Workload - hours

[riadamexicana]

Hi All,

 

I'm well aware that the answer to this question is going to vary widely by particular program, course, and even concentration.  That said, I'm curious about how many hours a week you spend on each graduate class that you are taking.  Perhaps a high and low range would be helpful?  I'll be starting a PhD program in the Fall, and realized I will be attending class for only 8 hours a week (3 classes).  After living by a 45-hour work week for the past two years, I don't know how to anticipate structuring this time, and would appreciate your insight.  Will the reading alone easily take up 40 hours a week?  Should I think about getting a job on the side?  What has your experience been?

 

Thanks.

[objectivityofcontradiction]

Dealing with the vast openness that is 'work' time in graduate school is difficult to grapple with. I am on the verge of completing my MA and so can speak to the issue of class work load (things will only open up more after course work is completed and it is just you and the dissertation for 3+ years). I had 6 hrs of class/week (three 2hr seminars) and often found it difficult to develop a standard work routine. There are many ways to go about it and here are two:  either try and make sure the days when you have seminars are work days, i.e. you are putting in a concentrated 2-3 hours of work on each side of the seminars. Or do the opposite. On days when you are in class take it easy and focus on being fully cognitively present in the seminars and use days when you are not in class to do the majority of your work, i.e. 5-6hrs. I have had numerous conversations with professors over the years and they have all stressed the same point: whatever you do, treat graduate school like work. BUT something new I have discovered this year is that 'work' doesn't mean 8-10 hr days. Some people can do this, but not many. The consensus opinion in my MA program and in my undergrad was to attempt to put in 4-5 REAL hours of work every day in which you do some good philosophy. That means disconnected from the world, you and your work WORK. I would ask those who object to my advice to consider this interesting point a friend of mine raised the other night: those who are privileged enough to study philosophy are often times individuals who do not work well under the standard conception of work, i.e. 9-5 jobs. Perhaps when some of us are lucky enough to get a job then a return to the standard work day will be inevitable. But in graduate school, it is almost impossible to operate under such constraints. 

 

Hope that helps a bit. 

[magog]

I 'work' 8-10 hour days during the quarter.  This consists of time in class, infinite amounts of reading, TA/grading work, language work, and, or course, writing.  I take about one day a week off.  I'm sure this varies from program to program, but it's pretty common to be assigned more work than you can possibly complete, particularly reading-wise.  Because of this, you can pretty much work as much as you want, and some people I know take literally no days off.  In any case, I personally can't imagine having time to work a second job...  assuming they're paying you, which I hope they are, school is your job.  I'd suggest finding somewhere that's not your home, whether it's the grad dept at school or a coffee shop or whatever, and treating it like your office.  Go there in the morning, work, go home.  Treat it like a job, because it is one.

 

Just my opinion, and opinions vary.

 

Good luck