NRR: Has anyone here attempted to earn their PhD part time?

I know someone who is doing a PhD in biomedical engineering while working full time. I think he is about 40 years old. He is pretty far along and is happy with what he is doing, but he has made it clear that he is constantly busy as hell and is pretty much unable to have a life outside of work/thesis.

Its not the classwork which will be problematic (though you may have to take off time from work to take particular classes). You can get that done in 6-8 years.

The problem is doing your research. Most PhD grad students spend a year or two (or four depending on the field) doing 12-18 hr days getting their research done. Another year to write it up.

Good luck. Maybe try doing an non dissertation doctorate. Like an EdD. (I think they make posters instead of a dissertation) Or maybe pursue an MBA after your MS. This is more set up for a part time system.

Good luck.

I'm interested in this topic as well. Recently finished my M.S. in Chemistry while working full time as a chemist. Have thought about going for the PhD, but I know it would be rough. Instead, I've decided to apply my knowledge and venture into homebrewing. Made my first batch of beer last month and it came out great. As the saying goes, "Better living through chemistry!". Ha!

I did my Engineering Masters part time, but my PhD full time.

Most (or all) programs require some minimum "residency" requirement. That is, you have to essentially be a full time student for some period. It sounds like your planning that already, so that's fine.

More importantly: classes are the easiest and least time consuming part of an Engineering PhD program. The hard part is the dissertation. Unless you have a job where you can do your research on the job, and have a supervisor or someone else at work with a PhD on your dissertation committee, you will have a hard time shaving much off your full-time student time. You can't just do any old project for your PhD. It has to be approved by your committee. Without a strong advocate for your project on that committee, you will have a very hard time getting your proposal or your dissertation through. I know some guys who worked in research labs who managed to get their PhD while working, but they all had PhD work supervisors on their committees.

Anybody else have any thought?

i've done it part time. i was able to cut my hours at work to attend classes and went to a 4-day work week when it was just disseratation. like other posters said, the classes were the easy part. that was 2 years but it took me like 4 years to finish my dissertation while working. i really think it took so long not because i wasn't accomplishing anything, but dealing with the bullshit of the committee situation.

the work itself wasn't that hard but when you are required to have 4 very strong personalities agree on your topic and every last thing you write, not being around on campus was a huge disadvantage. i did much of the communication with my committee via email. this was fine some of the time but i swear that because they didn't see my face, it was just too easy to make things more difficult than they needed to be.

in looking back, being on campus and interacting with your committee and other students is probably more important to how long it takes to finish than how smart you are. unless you can figure out a way to do this, it will be a very miserable experience.

a lot of government agencies (state and federal) will pay your way and give you administrative leave so you can attend classes and do research. As stated here, the class work is only a small portion of the load. Most of it is your research.

Another 'in' is to work for the university of your choice as a research associate, or at some other level, and they also have degree programs where you can work more or less full time while going for your degree.

Some private enterprises will also help you through--but they own your ass and will keep reminding you of that.

I did it the hard way--RA and TA, and No A for the last year.

drunk runner. wrote:

Anybody else have any thought?

Not that it matters, but the above poster wasn't me. I always proofread my posts.

My dad got his Ph.D. in school administration, while working as a school Superintendent. I don't remember exactly when he started, but I believe it took him at least 9 years. He did his coursework during the summer, and spent weekends and the summer working on his dissertation research/writing. I was little at the time, so he may have taken night classes as well.

As one of the earlier posters alluded to, its not so much the writing up thats the issue, but the actual primary data collection. Obviously depends on your subject area (because some social science type PhD's dont seem to be much more than literature reviews), but for myself who's been trying to do lab based physiological research its been very difficult to actually find dedicated lab time to have a study up and running for a few weeks.

I'm guessing you are in the US, but have you investigated 'alternative' methods of obtaining the PhD? I'm currently considering the PhD by publication route whereby you need to publish 4 papers and can then submit a bridging document which ties them all together. I feel that because you do not really need to submit a detailed proposal prior to starting your work this gives you much more flexibility as you are not committed to a certain route in advance and the write up is all done retrospectively.