Distance learning PhD - How long did it take?

Greetings!

To all those who worked with UNISA, Wales, or any other program that allowed you to earn your doctorate via distance, how long did it take?

I have considered going full-time on campus, but with a potential job offer coming, I may reconsider and look into finishing the terminal degree via distance learning. Would love any thoughts you have!

Thank you!

 

Mine took about 8 years. However, most students finish in 6 years. I finished at USQ.

 

When I last checked several years back at Nova Southeastern's DBA program - 60 months was the average.

R andy

 

USQ? (theology?)

 

I finished PhD with Northcentral University and it took 6 years, 3 months, and 9 days.

 

My daughter-in-law took 6-years full-time at a UC school (following her BS degree).

 

God and Committee willing, I will hopefully finish my DPA at Valdosta State in April 11 which is 48 months from when I started in May 07.

 

How much did you pay? The longer you study at NCU, the much you have to pay....

 

From research proposal submission to graduation ..... was five [5] years .... working on it nearly full-time, and year around [no summer breaks].

 

Can you please be a little more specific?

 

man....maybe I'm gonna have to give this lil' dream o' mine a rethink.... :-(

 

Right now...at UNISA...it will be 2 years July 2010....and I have been working on my research for 15 years....I will tell you when I finish...still scheduled for defense December 2012.

 

Just got to keep in mind two things:

1. The Ph.D process is an endurance test more than anything else.
2. The process prepares you to climb the mountains that the credential presents to you to climb.

I have the same dream you do.. Ph.D. That said I'm spending more and more time planning what I'm doing after I get the degree, than I necessarily am planning for the degree process, because to me.. the process is rather straightforward.

 

Wait, 3 years in July 2011..sorry.

 

His out-of-pocket cost was a total of less than $3k (yes three thousand dollars only). The rest was paid by someone else (his employer). ...would be nice if some of us can get breaks like that from time to time. Paying 100% for everything gets old after a while. In terms of paying for school, you become separated from a lot of cash by the time you get done paying for doctoral study.

 

As Cyber pointed out, it was under 3K out of pocket.

 

My University of Pretoria PhD in Practical Theology took six full years. I probably could have been done earlier. Pretoria requires doctoral students to be enrolled for a minimum of two years. However, my dissertation is about 190,000 words in length, which is almost double what is normally expected. However, that's what it took for me to feel that I had done justice to the complexity of my subject (although, I'm still note sure I fully accomplished that). Also, I had a lot of life going on during those six years, which meant that my progress was pretty slow during a number of stretches of time.

You will find that most UK universities clearly define the time that they expect part-time distance-based doctoral students to be enrolled. Most state that students in this category should expect to be enrolled for 6 academic years.

 

2 - 1/2 years plus 1 year for the dissertation.

 

A good friend of mine finished their degree in 6 years! That seems to be the general consensus.