Length of US PhD dissertation

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by billy, May 5, 2001.

Loading...
  1. billy

    billy New Member

    Aside from the coursework, what is the normal length of a US PhD thesis?

    Any difference between DL and traditional schools? Shorter or longer dissertation?

    If you flunk the thesis, some British Us award you a MPhil ( not good enough for Phd) what about American schools?

    I read NYU finally gave Greenspan his Phd even though he did not complete his thesis - of course the typical student is not chairman of the Fed but seriously, what other options, publications, consultancy projects anything beside the thesis?

    Billy
     
  2. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    PhDs typically have a dissertation. Doctorates with other titles (EdD, DPsy, DBA) often don't.

    My sense, from books like "Winning the PhD Game" and Cude's "The PhD Trap" is that dissertations average 50,000 words (number of pages is meaningless, given variable type sizes and fonts and margins and so forth), with a very wide range. Science and math ones tend to be shorter, social science and liberal arts longer.

    I don't know if there is truth behind the urban legend that the inventor of some very basic something (was it rayon? nylon?) submitted a two-line dissertation: the chemical formula and the patent number -- with some additonal pages of footnotes.

    John Bear
    About 60,000 words
     
  3. T. Nichols

    T. Nichols New Member

    I've been wondering about this myself. It is hard to understand how one RA school will grant 6SH for a dissertation and another one 24SH.

    T. Nichols
     
  4. Alex

    Alex New Member

    Many graduate programs in the US do not accept applicants for terminal master's study, but they do award the master's degree (MS, MA, or MPhil, depending on the department or the university) after the student finishes PhD qualifying exams and presents a dissertation proposal. Some students choose to leave at this stage, with master's degree in hand. Other students may be asked to leave at this point, and the master's degree is seen as a sort of consolation prize.

    Alex
     
  5. Guest

    Guest Guest

    John:

    This sounds very much like the standard dissertation requirement for Trinity C & U. [​IMG]
     

Share This Page