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Asked by anon-382621 to Thomas on 23 Feb 2024.
Question: how long did it take you to get your phd
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Thomas Swift answered on 23 Feb 2024:
It took me 3 years, 3 months and 4 days. By the end I was counting every day…
It ‘used’ to be that you would only get paid for 3 years however as my work was Lab Based (I was actually in the lab, doing research) I couldn’t fully write up until I had finished doing tests. That means anything from 3 to 4 years was absolutely normal.
And people have realised that it can take a full year to write up – and that everyone who over-ran were struggling. So it’s normal now for people to schedule 3 and a half or a full 4 years of funding (i.e. how much you’ll be paid) as they do the PhD to give you the time to get everything written up.
Comments
Andrew M commented on :
For me it was 3 years 9 months. 3 years or research and 9 months of writing and revising what I’d written, delayed by the need to find work. At the time there was no funding beyond 3 years, as with Thomas, so they were lean times. Funding was Funding Council basic, £4000 – £4500 per year, so no scope to set money aside and barely enough to survive, the pocket money provided by supervising and mentoring at the university was critical. Just after I finished it was raised to £14,000 per year and has increased since.
Of the 3 years research, the first year was catastrophic – I didn’t know what I was doing, most things didn’t work and anything that did work only worked once. Fortunately things improved steadily from there as I increased in competency with the last few months being possibly the most productive I’ve been, before or since (don’t tell my bosses that).
Barbara commented on :
It took me 1 year or 7 years, depending on how you count it. I didn’t do a PhD the traditional way as I couldn’t afford to pay for it and I can’t access most funding because of my immigration status. I worked for 7 years as a technican and published a lot of scientific work. In the 7th year, I was able to turn all the work I have done into a PhD thesis.
Michael C commented on :
Four Years – the maximum amount of time it was allowed to. I was very lucky in that I was paid for all four years (it is more normal for three – three and a half to be paid) but for the last 9 months I was just writing and for the last two I was also working another job in a different laboratory – balancing all of that was pretty hard but after I submitted my thesis things definitely improved!
Christie commented on :
It took me exactly 3 years! I had a grant that paid for me to do a Masters first, and then PhD through the University and Wellcome Trust. I started writing in year 2 with introduction, methods and some early chapters but got most of my data in the last 6 months in year 3 (this is common as you’ve spent the first two years doing the pre-work!).
I started working at my current company 3 days after I submitted, and before by PhD Viva (the exam at the end) so I was quite lucky there. Everyone’s PhD is different though – but most students will finish lab work in 3 years.
Charlene commented on :
I’m doing mine at the moment – it is 3 years full time.