4 ms·

IME (US) the typical successful phd student works 60-80 hours a week, so… good luck working twice that hard for 5 years.

tomrod 5y ago
Often more than that. During the dissertation phase 16 hour days almost every day can be common. It is brutal. It can be worth it, but it is brutal.
- pawelmurias 5y ago
  What productive thing could you do 16 hours day? Study paint drying in a lab?
  - tomrod 5y ago
    Typically not one specific activity, but a slew of different activities all pointed towards the goal. An example: 8AM - wake, prepare for day, take bus to campus 9AM - teach class 10:30 AM - office hours, grade, read relevant papers 12:00 PM - short lunch window 12:15 PM - research, write code, notes. Short intermittent breaks. Library visits. Seminar attendance / prep, seminar/journal reading, prep, etc. Consult with advisor, others 7:00 PM - break for dinner, bus home 8:00 PM - research, write code, notes. Short intermittent breaks. Seminary reading, journal reading, etc. Class prep. 3:00 AM - sleep Weekends were similar to weekdays without class or bussing.
laichzeit0 5y ago
Let’s assume this is a CS PhD (so no “lab” work). Is this person doing 60 hours of actual research a week? If I did a PhD while working full time, I would expect to do purely research. I’m not interested in teaching or grading papers or anything non-dissertation related. Btw, this is how most people do their PhDs here. It’s a quick in and out 3 year seal-team like operation. Caveat: We see Ph.D as a degree you do after a 2 year Masters degree. So in total 5 years after undergrad.
- soheil 5y ago
  Where is this?
- grayclhn 5y ago
  When I was in grad school (Econ, not CS) teaching, etc., was less than 10h a week. The rest of the time was research. So yeah, 60+ hours of actual research a week.
  - laichzeit0 5y ago
    That seems... excessive? 60 hours a week / 5 days a week is 12 hours a day. Even working Saturdays, that would give you 10 hours a day 6 days a week. I personally have never met any single PhD student who did that amount of pure research each week for 5 or 6 years. Again, I'm not talking about "lab" type research.
p1esk 5y ago
“Hard work” in the context of phd studies is not measured in a number of hours one works per week. It’s measured in a number of first author publications in top journals/conferences.
- grayclhn 5y ago
  Which is really really correlated with the number of hours you put in. Hard work means working hard, whatever context you’re imagining.

tomrod 5y ago

Often more than that. During the dissertation phase 16 hour days almost every day can be common. It is brutal. It can be worth it, but it is brutal.

pawelmurias 5y ago
What productive thing could you do 16 hours day? Study paint drying in a lab?
- tomrod 5y ago
  Typically not one specific activity, but a slew of different activities all pointed towards the goal. An example: 8AM - wake, prepare for day, take bus to campus 9AM - teach class 10:30 AM - office hours, grade, read relevant papers 12:00 PM - short lunch window 12:15 PM - research, write code, notes. Short intermittent breaks. Library visits. Seminar attendance / prep, seminar/journal reading, prep, etc. Consult with advisor, others 7:00 PM - break for dinner, bus home 8:00 PM - research, write code, notes. Short intermittent breaks. Seminary reading, journal reading, etc. Class prep. 3:00 AM - sleep Weekends were similar to weekdays without class or bussing.

laichzeit0 5y ago

Let’s assume this is a CS PhD (so no “lab” work). Is this person doing 60 hours of actual research a week? If I did a PhD while working full time, I would expect to do purely research. I’m not interested in teaching or grading papers or anything non-dissertation related. Btw, this is how most people do their PhDs here. It’s a quick in and out 3 year seal-team like operation. Caveat: We see Ph.D as a degree you do after a 2 year Masters degree. So in total 5 years after undergrad.

soheil 5y ago
Where is this?
grayclhn 5y ago
When I was in grad school (Econ, not CS) teaching, etc., was less than 10h a week. The rest of the time was research. So yeah, 60+ hours of actual research a week.
- laichzeit0 5y ago
  That seems... excessive? 60 hours a week / 5 days a week is 12 hours a day. Even working Saturdays, that would give you 10 hours a day 6 days a week. I personally have never met any single PhD student who did that amount of pure research each week for 5 or 6 years. Again, I'm not talking about "lab" type research.

p1esk 5y ago

“Hard work” in the context of phd studies is not measured in a number of hours one works per week. It’s measured in a number of first author publications in top journals/conferences.

grayclhn 5y ago
Which is really really correlated with the number of hours you put in. Hard work means working hard, whatever context you’re imagining.