Anyone know's of graduate programs that offer the longest possible time to finish your course work to graduate ? Most schools I've seen give you a time limit of 4 - 5 years.
UNISA Phd, with extensions, up to 10 years. There are 2 keys here. The first is the idea of "continuous enrollment" and the second is the idea of "making progress." Some schools will allow you to be unenrolled for a period and then return. Clearly this would extend your studies. Also, some schools require that you demonstrate progress in your studies and so you might be bumped ou in year 4-5 for example, just because you've been spending too much time binge watching Game of Thrones and such.
5 years for a Master's and 7 for a doctorate is pretty common . . . but the excellent book "Winning the PhD Game" points out, correctly, that extensions are very common, almost automatic. (It also points out that when that Stanford doctoral student bludgeoned his advisor to death with a hammer years ago, he had been a PhD candidate for 17 years . . . which meant, the author wrote, that he'd never be convicted by a jury of his peers!).
