Time to Doctorate

[Spudder456]

I've been offered a 5 year scholarship in the Biological Sciences from a university, but I hear that in the U.S it can take one or more years longer than that to actually complete your studies.

 

My question is whether scholarships are extended, or are you cut off completely and left to fend for yourself in the final years, or something inbetween?

Edited February 14, 2013 by Spudder456

[kaister]

Usually you are able to find finding for however many years it takes you to complete your degree.  Definitely ask the program how successful their students are in obtaining funding for extra years.  However, most schools will have some sort of guideline for finishing your degree, for example, they might say you should have it done at latest your 7th year, etc.  But usually if you need an extra year most programs are usually accommodating and you can find a tuition waiver through a TA or RA ship.  Again, ask them this. You could even ask the current grad students.

[Usmivka]

My program is transitioning to a hard and fast cutoff at 5 years because of general economic woes, although the average time to degree previously has been more like 6 years. Even those of us with outside funding for a large chunk of our time aren't getting much extra leeway, a semester at most. Obviously this affects how much you can get done during your degree.

[MadScience]

From my experience, it depends. Sometimes the student is cut off without funding, and sometimes their funding is extended. I would say it is based a lot on the situation. For instance, if someone has not graduated by 5 years because of laziness and lack of commitment, they will probably be cut off, possibly even forced to graduate with a MS (this happened to a colleague of mine). However, if this person is on good terms with their committee, is a hard worker, but is just not having luck getting their experiments to work (it happens) then they will most likely be funded for at least a year or two more. I would definitely ask them what their stance is on this to find out.

[Spudder456]

From my experience, it depends. Sometimes the student is cut off without funding, and sometimes their funding is extended. I would say it is based a lot on the situation. For instance, if someone has not graduated by 5 years because of laziness and lack of commitment, they will probably be cut off, possibly even forced to graduate with a MS (this happened to a colleague of mine). However, if this person is on good terms with their committee, is a hard worker, but is just not having luck getting their experiments to work (it happens) then they will most likely be funded for at least a year or two more. I would definitely ask them what their stance is on this to find out.

 

Thank you for the response, I will of course ask. My main concern is that at this present moment 100% of tuition and living expenses will be coming from the university in question. Obviously I don't know what my financial situation will be in 5 years but I can't envisage it being much different.