your dissertation is not accepted by your committee = an ABD No PhD.

This is correct but the research done in these years and post-doc will most likely form the backbone of your entire career.

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TDcline

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tree fiddy days, or years