Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Hey all,

Especially from current grad students, how common are 3-year PhD's in physics anymore? I've heard of a few people (theorists mostly) getting through it that quickly, but all the ones I'm aware of did so in the 70's or earlier.

(I don't mean for those who already have a Master's of some kind--I'm talking about straight out of undergrad.)

Thanks!

If you managed to complete 1-2 years worth of graduate courses (I know people who did that and ended up TA-ing the QFT course in his 3rd year undergrad) during your undergrad times, it might be possible for a theorist.

I haven't heard of less than 4 years even for theorist.

The only people I've heard of getting out in 3 years did it in the UK. For example, my former research advisor did a 3 year PhD at Cambridge in 1996. I don't think it's common in the US if you don't start a program with a Masters, though.

My PhD will be 3-4 years (depending on my thesis, probably more like 3.5 years), but I'll be getting my PhD in the UK. The programs will typically cut off any and all funding after 3.5 years, so you kind of have to finish in this amount of time.

Oh, and as a reference, don't be fooled by my username. I'm actually going into observational astrophysics.

The programs in the UK also usually assume the equivalent of a US Masters at the beginning of the program, however, so if you count that as at least two years worth of classes I think it works out about the same.

The length of the degree is depends your academic degree and specialized subjects. I have seen many people were take 5 or 6 years for completing their research programs. I think it depends the effort of approaching Specialization and research.

grae313 wrote:The programs in the UK also usually assume the equivalent of a US Masters at the beginning of the program, however, so if you count that as at least two years worth of classes I think it works out about the same.

But mostly GERMAN programs are also of 3 years of duration.

sphy wrote:

grae313 wrote:The programs in the UK also usually assume the equivalent of a US Masters at the beginning of the program, however, so if you count that as at least two years worth of classes I think it works out about the same.

But mostly GERMAN programs are also of 3 years of duration.

Yes, but you also need a Masters to do a Phd, and this takes another 2 years. I guess you could do your PhD in three years, so that would again sum up to about five years.
In your masters you do a lot of coursework like qft and general relativity. These are usually grad courses in the US, right?

leibnuts wrote:

sphy wrote:

grae313 wrote:The programs in the UK also usually assume the equivalent of a US Masters at the beginning of the program, however, so if you count that as at least two years worth of classes I think it works out about the same.

But mostly GERMAN programs are also of 3 years of duration.

Yes, but you also need a Masters to do a Phd, and this takes another 2 years. I guess you could do your PhD in three years, so that would again sum up to about five years.
In your masters you do a lot of coursework like qft and general relativity. These are usually grad courses in the US, right?

right.

Germany and the UK do 3 year PhDs in all areas of research (ie experiment too) but these are rather misleading numbers because

a. you already have a M.S. or equivalent, and
b. everyone I've ever heard of works into the first year of their postdoc on their PhD stuff. In Germany one inevitably gets a "one year postdoc" if they're worth their mettle, in the UK one pretty much always has "minor corrections" or even "major corrections" that you have several months to work on.

Here in the Netherlands a PhD is 4 years (with perhaps a few months extension max) and you must have a M.S. to qualify, but the nice thing is by law you have to be DONE with your PhD when you finish defending it.