How long does it take to get a PhD after finishing my Master?

[Fangda]

My field is in ECE. I wonder how much a master degree can help, assuming all degrees are in the U.S..

[scarvesandcardigans]

There are a lot of factors that go into the duration of PhD studies. The go-to number is four, but a lot of people take five or more years due to research, dissertation development, etc. It also depends on whether or not you will be a full-time student. Some PhD students only go part-time if they have jobs, families, things of that nature, and will take more time to finish. The courses/research that you do during your Masters studies may help as far as some preliminary or qualifying coursework/examination when you get to the doctoral level, but that depends on the requirements of each program. Basically, if you are going straight from undergrad to doctoral level studies, there is a likelihood that you will have to do some master-equivalent coursework, or something along those lines, so it may take more than four years. 

 

I hope that helps a little bit.

[fuzzylogician]

It depends, as already mentioned. If you do the Masters and PhD in the same school, it could probably take an extra 3 years to finish the PhD once you have the Masters. If it's at a different school, it would be up to the school to decide how they want to treat your previous degree. It could range from everything counting toward the degree and then you may be able to graduate in 3 years to nothing counting, and then it might be more like 5. Of course, it also depends on the normal times to completion at these programs, so it's really impossible to know. 4 sounds like a good reasonable number, but that doesn't really tell you much about what might happen in any specific case. 

[bsharpe269]

I have a MS and will be starting my PhD in the fall. Most schools wouldn't count my course work, even if the class was the EXACT same. Luckily the program I fell in love with has pretty minimal coursework anyway (4 classes). I may be able to get out of one or two of them.

 

Ive noticed that I will be coming in with pretty good background knowledge compared to most. If you are staying in a similar research area then even if you don't get out of formal requirements, you may still be able to move through quicker since you will already be very familiar with your subfield.

[eeee1923]

With all the above points, I will also say the following: luck and determination. While 4 years is a good typical number, how well you design your experiments and with some luck and how promising the results are - you may be able to finish faster. Also of course brute determination - if you're willing to work like a crazy person coupled with the "luck" situation I previously mentioned, one can finish quite quickly. The shortest PhD completion I've heard was 2.9 years - which is almost ridiculous IMO, but hey some people got other plans.

 

Overall, I would say enjoy the ride and try to not focus too much on how long it'll take you. Set a realistic goal (4-5 yrs) and work diligently to achieve it, but understand that life sometimes throws you curve balls, so be flexible and try to honestly push the bounds of your field. At least, that's how I'll approach my PhD - at this level, what's a couple of years of my life? I'm still relatively young and I got plenty of time to enjoy my research and career. 

[fuzzylogician]

^This. And on top of that, depending on your post-graduation goals it's not clear that finishing more quickly is a always a good idea. If you want a career in academia and you're in a program that funds you for 5 years, it may not be advisable to leave after 4. You could of course try and go on the job market after just 4 years and you may be the lucky superstar who makes it, but if not then I think it's a smarter idea to stay for a 5th year and push more publications out than take a crappy temporary teaching job somewhere where, yes you'll be out of school, but all the course preps will mean that your research will slow down and you won't be as competitive as others who could spend an extra year on their research without any extra obligations. Faster isn't always better. Just my $.02.

[brown_eyed_girl]

In my field it is usual for the length to PhD to be the same whether you come in with a masters or with only a BA (5-7 years in the humanities). The best way to find out about specific departments is probably to ask them directly; some schools may count some of your MA coursework and others might not. Also take into account that your area of interest may change between your MA/PhD, so research and coursework you accomplish in your MA may not directly lead into what you study later.