How many hours PhD

coverband

How many hours a week go into a PhD. I am considering Science which may take 3 years....Is it about 30 hours a week for 3 years? What holidays do you get?

dudara

A PhD is full-time. Generally a 40 hour week is the minimum. I know that I used to work 60+ hrs regularly. 3 years is a tight timeline to do a PhD in, although it's quite doable, so plenty of work required.

I'm not too sure about holidays. Generally, holidays are pretty easy going. I'd imagine that you'll get the statutatory minimum plus some.

coverband

I thought it was 30 a week so you'd have say 10 hours off to lecture for a bit of cash making up the full week...

coverband

Ok so basically its not written in stone.

Well, it being very tough is written in stone!

coverband

Dudara

also have to factor in you;re a girl. Girls work longer than boys

r3nu4l

I did a PhD in Molecular Biology. My supervisor had simple rules.

1) Do a minimum of 40 hours a week at the bench, not 40 hours including breaks, lunch etc.

2) Do your reading, report, abstract and manuscript writing outside of that 40 hours at the bench.

3) Never expect 9-5.

Sounds harsh but then again, my supervisor, never really bothered with counting the number of days off you took, unless you were really milking his generosity!! Also, taking half-days on occassion was okay so long as none of the experiments would suffer.

As with Dudara, quite often I did 60 hours or more a week. With some experiments I had to be in at 5-6 in the morning or stay until 2-3 in the morning at times.

As for completing, you can be very lucky or very unlucky, even within the same lab, working on a similar project to someone else. Quite often whether you complete or not in 3 years is outside of your control as some experiments just may not give you the results you needed or were looking for. Most decent supervisors however know when to change tack if things aren't working and as you develop a proper scientifc mindset you will learn that too

Red Alert

coverband wrote: »

Dudara

also have to factor in you;re a girl. Girls work longer than boys

Any more of this and a week's ban is yours.
Please read the charter.

m1ke

From my experience of PhD's in the social sciences, the time you spend varies radically. You need a lot of circumstances to be favourable to finish in 3 years. Sometimes people encounter research-related problems that hold them up for months or even years before they are resolved. I even know of people who had to start from scratch after 3 years.

So how many hours per week? Well, if you quickly resolve problems and move your project along, you could finish it with 20 hours work per week (with a few weeks of intensive work to produce drafts along the way).

Esmereldina

m1ke wrote: »

From my experience of PhD's in the social sciences, the time you spend varies radically. You need a lot of circumstances to be favourable to finish in 3 years. Sometimes people encounter research-related problems that hold them up for months or even years before they are resolved. I even know of people who had to start from scratch after 3 years.

So how many hours per week? Well, if you quickly resolve problems and move your project along, you could finish it with 20 hours work per week (with a few weeks of intensive work to produce drafts along the way).

It's really up to you how much time you put in, but 30 hours a week would be minimum really! Don't forget if you are lecturing, how much time the preparation (and possibly correcting papers) will take too. there is also lots of paperwork involved and it always takes more time than you think. It can also vary over the 3 or so years... like putting in 80* hour weeks in the last 6 months so you finish for the deadline! Finishing in 3 years is not always realistic either, especially in science where experiments might go wrong, so the amount of time it takes may not always depend on you (or so I've heard tell ).

* may not be an entirely accurate figure, but you get the idea...

H2G2

wrote:

... Finishing in 3 years is not always realistic either...

In my department (Computing/Engineering) the de facto duration is 4.2 years, whereas the funding agencies, etc are still working off a 3 year schedule… mad !! I did mine part-time (my day job was very flexible & related to my PhD work) in 4 years but I worked my nuts off, 7 day weeks, all the spare hours I could and no holidays. 4 years of hell, but worth it in the end [at least retrospectively].

Coverband, talk to any ppl you know who have done a PhD or are doing a PhD in your ideal chosen college. No offensive, but a starting position of asking about a 30 hours week is not a good place to start from. A PhD has a way of becoming all consuming of your time and your life – for many people if not all – that’s just the nature of the beast.

Good luck with the decision making.

dudara

H2G2 wrote: »

A PhD has a way of becoming all consuming of your time and your life – for many people if not all – that’s just the nature of the beast.

And how! It really does take over your life. When you start work after a PhD, you'll find it straightforward and refreshing to work a 9-5 job.

A 3 year PhD will depend on a lot of factors going your way

• A good supervisor who knows to manage his students
• hitting the ground running with a group who may already be doing research in your area
• A well equipped lab (or appropriate facilities)

My PhD took just under 5 years. I changed the topic of my PhD after the first year. Funding ran out after 3 years, which means I then had to work on a part-time basis as well. I took a part-time lecturing job in another college, which ate into the time available for my PhD. I don't regret it for one second.

Talk to people in the faculty/group where you are thinking of doing your PhD.

Dr Strange

I can confirm what the other two posters before me said. It does take over your life and you don't really feel like "living" until it is over. I am working full-time and doing my PhD part-time but as it is related to work it's ok. I am now in my 6th (and hopefully final !) year of it and can't wait until it is over. You really have to put your heart and soul into it.

Red Alert

Hours are really dependent on the person as well as the supervisor. I tend to come in around half eight every morning, and I'm usually gone by half five in the evening. Depending on how I'm doing I usually put in a couple of evenings a week at home cleaning up code, finishing off reports etc. On a rainy sunday I might do some similar light work. I also have about 3 hours of labs a week to demonstrate.

Turbulent Bill

dudara wrote: »

And how! It really does take over your life. When you start work after a PhD, you'll find it straightforward and refreshing to work a 9-5 job.

A 3 year PhD will depend on a lot of factors going your way

• A good supervisor who knows to manage his students
• hitting the ground running with a group who may already be doing research in your area
• A well equipped lab (or appropriate facilities)

Talk to people in the faculty/group where you are thinking of doing your PhD.

Precisely. Lots of people have an image of coffee drinking and chin-stroking, but a Ph.D. is very, very hard work. You'll quickly become immersed in the research, especially as you have to solve difficult problems on a daily basis. You really need to be genuinely interested in the topic.

Do as much research as possible on possible supervisors and groups, and aim for those with a good track record of results.

Passenger

Can somebody suggest a good source (online , books, etc.) on undertaking a PhD?

Something that details exactly what one can expect from doing a PhD; choosing a topic, course requirements, finding a suitable supervisor, etc.

Thanks.

H2G2

I am sure there are lots of books. How to Get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and Their Supervisors, 4/e is sort of famous. All of my peers have certainly read it. I think it has some useful stuff in it and I still quote some parts to my current PhD students, particularly the psychological aspects of PhD work. Amazon link

IvyTheTerrible

I very much doubt that anyone could complete a phd in 3 years doing 30 hours a week.

I did maybe 50-60 hours a week on average and I am coming up to the end of my 4th year. You will find yourself working weekends and late nights but it's the best thing to do if you want to get finished before the funding runs out.

It's best to know this before you start, I know a few people who dropped out because they couldn't hack the workload.

Anyway whatever you choose, good luck and enjoy it!

Turbulent Bill

Passenger wrote: »

Can somebody suggest a good source (online , books, etc.) on undertaking a PhD?

Something that details exactly what one can expect from doing a PhD; choosing a topic, course requirements, finding a suitable supervisor, etc.

Thanks.

You should also check out 'The Research Student's Guide to Success' by Pat Cryer. It's a decent general guide, though for specific requirements you should consult the particular college/supervisor.

djpbarry

coverband wrote: »

How many hours a week go into a PhD. I am considering Science which may take 3 years....Is it about 30 hours a week for 3 years? What holidays do you get?

It may also take a lot more than 3 years - I don't know anyone who got a PhD done in 3 years while only putting in 30 hours per week. The best advice I can give is that if time is a factor in your decision, then don't do a PhD.

As for holidays, as has been said, it's not really set in stone. You'll reach an understanding with your supervisor - I wouldn't worry about it.

microgirl

Also, even if you're thinking in terms of 50-60 hours a week, don't rely too much on being able to predict your hours if doing a bench-science PhD - as in for timetabling ex-lab part-time work.

eg You've got something that needs a 12-hour incubation, before Something Else needs to be done to it. You *have* to be there at the 12-hour mark to move it on to the next stage. Grand so, you think; come in to set it up at 7am, spend the day working on other stuff, planning on going to you part-time job at 8pm (say it's a bar). Except at midday you notice something isn't right with your incubation, or you realise you made an error in some reagent or other. You can write off the whole day, but it's a bugger to set it up again, and because of the nature of the beast will set you back several days, because you have to have it to X stage by tomorrow. Or you can start it again, but that means having to be present at midnight to move it on. Which sucks if your shift in the bar is 8-1:30am.

Ok, so that's a bit of a daft example, and it is certainly possible to have a part-time job while researching a PhD - most people have to at some stage. But it's more difficult if doing a bench-science PhD than social science, comp-sci, or any more "humanities" based subjects, which at least can be done "in your own time", for want of a better phrase. You're not reliant on time-sensitive organisms or chemical interactions.

This is why after my final year project and my project for my Master's I decided not to do a PhD, even though I really wanted to, because I knew I'd never hack it

kevmy

Hmmm.

I would agree with everyone here that you won't get a PhD done in 3 years doing 30 hrs a week. If you go in thinking you want to do it in 4 years then it may make you more comfortable. If you plan for 4 yrs at the start it can make it easier to manage expectations as well as money.

Me I do 8 hrs every day. Usually around 10 to 6. But it varies hugely. I've often been in here till 7.30/8. But I'm lucky I've got a good supervisor and I'm only just into my second year. My lab work won't start until March sometime everything going well.

It is very flexible and you will be able to take mornings off and holidays pretty much whenever you want but you will find that hardest taskmaster will turn out to be yourself.

Having said that most people doing PhD's like what there doing and will gladly give a few extra hours here and there.

My advice talk to post-grads in the dept. your thinking of doing a PhD in and see what they do. There is nothing set in stone nationally or even college wide it will depend on the dept and the supervisor. Work hard and play hard and you'll get a PhD in 3.5 to 4.5 years depending on how lucky you are.