Comments on: Week in Review

By: Micheal Hickerson

Micheal Hickerson — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:24:23 +0000

Thanks, Hunter. I’ll make the correction.

By: Dave Snoke

Dave Snoke — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:18:05 +0000

It is not possible to get a Ph.D. in physics in three years at any major research university in the US. I would say it is certainly possible in 5 years (I have known several who did that) and within reason to do in 4 years, especially in theory.

By: Hunter Baker

Hunter Baker — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:40:27 +0000

One correction: I’m not adjunct faculty. I’m a full member of the department.

By: Micheal Hickerson

Micheal Hickerson — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:24:31 +0000

I think that’s true about the expectations of American society in general, though it varies by region, religion, etc. I wonder about perception, though. How many large families are needed in a community for that option to feel “normal”? I don’t know how a family with 7 kids does it, either (my wife and I have 3 of our own), but my mom had 8 siblings, about half a dozen of my peers at church have 5 kids, and I was good friends in high school with a girl who was the oldest of 10. To me, 7 kids doesn’t seem all that unreasonable, even though most of the families I know still only have 1 or 2 children. Would that still be the case if I had very little personal experience with larger families? I’m not sure.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:14:27 +0000

Interesting, that, about children in academia. In my experience, the expectation of society in general is to only have two children. I had an English professor a couple of years ago who has no fewer than seven children; I have no idea how he does it, but he was very good.

By: PRT

PRT — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:50:37 +0000

Gah, apparently I didn’t read the article carefully enough. Most of what I said about her program doesn’t apply… but no one from my program has ever managed to finish in three years.

By: PRT

PRT — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:43:18 +0000

whew, finish in three years? There are a few things that seem unusual about Morris’ program: finish coursework in one year, while teaching? That implies not very much coursework, or a very, very light teaching load, or both. Exams in one summer? The reading list must not be like the one that my department had until a few years ago: 3 lists/exams, 100 books per list; most grad students took 18 months just to deal with exams. We’ve recently moved to a much more reasonable exam system of 2 lists of 80 books, but exams still take an average of nine months of reading.

But my department has always encouraged grad students to use coursework to figure out a dissertation topic and start drafting chapters. I’m heading into year three, and I have starts to three chapters (and at least one likely publication from my coursework that isn’t related to my diss). So, it is completely reasonable to finish in four full years, or in the fall of the fifth so that the dissertation is defended before the MLA meat market.

But our funding doesn’t run out until year six.