How to Graduate from a PhD program in five years

[Anx73B]

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So I was wondering if anybody had any advice on how someone can graduate from a "5 year program" in 5 years. Looking at the stats of the school I'll be going to it's kind of depressing. Like 5% of the students graduating in 5 years - everybody else took at least 6. That's like 1 person per cohort. Any suggestions/advice?

 

[baylordude]

since it's marketed as a five-year program, it has to be physically possible, so just ask someone in the dept. how one goes about it.

 

[erg923]

So I was wondering if anybody had any advice on how someone can graduate from a "5 year program" in 5 years. Looking at the stats of the school I'll be going to it's kind of depressing. Like 5% of the students graduating in 5 years - everybody else took at least 6. That's like 1 person per cohort. Any suggestions/advice?

I agree this is really only something your program's director or faculty can advise you on. That being said, the number one hold up in programs is dissertation. Students getting out in 4+1 probably get early starts on their dissertations and most likely, simply put in more hours than the others. Other hold ups include doing specialty tracks (i.e., neuropsych) and/or accumulating more clinical hours/practicum do be competitive at match.

 

[JockNerd]

I'm on a four-year plan (not including internship) and that timeline is strongly encouraged by my department. It's definitely doable.

I, along with the majority of my cohort, came in with a basic plan for what I wanted to do research-wise. I'm currently (I'm just finishing up my first year) done the empirical research paper that will serve as my masters thesis. I have my doc committee formed and they're about to approve the data I'm currently collecting to be my dissertation. The plan is currently to finish the diss and defend by sept. of by fourth year. Concurrent with this, there are several other research projects that I'm working on.

I'd say two big things:
1. Pick your doc committee carefully. I wouldn't consider anyone who would have a "you must not collect data until after your dissertation is proposed" position. This makes sense to me; if my dissertation data was collected as part of a larger project, no one would have a problem with doing archival data analysis, so when things start shouldn't cause fits. Discussing the diss idea with each committee member so that they can raise substantive issues beforehand is a must though.

2. Frontload. I don't think I'm actually going to defend in Sept, but that's the timeline. Things can get pushed back 6, 8 months and I'm still defended before leaving on internship and ahead of the game.

 

[irish80122]

Some just depends on the program you go to, some will get you out on-time, and some honestly would rather hold on to you for a while. While you can do things like try to propose early and front-load, I consider this one of those things that you need to consider before accepting an offer, because sometimes schools will put up roadblock after roadblock...look at Harvard.

 

[RayneeDeigh]

It really depends on the program, as Irish said.

For instance, my program is notorious for students taking forever so recently they put in some program "milestones" that are supposed to help the process along. However, they didn't lighten up the coursework in first year at all. So while the first years have a big proposal due in June, none of us have even started it yet because we're too damn busy reading articles and writing papers. I suspect we'll all rush to get some sort of research proposal written that will be crappy and will just be changed next year. None of us have committees yet either. However, I plan to work like a maniac in my last two years and get something done. I'm aiming for five years (with internship) but it sure would be a lot easier if I went to a school that actually supported that goal.

Moral of the story, pick carefully. Scrutinize the curriculum of programs and make sure it leaves time for research.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I was at 6 with internship. Some in my program got out in 5. I was finished with my dissertation in 5, but, due to other obligations (outside of school), I didn't go on internship that year.

Jon Snow could have round-house kicked Father Time and made him wait for JS, but JS wanted to be fair to the little people, so he waited a year.

 

[Ollie123]

My program is 5+1, though a fair number of people take 6+1. I'm shooting to stay on timeline, though the only thing that might hold me up is when I go to apply for my own grant. If it takes a resubmission or 2, that could potentially bump me into the 6+1 category (but that's worth the extra year to me).

A LOT (most) of it is program specific. Here they've been trying to get people out faster and it shows. Unlike Raynee's program, they actually DID cut down the coursework by a lot to try and help people achieve that.

Some other things you can try and do:
1) Be careful running clinical populations, make sure your sample can be reasonably obtained. I've heard of some students, especially in neuropsych, trying to run their master's or dissertation on say, Parkinson's, without really having a great way to access that patient population, and it taking FOREVER just because of study recruitment.

2) Work more. Sleep less😉
I say only half-jokingly. Seriously though, there are also a number of people who seem to stick around programs because they simply don't put in the hours that are necessary. Its a personal choice obviously, but I don't think anyone working 40 hours a week on school stuff should get to complain about not getting out on time😉

 

[73BARMYPgsp]

Jon Snow could have round-house kicked Father Time and made him wait for JS, but JS wanted to be fair to the little people, so he waited a year.

T4C--You are my favorite person on this site.

Anyway, to the OP--if you match in the 4th year, get your dissertion done before you go and you will be done at the end of internship.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

T4C--You are my favorite person on this site.

Anyway, to the OP--if you match in the 4th year, get your dissertion done before you go and you will be done at the end of internship.

And much more appealing to internship sites.....the farther along you are with your dissertation.

 

[73BARMYPgsp]

And much more appealing to internship sites.....the farther along you are with your dissertation.

And good advice for myself.

Date to leave for internship--01JUL08.

Dissertation status--same as it was when I defended my proposal on 10OCT07.

Tick tock....

 

[Anx73B]

So what are the key factors that play into completing your dissertation on time? Is it forming your committee early? or making sure data collection won't take forever?

 

[erg923]

both

 

[amy203]

The book Getting What You Came For by Robert Peters gives some very good advice on getting out ASAP. It's maybe not quite as applicable for students interested in research careers, but if your goal is just to get out and get to work (as opposed to publishing as many papers as possible before you leave), it's perfect.

 

[73BARMYPgsp]

So what are the key factors that play into completing your dissertation on time? Is it forming your committee early? or making sure data collection won't take forever?

Well, the data collection part didn't apply to me, and my committee was formed plenty early. In my case, it's good old fashioned procrastination.

 

[paramour]

So what are the key factors that play into completing your dissertation on time? Is it forming your committee early? or making sure data collection won't take forever?

You forgot the option where your data collection is completed, you receive an awesome internship, you dance a jig, the end is near . . . and then realize that due to some screwy technical issues, all of your data was lost, so you get to collect it again... during internship.

Yes, this unfortunately happened to someone at our program working on a physio study.

 

[paramour]

It really depends on the program, as Irish said.

For instance, my program is notorious for students taking forever so recently they put in some program "milestones" that are supposed to help the process along. However, they didn't lighten up the coursework in first year at all. So while the first years have a big proposal due in June, none of us have even started it yet because we're too damn busy reading articles and writing papers. I suspect we'll all rush to get some sort of research proposal written that will be crappy and will just be changed next year. None of us have committees yet either. However, I plan to work like a maniac in my last two years and get something done. I'm aiming for five years (with internship) but it sure would be a lot easier if I went to a school that actually supported that goal.

Moral of the story, pick carefully. Scrutinize the curriculum of programs and make sure it leaves time for research.

Ditto here. They made some changes beginning with our cohort regarding research progression in an attempt to reduce the time it takes to get through the program. In the meantime, our program was course heavy to begin with and this was not altered in any way after those revisions. We now have a heckuva lot more to accomplish during the first couple of years, so it will be interesting to see whether these changes for the greater good actually help anyone.

 

[Ollie123]

You forgot the option where your data collection is completed, you receive an awesome internship, you dance a jig, the end is near . . . and then realize that due to some screwy technical issues, all of your data was lost, so you get to collect it again... during internship.

Yes, this unfortunately happened to someone at our program working on a physio study.

Note to self: Make extra, extra backups of HR and SC data.

 

[paramour]

Note to self: Make extra, extra backups of HR and SC data.

Oddly enough, I believe the guy actually made backups of everything, but it all turned out to be worthless data. With each new participant, the software completely overwrote whatever was there previously, leaving him with zilch at the end of the year.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Oddly enough, I believe the guy actually made backups of everything, but it all turned out to be worthless data. With each new participant, the software completely overwrote whatever was there previously, leaving him with zilch at the end of the year.

That stinks.

 

[psy86]

Could also consider why/ whether to graduate from a PhD program in five years. It would be possible for me to graduate in five (including internship), but I am choosing to graduate in six. I'll have an extra year's contact hours when I apply for internship as well as several additional publications, putting me in a better position for competitive internships/ postdocs/ jobs.

 

[73BARMYPgsp]

Whoops. I meant to start a new thread, not a reply