How long is your dissertation?

[serenade]

Although I know it depends on a variety of factors, just curious how long (page length) the average PhD dissertation is, generally speaking?

[mvlchicago]

300-400 pages.

[mvlchicago]

I realized I should've cited this: it came from a blog that analyzed trends in dissertations at UMinnesota from 2007 to now iirc https://beckmw.wordpress.com/2013/04/15/how-long-is-the-average-dissertation/ . As such, the data obviously have more significance for certain populations, but it doesn't seem off from the stories I heard. 

[twentysix]

Dissertations were 100-215 pages at NDSU (University Wide), with significant charts/figures included in those page lengths.

 

Source: My girlfriend was the disquisition processor, so she edited them all to fit the guidelines of the university.

 

There was not a single dissertation that was 400 pages. But she only processed one graduation cycle.

Edited May 21, 2015 by twentysix

[TMP]

My program is minimum of 220 pages.  Book publishers don't want more than 100,000 words so most dissertators aim for that or go below it.

[Cpt Jo]

In the UK it's 80-100K words maximum (excluding appendices). In France, it's between 500-1000 pages (including appendices). Including appendices, I wrote 300p for a two-year-master's thesis.

 

I realized I should've cited this: it came from a blog that analyzed trends in dissertations at UMinnesota from 2007 to now iirc https://beckmw.wordpress.com/2013/04/15/how-long-is-the-average-dissertation/ . As such, the data obviously have more significance for certain populations, but it doesn't seem off from the stories I heard.

Interesting, historians write the longest theses.

[mvlchicago]

It makes sense though; like you are going to need more space when your data are mostly inscribed in textual form . If you want brevity, go to math!

[dr. t]

I want to know what that one person in natural resource sciences and management did...

[dr. t]

In the UK it's 80-100K words maximum (excluding appendices). In France, it's between 500-1000 pages (including appendices). Including appendices, I wrote 300p for a two-year-master's thesis.

 

A lot of this has to do with cultural norms. The lit review in English-language works is usually substantially less comprehensive than in French. Also, the apparatus to simply publish massive dissertations does not exist in the US or the UK; PhDs are expected to pare down and generalize their dissertations if they want to publish them. 

[mvlchicago]

My best guess is the collaborative efforts of humanities + geophysical sciences in climate change are catching up to graduate students.

[victorydance]

It makes sense though; like you are going to need more space when your data are mostly inscribed in textual form . If you want brevity, go to math!

 

Better than political science where you are expected to do extensive statistical analysis AND have a similar theoretical and case study approach. 

Edited May 25, 2015 by victorydance

[kotov]

Uh...mine is currently about 225 pages, with one more chapter and the conclusion still to go. I figure I'll finish up somewhere between 275-300, not counting bibliography, TOC, and so forth.