finish phd in 3 years

Planning your PhD research: A 3-year PhD timeline example

Planning out a PhD trajectory can be overwhelming. Example PhD timelines can make the task easier and inspire. The following PhD timeline example describes the process and milestones of completing a PhD within 3 years.

Elements to include in a 3-year PhD timeline

The example scenario: completing a phd in 3 years, example: planning year 1 of a 3-year phd, example: planning year 2 of a 3-year phd, example: planning year 3 of a 3-year phd, example of a 3 year phd gantt chart timeline, final reflection.

Every successful PhD project begins with a proper plan. Even if there is a high chance that not everything will work out as planned. Having a well-established timeline will keep your work on track.

What to include in a 3-year PhD timeline depends on the unique characteristics of a PhD project, specific university requirements, agreements with the supervisor/s and the PhD student’s career ambitions.

For instance, some PhD students write a monograph while others complete a PhD based on several journal publications. Both monographs and cumulative dissertations have advantages and disadvantages , and not all universities allow both formats. The thesis type influences the PhD timeline.

Furthermore, PhD students ideally engage in several different activities throughout a PhD trajectory, which link to their career objectives. Regardless of whether they want to pursue a career within or outside of academia. PhD students should create an all-round profile to increase their future chances in the labour market. Think, for example, of activities such as organising a seminar, engaging in public outreach or showcasing leadership in a small grant application.

The most common elements included in a 3-year PhD timeline are the following:

• Data collection (fieldwork, experiments, etc.)
• Data analysis
• Writing of different chapters, or a plan for journal publication
• Conferences
• Additional activities

The whole process is described in more detail in my post on how to develop an awesome PhD timeline step-by-step .

Many (starting) PhD students look for examples of how to plan a PhD in 3 years. Therefore, let’s look at an example scenario of a fictional PhD student. Let’s call her Maria.

Maria is doing a PhD in Social Sciences at a university where it is customary to write a cumulative dissertation, meaning a PhD thesis based on journal publications. Maria’s university regulations require her to write four articles as part of her PhD. In order to graduate, one article has to be published in an international peer-reviewed journal. The other three have to be submitted.

Furthermore, Maria’s cumulative dissertation needs an introduction and conclusion chapter which frame the four individual journal articles, which form the thesis chapters.

In order to complete her PhD programme, Maria also needs to complete coursework and earn 15 credits, or ECTS in her case.

Maria likes the idea of doing a postdoc after her graduation. However, she is aware that the academic job market is tough and therefore wants to keep her options open. She could, for instance, imagine to work for a community or non-profit organisation. Therefore, she wants to place emphasis on collaborating with a community organisation during her PhD.

You may also like: Creating awesome Gantt charts for your PhD timeline

Most PhD students start their first year with a rough idea, but not a well-worked out plan and timeline. Therefore, they usually begin with working on a more elaborate research proposal in the first months of their PhD. This is also the case for our example PhD student Maria.

• Months 1-4: Maria works on a detailed research proposal, defines her research methodology and breaks down her thesis into concrete tasks.
• Month 5 : Maria follows a short intensive course in academic writing to improve her writing skills.
• Months 5-10: Maria works on her first journal paper, which is based on an extensive literature review of her research topic. At the end of Month 10, she submits the manuscript. At the same time, she follows a course connected to her research topic.
• Months 11-12: Maria does her data collection.

Maria completed her first round of data collection according to plan, and starts the second year of her PhD with a lot of material. In her second year, she will focus on turning this data into two journal articles.

• Months 1-2: Maria works on her data analysis.
• Months 3-7: Maria works on her second journal paper.
• Month 7: Maria attends her first conference, and presents the results of her literature-review paper.
• Month 8: Maria received ‘major revisions’ on her first manuscript submission, and implements the changes in Month 8 before resubmitting her first journal paper for publication.
• Month 9: Maria follows a course on research valorisation to learn strategies to increase the societal impact of her thesis.
• Months 9-12: Maria works on her third journal paper. She uses the same data that she collected for the previous paper, which is why she is able to complete the third manuscript a bit faster than the previous one.

Time flies, and Maria finds herself in the last year of her PhD. There is still a lot of work to be done, but she sticks to the plan and does her best to complete her PhD.

• Month 1: Maria starts a second round of data collection, this time in collaboration with a community organisation. Together, they develop and host several focus groups with Maria’s target audience.
• Month 2: Maria starts to analyse the material of the focus group and develops the argumentation for her fourth journal paper.
• Month 3: Maria presents the results of her second journal paper at an international conference. Furthermore, she helps out her supervisor with a grant application. They apply for funding to run a small project that is thematically connected to her PhD.
• Months 4-9: Maria writes her fourth and final journal article that is required for her PhD.
• Month 10: Maria writes her thesis introduction .
• Month 11: Maria works on her thesis conclusion.
• Month 12 : Maria works on the final edits and proof-reading of her thesis before submitting it.

Combining the 3-year planning for our example PhD student Maria, it results in the following PhD timeline:

Creating these PhD timelines, also called Gantt charts, is easy. You can find instructions and templates here.

Completing a PhD in 3 years is not an easy task. The example of our fictional PhD student Maria shows how packed her timeline is, and how little time there is for things to go wrong.

In fact, in real life, many PhD students spend four years full-time to complete a PhD based on four papers, instead of three. Some extend their studies even longer.

Furthermore, plan in some time for thesis editing, which is a legitimate practice and can bring your writing to the next level. Finding a reputable thesis editor can be challenging, so make sure you make an informed choice.

Finishing a PhD in 3 years is not impossible, but it surely is not easy. So be kind to yourself if things don’t work out entirely as planned, and make use of all the help you can get.

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07 Simple and Proven Steps to Complete PhD in 03 Years

Embarking on a PhD journey is a significant endeavor that requires commitment, perseverance, and efficient time management. While the typical duration of a PhD program is often longer, completing it within a three-year timeframe is an ambitious goal that can bring numerous benefits. For part-time researchers who juggle personal and family commitments alongside their academic pursuits, it becomes even more crucial to optimize their research work and make strategic choices to ensure timely completion.

In this guide, we will explore effective strategies and approaches to help you complete your PhD in just three years. Join us on this journey as we explore the steps and considerations necessary to make your PhD completion in three years a reality. Let’s unlock the potential for accelerated academic achievement and pave the way for a successful research career.

Introduction

Challenges faced by part-time phd researchers, overview of strategies to complete a phd efficiently, 1. selecting a well-defined and aligned phd research topic:, 2. choosing an area of interest and expertise:, 3. attract diverse and capable students:, 4. harnessing the advantages of research-oriented students:, 5. delegating phd tasks to students:, 6. assigning tasks that do not compromise the exclusivity of core research work:, a. seminar topics, b. papers in tech fests, conferences and journals, c. mini and major projects, d. data collection, e. user interface development, f. automation, g. equipment setup, h. testing and simulation.

• Before You Close........

Completing a PhD within a three-year timeframe holds several significant advantages. Firstly, it allows researchers to expedite their career progression and enter the job market earlier, gaining a competitive edge over their peers. Employers often value candidates who can demonstrate the ability to efficiently complete projects within tight timelines.

Additionally, completing a PhD in a shorter timeframe reduces the overall financial burden associated with pursuing a doctorate. It minimizes tuition fees, living expenses, and the opportunity cost of being away from the workforce for an extended period. You can visit my article on ” How to get loan / scholarship for your PhD “. This article will help you to secure loan easily for your PhD studies.

Moreover, timely completion of a PhD provides a sense of accomplishment, boosting confidence and motivation. It allows researchers to transition to the next phase of their careers, whether it’s pursuing academic positions, industry roles, or entrepreneurial ventures.

Part-time researchers face unique challenges that can hinder their progress in completing a PhD within a limited timeframe. Balancing personal and family commitments with the demands of rigorous research work poses a significant challenge. Juggling work responsibilities, family obligations, and self-care while dedicating sufficient time to research can be overwhelming.

Limited availability of time is another hurdle for part-time researchers. They often have to allocate evenings, weekends, and holidays for research, which can restrict the amount of time they can devote to their studies. This constraint necessitates efficient time management strategies to make the most of the available research hours.

Additionally, part-time researchers may face difficulties in accessing resources and establishing research networks compared to full-time students. Limited access to laboratories, libraries, and academic support services can create additional obstacles that need to be addressed.

To complete a PhD efficiently within a three-year timeframe, several strategies can be employed. These strategies revolve around optimizing time, maximizing productivity, and leveraging available resources effectively. Some key strategies include:

Choosing an Efficient Research Topic: Select a research topic that aligns with your interests and expertise to leverage existing knowledge, streamline your research efforts, and minimize time spent on background understanding.

Motivating Students to Engage in Research: Highlight the benefits of research for students’ career development and dispel misconceptions to foster a research-oriented mindset. By providing mentorship and guidance, students become actively involved in research, indirectly saving your time and contributing to the overall progress.

Optimizing Research Workload: Delegate tasks to undergraduate and postgraduate students to offload some workload, while also providing valuable learning opportunities for the students. This allows you to focus on core research activities and maintain productivity.

Assigning Suitable Research Tasks to Students: Assign seminar topics, papers in tech fests and conferences, mini and major projects, data collection, user interface development, automation, equipment setup, testing, and simulation tasks to students. This optimizes their potential and distributes the workload efficiently, allowing you to focus on core research activities.

By implementing these strategies and adopting an organized and focused approach, part-time researchers can overcome challenges, optimize their research efforts, and complete their PhD within a three-year timeframe.

Steps to Complete PhD in 03 Years

Choosing a well-defined research topic is crucial for optimizing research time and involving students effectively. A clear and focused research topic allows you to streamline your efforts and resources towards specific objectives. It helps in avoiding unnecessary diversions and ensures that your research remains on track.

For example, let’s say you’re conducting research in the field of artificial intelligence. Instead of a broad topic like “Applications of AI,” a well-defined topic could be “Improving Facial Recognition Accuracy using Deep Learning Techniques.” This focused topic allows you to concentrate your efforts on a specific problem, methodology, and dataset, reducing research time by avoiding distractions.

When involving students in your research, a well-defined research topic provides them with clear guidelines and objectives. They can contribute more effectively by understanding the scope and expectations of the research. Students can align their efforts with the research topic, conducting targeted literature reviews, performing focused experiments, and analyzing specific aspects of the research problem. This focused approach optimizes research time by avoiding unnecessary tangents and enhancing student engagement and productivity.

Choosing a research topic that aligns with your area of interest and expertise is essential for optimizing research time and involving students effectively. When you are passionate about the topic, you are more likely to be motivated and driven, leading to increased productivity and faster progress.

For example, if your expertise lies in renewable energy systems, selecting a research topic related to optimizing solar panel efficiency would be a natural choice. Your existing knowledge, skills, and experience in the field will allow you to make quicker progress, as you can build upon your existing expertise and leverage prior research.

When involving students, selecting a research topic that aligns with their interests and expertise can significantly enhance their engagement and contribution. When students are passionate about the research topic, they are more likely to invest time and effort into exploring and understanding the subject matter. They can leverage their existing knowledge and skills, bringing fresh perspectives and ideas to the research process.

Additionally, involving students in a topic aligned with their interests and expertise allows them to develop their research capabilities more effectively. Their prior knowledge and experience in related areas enable them to grasp concepts faster, conduct literature reviews more efficiently, and contribute to the research with their unique insights. This optimized involvement of students contributes to accelerated progress and overall research efficiency.

By selecting a well-defined research topic and choosing an area of interest and expertise, you optimize research time by avoiding unnecessary diversions and leveraging existing knowledge. Additionally, involving students in topics aligned with their interests enhances their motivation and productivity, leading to efficient collaboration and faster progress in your research endeavors.

To cultivate a research-oriented environment, it is essential to dispel misconceptions surrounding research being limited to high-achieving students. By doing so, you can attract a diverse range of capable students, each with unique talents and perspectives.

By promoting the accessibility and inclusivity of research, you encourage students from various academic backgrounds and achievement levels to participate. This diversity enriches the research process by fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and encouraging fresh approaches to problem-solving.

For instance, by dispelling the notion that research is exclusively reserved for top-performing students, you open doors for individuals who may not have pursued research due to self-doubt or lack of confidence. By embracing students from different backgrounds and abilities, you create an inclusive research environment that values their unique contributions. This inclusivity ultimately leads to a broader pool of ideas, increased innovation, and enhanced problem-solving capabilities within your research team.

By motivating students and fostering a research-oriented mindset, you indirectly save time and accelerate learning and implementation processes. The fast-thinking nature of the young generation, coupled with their motivation to contribute, enables them to absorb knowledge quickly and implement ideas effectively. Embracing a diverse range of students ensures a dynamic and innovative research environment that propels your research forward at an accelerated pace.

Motivating students and instilling a research-oriented mindset among them can yield significant benefits, not just for their own career development but also for your research progress. By highlighting the benefits of research, you can inspire and attract students who possess a natural inclination towards exploration and knowledge creation.

When students are motivated to engage in research, they bring fresh perspectives, innovative ideas, and a youthful enthusiasm to the table. The young generation’s thinking is often agile and fast-paced, allowing them to grasp concepts quickly and propose creative solutions. By harnessing their energy and passion, you can indirectly save time and accelerate the learning and implementation processes within your research endeavors.

For example, when working with research-oriented students, they can assist in literature reviews, data collection, and preliminary analysis. Their eagerness to contribute and learn enables them to swiftly navigate through relevant research articles, extract key findings, and compile comprehensive summaries. This collaboration frees up your time, allowing you to focus on the core aspects of your research while ensuring that important groundwork is efficiently completed.

One effective strategy for optimizing research workload is to delegate certain tasks to undergraduate and postgraduate students. By involving students in research activities, you can distribute the workload, increase productivity, and foster a collaborative research environment. However, it is essential to assign tasks that align with their capabilities and provide proper guidance and supervision.

For example, if you are conducting a survey as part of your research, you can assign the task of data collection to undergraduate students. They can assist in gathering responses, organizing data, and conducting initial data analysis. This delegation allows you to focus on other aspects of your research while leveraging the support of capable students.

Similarly, for laboratory-based research, you can assign tasks such as equipment setup, data collection, or preliminary experimentation to postgraduate students. They can assist in carrying out experiments, recording data, and performing initial analysis under your guidance. This not only helps you manage the workload but also provides valuable learning opportunities for the students.

When delegating tasks to students, it is important to ensure that the assigned tasks do not compromise the exclusivity of your core research work. You need to strike a balance between involving students in research activities and safeguarding the integrity and originality of your PhD work.

For instance, you can assign literature review tasks to students to gather relevant research articles and summarize key findings. This allows them to contribute to the research process while keeping the core ideas and analysis within your control.

Similarly, students can be involved in data preprocessing tasks, such as data cleaning or formatting, which do not directly impact the analysis or interpretation of your research. By assigning these tasks, you can save time and focus on more critical aspects of your work while enabling students to gain practical experience.

It is important to establish clear guidelines and expectations when assigning tasks to students. Communicate the purpose of their involvement and ensure they understand the boundaries and limitations regarding the core research work. Regular meetings and progress updates can help maintain a cohesive research direction while monitoring the students’ progress.

By delegating appropriate tasks to students, you can optimize your research workload, increase efficiency, and foster a collaborative research environment. Assigning tasks that do not compromise the exclusivity of your core research work ensures that you maintain control over the essential aspects of your PhD while benefiting from the support and contribution of capable students.

7. Assigning Suitable PhD Research Tasks to Students:

• Importance of staying informed about the latest advancements: Assigning seminar topics to students helps you stay informed about the latest advancements in your field. By delegating these topics, students conduct thorough research, gather relevant information, and present it to you and their peers. This enables you to gain valuable insights into emerging trends and technologies without dedicating significant time to individual research. It optimizes your research time by allowing you to focus on core research areas while benefiting from students’ findings.
• Enhancing students’ presentation skills: As students prepare and deliver seminars on assigned topics, their presentation skills improve. This proficiency can be leveraged in your research team when they assist in presenting your research findings or representing your work at conferences. By developing their presentation skills, you indirectly save time by sharing the responsibility of effectively communicating research outcomes.
• Assigning survey papers to summarize key findings and trends: Assigning survey papers to students helps summarize key findings and trends in specific subfields. Their literature review skills come into play as they collect and synthesize relevant research articles. By delegating this task, you gain a comprehensive overview of the current state of research within the subfield without investing substantial time in extensive literature reviews.
• Developing students’ surveying and synthesizing skills: By assigning survey papers, students enhance their surveying and synthesizing skills. This proficiency not only benefits your research but also adds value to their academic development. As students become adept at summarizing complex research, they contribute to streamlining the research process. Their refined skills enable them to extract essential information efficiently, allowing you to save time in reviewing extensive literature.
• Allowing the students to publish their preliminary work in Student Journals: Undergraduate research journals are scholarly publications specifically dedicated to showcasing the research work of students. These journals provide a platform for students to share their findings, theories, and ideas with a wider audience, including fellow students, researchers, and professionals in their respective fields. The researchers can allow the students to publish their preliminary works in these journals. I have written an article on Journals that publish preliminary research works Which Journals Publish Work by Undergraduate Students? . Please visit the article for further details.
• Assigning projects related to implementing algorithms or techniques: Assigning mini and major projects related to implementing algorithms or techniques allows students to gain hands-on experience. By delegating these tasks, students contribute to the practical aspects of your research. They explore emerging technologies, test algorithms, and analyze results. Their involvement accelerates the implementation phase, saving you time and effort while ensuring progress in experimental work.
• Enhancing programming skills and staying updated with technologies: As students work on mini and major projects, they enhance their programming skills and stay updated with relevant technologies. Their learning benefits your research by introducing new programming techniques, improving code efficiency, and incorporating the latest tools. By leveraging students’ programming expertise, you can optimize your research time and advance your work using their acquired skills and knowledge.
• Assigning students to collect and analyze data: Assigning students to collect and analyze data streamlines the research process by distributing tasks. Students can collect data from various sources, organize it, and perform preliminary analysis. Their involvement saves you time by sharing the workload of data collection, enabling you to focus on data interpretation and drawing meaningful conclusions. Moreover, their assistance accelerates the research timeline, ensuring timely data acquisition.
• Expanding knowledge in data preprocessing and analysis: As students engage in data collection and analysis, they expand their knowledge of data preprocessing and analysis techniques. This knowledge can be applied to your research, enhancing the quality and efficiency of data processing. By delegating data-related tasks, you benefit from their expertise and save time by sharing the responsibilities associated with data management.
• Involving students in developing effective UI/UX designs : Assigning students to develop user interfaces (UI) allows you to showcase your research professionally. Their involvement in UI development enhances the visual representation of your work, making it more accessible and engaging for audiences. Their contribution in creating intuitive designs and user-friendly interfaces saves you time by ensuring that your research is effectively communicated and understood.
• Enhancing students’ skills: As students develop UI/UX designs, they acquire valuable skills in UI development, graphic design, and user experience. Their enhanced skills not only benefit your research by improving the presentation of your work but also provide them with practical expertise in a highly sought-after field. By leveraging their skills, you optimize your research time and benefit from their professional-level designs.
• Assigning automation tasks to learn emerging technologies: Assigning automation tasks to students allows them to learn and explore emerging technologies. As they automate certain research processes, such as data generation or testing, they contribute to increasing research efficiency. Their involvement in automating repetitive tasks saves you time and effort, allowing you to focus on more critical aspects of your research.
• Improving efficiency and productivity in research: Automation tasks, when undertaken by students, improve overall research efficiency and productivity. By streamlining repetitive tasks, you can allocate more time to analysis, experimentation, and interpretation of results. Students’ contribution to automation not only saves time but also enhances research quality and ensures consistency in data processing.
• Involving students in setting up equipment: Assigning students to assist in equipment setup saves you time and effort associated with preparing the necessary tools and instruments. Their involvement ensures that equipment is ready for use when required, allowing you to focus on conducting experiments and gathering data. By delegating equipment setup tasks, you optimize your research time and streamline the workflow.
• Saving time and effort while developing technical skills: As students participate in equipment setup, they develop technical skills and gain practical experience. This expertise can be utilized within your research team, as they become proficient in handling equipment and troubleshooting technical issues. Their involvement saves you time by sharing responsibilities related to equipment setup, maintenance, and operation.
• Assigning testing and simulation tasks to collect and analyze data: Assigning testing and simulation tasks to students aids in data collection and analysis. As they conduct tests or simulate scenarios, they generate data that can be used in your research. Their involvement in data collection saves you time and resources, as they share the workload associated with conducting experiments and gathering results.
• Promoting collaboration, skill development, and reducing risks: Testing and simulation tasks encourage collaboration among students and researchers, fostering a supportive research environment. By involving students in these tasks, you promote teamwork, allowing them to learn from one another’s experiences and perspectives. Additionally, their involvement reduces risks associated with complex experiments, ensuring a safer research process.

By assigning suitable research tasks to students, you optimize your research time by delegating responsibilities and sharing the workload. Their involvement adds value to your research through their diverse skills, fresh perspectives, and ability to contribute to specific research areas. By effectively utilizing their expertise, you can accelerate progress, enhance the quality of your research, and benefit from their valuable contributions.

Before You Close……..

I have written a good number of articles on PhD journey. These articles include writing research papers, applying for grants , patents , writing PhD thesis , approaching consultants , PhD careers and several templates on research. Please make it a point to visit these articles Here .

Completing a PhD within a three-year timeframe requires careful planning, efficient strategies, and effective utilization of resources. By implementing the discussed approaches and leveraging the potential of undergraduate and postgraduate students, you can optimize your research time, enhance productivity, and achieve significant milestones in your academic journey.

Motivating students to engage in research not only benefits their career development but also indirectly saves your time. When students are properly motivated and research-oriented, they bring fresh perspectives, energy, and faster thinking to the research process. By providing them with proper guidance and direction, you can harness their enthusiasm and accelerate the pace of your research.

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How to Complete Your PhD in 3 Years

Accelerate your phd journey: how to complete your phd in 3 years.

Completing a PhD in just 3 years may seem like a difficult task, but with proper planning and determination, it can be achieved. In this article, iLovePhD will share practical strategies to help you succeed in your PhD journey and graduate within the desired timeframe.

Discover actionable strategies and expert tips to complete your PhD in just three years. Learn how to stay focused, organize your research, seek guidance, and maintain a healthy work-life balance to achieve your academic goals efficiently. Start your journey towards a successful PhD graduation now!

1. Choose the Right Research Topic

Selecting a suitable research topic is the foundation of a successful PhD Start by picking a well-defined, feasible topic that aligns with your interests and expertise. This ensures you focus your efforts on a subject that truly excites you and is manageable within the given time frame.

2. Organize Your Work Efficiently

Breaking down your research into smaller tasks and setting achievable deadlines will help you stay on track. Utilize project management tools or apps to keep your progress organized and monitor your accomplishments.

3. Develop a Strong Proposal Early On

Craft your research proposal as early as possible and seek approval from your advisor or committee. A solid proposal sets the stage for your research and avoids unnecessary delays.

4. Seek Guidance Actively

Regularly communicate with your advisor or mentors to discuss your progress, challenges, and potential solutions. Seeking feedback actively ensures you stay on the right path and don’t waste valuable time in the wrong direction.

5. Conduct an Efficient Literature Review

Conducting a thorough literature review early on will help you identify existing research and gaps in your field. This process guides your research scope and prevents redundant efforts.

6. Stay Focused and Avoid Distractions:

Maintaining focus is crucial during your PhD journey. Limit non-essential activities that may consume your time and energy, allowing you to concentrate on your research.

7. Collaborate and Network

Collaborate with peers and researchers in your field. Networking can lead to valuable insights, shared resources, and potential collaboration opportunities, all of which can accelerate your research progress.

8. Regular Writing Practice

Start writing your thesis early in the process. Regular writing clarifies your ideas and findings, making the final thesis writing process more manageable.

9. Prioritize Your Health and Manage Stress

Pursuing a PhD can be mentally and emotionally demanding. Make sure to take care of yourself, manage stress, and maintain a healthy work-life balance to avoid burnout.

10. Be Adaptable

Unexpected challenges or setbacks are common during research. Be adaptable and open to adjusting your plans as needed to stay on track.

Aim to Defend Early: Set a goal to defend your PhD thesis early in your third year. This provides ample time to address any revisions or feedback from your committee.

Completing a PhD in three years requires dedication, focus, and efficient planning. While it is an ambitious goal, it’s essential to remember that the quality and impact of your research matter more than the timeframe. By following these steps and staying committed to your goals, you can make significant progress in your PhD journey and set yourself up for success in academia and beyond.

Also Read: Top 50 Possible PhD Viva Questions

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154. How to Plan Your PhD w/ Hugh Kearns

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A PhD Plan sounds like an oxymoron, but charting a path to graduation is one of the most important things you can do as a graduate student.

This week, we talk with Hugh Kearns of Thinkwell about why PhD planning is so challenging for students, and learn about some tools that can keep your research on track.

Uncharted Territory

We start the conversation by trying to understand why planning is so difficult and so rare for PhDs.

“They’ve never done a PhD so they don’t know what’s coming,” Kearns observes. “And your previous education doesn’t prepare for research.”

He continues, “Research by its nature is uncertain. Things go wrong. And then what happens is people think that ‘Because I don’t know, we just won’t plan anything! We’ll see what happens.'”

But just because you’ve never done a PhD before, and no one has pursued your particular branch of research, that doesn’t mean you can’t plan ahead.

In fact, there are already tools and strategies, adapted from project management in the business world, that will help you set some guide rails around your winding path to a PhD.

Getting Your PhD Plan Backward

Traditional ‘forward’ planning works great for a well-worn process, like building a house. Builders know from experience that you can’t build the walls until you’ve poured the foundation, and you can’t paint until the drywall is installed.

Each of those activities has a reasonably predictable timeline, so you can plan the construction of a home week by week until it’s finished.

But a PhD isn’t quite at prescriptive. Sure, you know you need to do a literature review, but how long does that take? And how long will experiments take?

The fact is, they’ll take as much time as you give them. There’s no definitive ‘finish line’ for a literature review the way there is for a construction project. You just need to decide how long you’re willing to give the review, and stop when it’s ‘good enough.’

That’s why Kearns recommends ‘backward planning’ for PhDs. You start with an end date in mind (usually when the funding runs out) and work back from there.

His book, Planning Your PhD: All the tools and advice you need to finish your PhD in three years , lays out the steps in detail, and provides some worksheets you can use to create a multi-year Thesis Plan .

In fact, he offers those worksheets for free on the website!

Drilling into Detail

With your Thesis Plan in place, you can begin the process of adding more and more detail to the events closest in time.

This ‘rolling plan’ recognizes that you don’t know what you might be doing on Tuesday March 25 at 3PM three years from now, but you CAN decide on some goals over the next six months.

And don’t stress out if those goals shift, or you don’t quite manage to meet them. If you revisit your plan on a regular schedule, you can adjust and adapt.

If you never set the goal, or never look back at what you planned, you’re guaranteed to drift as the months and years pass by.

Kearns shares some other tools, like his ‘To Day’ list that works in conjunction with your ‘To Do’ list to put a time component on your tasks. That way, you slowly make progress toward your goals, rather than watching your list grow more and more unmanageable.

The Paradox of Choice

Finally, we talk about the surprising fact having more options usually means you are less happy and get less done. Weird, right?

It’s the ‘paradox of choice,’ described by Barry Schwartz in his 2004 book of the same name, and this TED Talk .

For graduate students, that manifests as a list of things you need to get done: pour a gel, set up those reactions, manage the lab animals, read three papers, write a section of a review, respond to your PI’s email, and on and on.

And what happens when you have all those things you COULD be doing? You get overwhelmed and go scroll through Instagram instead.

Kearns recommends that you identify ‘The Next Thing’ (or TNT) and work on that. The smaller you make that task, the better!

We’ve learned over the years that PhD students don’t understand the meaning of the word “small”. Because they’ll say, “OK, I know what the task is: I’ll finish my literature review”. But this is still way too big. So now we use the word micro-task. For example, some micro-tasks are: * Add two paragraphs to the discussion section * Add the new data to Table 1 * Read my supervisor’s comments on my draft Planning Your PhD, by Hugh Kearns and Maria Gardiner

Keeping ‘The Next Thing’ manageable prevents your brain from shutting down and giving up.

And if you stack up enough ‘The Next Things’, day after day and week after week, you’ll soon be making measurable progress on your PhD!

One thought to “154. How to Plan Your PhD w/ Hugh Kearns”

There’s so many people that I’ve already approached and address the subject, and while it’s still needs to be addressed and is of great value to younger grad students… There’s something that I have experienced two times in my graduate student career, that I’ve yet to hear any academic institution discuss… What happens, when you are left alone when your advisor dies, and/or commits suicide? I realize this is a very small population of the onions that you speak to, but to those of us that I’ve gone through this, it is absolutely devastating. I’m the first person from my family to go to college, let alone grad school. Trying to finish my PhD was absolutely, not supported the least. When my advisor died it just sent things out of control. So, how do you propose to integrate maybe even in a small portion… However uncomfortable it may be, if a student is to be in such a situation where their advisor dies, And they are not receiving any support by their department which leaves them in even greater shock.. And perhaps I need them selves in limbo for years. This is what happened to me. But I had extenuating circumstances. I fought as hard as I could, While escaping a very unsafe home situation… Essentially, how do you bring up these topics for students for the worst possible case scenario for when things go wrong? Hopefully, they never do reach a point Were you have to learn that your advisor died or that you were advisor completed suicide in one of the parking garages is in your university. If you happen to plan your research out, let’s say perfectly; you have five research papers and you were on track to graduate and you were ready to give your defense And anticipated your graduation to be the next upcoming semester. You did everything right. Your plan worked. You follow the rules. What advice for students would you suggest, to prevent them from essentially falling apart completely? Because at the end of the day they put their entire lives into what they are doing here to finish up and move on with their lives. They put relationships and marriages and children on hold… So what happens when a disaster strikes? I think that should be a topic you might want to touch on in the future. Like I said, might be a small demographic, but I lost 1 advisor suddenly, An excellent professor to suicide, a remarkable and rising star an excellent lab-mate to suicide as well. I think that if we can integrate mental health and just kind of trickle it into conversations more, and dedicate more time to Just discussing it, and just discussing that mental health is as important as physical health… mental health won’t be as stigmatized as it unfortunately still is at this very day. Overall, I’m happy about the topic of this episode and this podcast in general. However, I think there are modern in inclusive pathways and things that Students really need help with especially regarding mental health and support… Especially when the loss of a lame or a advisor or a loved one… If any of this occurs, and they feel like they cannot reach out, that can be detrimental to your perfect research plan. So at the end of the day, your research plan could mean absolutely nothing. You have to essentially plan for the worst. Sounds sounds like a very pessimistic thing, I understand. But having gone through this myself, I don’t want anybody to ever experience what I have. We can only start making these extreme cases easier to deal with by Integrating it in our discussions. After all, it is quite relatable to your planning of your research and your PhD career. Because when your world gets turned upside down, your “plan” Could be dead or worthless. So where do you go from there? Just trying to provide a thought on my own take Hope it helps thanks for the podcast.

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Dissertating Like a Distance Runner: Ten Tips for Finishing Your PhD

The above photo is of Sir Mo Farah running past Buckingham Palace into the home stretch of the London Marathon. I took the photo two days after my viva, in which I defended my PhD dissertation. Farah become a British hero when he and his training partner, Galen Rupp, won the gold and silver medals in the 10k at the London Olympic Games.

I had the honor of racing against Rupp at Nike’s Boarder Clash meet between the fastest high school distance runners in my home state of Washington and Rupp’s home state of Oregon. I’m happy to provide a link to the results and photos of our teenage selves since I beat Galen and Washington won the meet. (Note: In the results, ‘Owen’ is misspelled with the commonly added s , which I, as a fan of Jesse Owens, feel is an honor.) By the time we were running in college—Rupp for the University of Oregon and myself for the University of Washington—he was on an entirely different level. I never achieved anything close to the kind of running success Rupp has had. Yet, for most of us mortals, the real value in athletics is the character traits and principles that sports instill in us, and how those principles carry over to other aspects of life. Here I want to share ten principles that the sport of distance running teaches, which I found to be quite transferrable to writing my doctoral dissertation.

To provide some personal context, I began as a doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham in 2014. At that time my grandparents, who helped my single father raise my sister and me, continued their ongoing struggle with my Grandfather’s Alzheimer’s. It was becoming increasingly apparent that they would benefit from having my wife and I nearby. So, in 2015 we moved to my hometown of Yakima, Washington. That fall I began a 2/2 teaching load at a small university on the Yakama Nation Reservation as I continued to write my dissertation. Since finishing my PhD four years ago, in 2018, I have published one book , five research articles , and two edited volume chapters related in various ways to my dissertation. As someone living in rural Eastern Washington, who is a first-gen college grad, I had to find ways to stay self-motivated and to keep chipping away at my academic work. I found the following principles that I learned through distance running very helpful.

(1) Establish community . There are various explanations, some of which border on superstitious, for why Kenyan distance runners have been so dominant. Yet one factor is certainly the running community great Kenyan distance runners benefit from at their elite training camps, as discussed in Train Hard, Win Easy: The Kenyan Way . Having a community that values distance running can compel each member of the community to pursue athletic excellence over a long period of time. The same can be said for academic work. Many doctoral researchers have built-in community in their university departments, but for various reasons this is not true for everyone. Thankfully, alternative ways to establish community have never been easier, predominantly due to technology.

Since my dissertation applied Aristotelian causation and neo-Thomistic hylomorphism to mental causation and neural correlates of consciousness, I found it immensely helpful to meet consistently with neuroscientist, Christof Koch, and philosopher of mind, Mihretu Guta. Mihretu does work on the philosophy of consciousness and Christof propelled the dawn of the neurobiology of consciousness with Francis Crick . Though Mihretu lives in Southern California, we met monthly through Skype, and I would drive over the Cascade Mountains once a month to meet with Christof in Seattle. As my dissertation examiner, Anna Marmodoro, once reminded me: the world is small—it’s easier than ever before to connect with other researchers.

It can also be helpful to keep in mind that your community can be large or small. As some athletes train in large camps consisting of many runners, others have small training groups, such as the three Ingebrigtsen brothers . Likewise, your community could be a whole philosophy department or several close friends. You can also mix it up. As an introvert, I enjoyed my relatively small consistent community, but I also benefitted from attending annual regional philosophy conferences where I could see the same folks each year. And I especially enjoyed developing relationships with other international researchers interested in Aristotelian philosophy of mind at a summer school hosted by the University of Oxford in Naples, which Marmodoro directed. For a brief period, we all stayed in a small villa and talked about hylomorphism all day, each day, while enjoying delicious Italian food.

Whatever your community looks like, whatever shape it takes, what matters is that you’re encouraged toward accomplishing your academic goal.

(2) Know your goal. Like writing a dissertation, becoming a good distance runner requires a lot of tedious and monotonous work. If you don’t have a clear goal of what you want to achieve, you won’t get up early, lace up your running shoes, and enter the frosty morning air as you take the first of many steps in your morning run. There are, after all, more enticing and perhaps even more pressing things to do. Similarly, if you don’t have a clear goal of when you want to finish your dissertation, it is easy to put off your daily writing for another day, which can easily become more distant into the future.

(3) Be realistic about your goal . While it is important to have a clear goal as a distance runner and as a doctoral researcher, it is important for your goal to be realistic. This means your goal should take into account the fact that you are human and therefore have both particular strengths and limitations. Everyone enters the sport of distance running with different strengths and weaknesses. When Diddy ran the city it would have been unrealistic for him to try to break the two-hour barrier in the marathon, as Eliud Kipchoge did . If Diddy made that his goal, he probably would have lost all hope in the first mile of the marathon and never finished. Because he set a more realistic goal of breaking four hours, not two hours, he paced himself accordingly and actually finished.

The parent of two young children who is teaching part-time can certainly finish a dissertation. But the parent will have a greater likelihood of doing so with a reasonable goal that fits that individual’s strengths and limitations. If the parent expects to finish on the same timescale as someone who is single with no children nor teaching responsibilities, this will likely lead to disappointment and less motivation in the middle of the process. Motivation will remain higher, and correspondingly so will productivity that is fueled by motivation, if one’s goal is realistic and achievable.

Another element of having a realistic goal is being willing to adapt the goal as your circumstances change. Sometimes a runner might enter a race expecting to place in the top five and midway through the race realize that she has a great chance of winning (consider, for example, Des Linden’s victory at the Boston Marathon ). At that point, it would be wise to revise one’s goal to be ‘win the race’ rather than simply placing in the top five. At other times, a runner might expect to win the race or be on the podium and midway realize that is no longer possible. Yet, if she is nevertheless within striking distance of placing in the top five, then she can make that her new goal, which is realistic given her current situation and will therefore sustain her motivation to the finish line. Sara Hall, who could have and wanted to crack the top three, held on for fifth at the World Championships marathon because she adjusted her goal midrace.

The PhD candidate who initially plans to finish her dissertation in three years but then finds herself in the midst of a pandemic or dealing with a medical issue or a family crisis may not need to give up on her goal of finishing her dissertation. Perhaps, she only needs to revise her goal so that it allows more time, so she finishes in five years rather than three. A PhD finished in five years is certainly more valuable than no PhD.

(4) Know why you want to achieve your goal . My high school cross-country coach, Mr. Steiner, once gave me a book about distance running entitled “Motivation is the Name of the Game.” It is one of those books you don’t really need to read because the main takeaway is in the title. Distance running requires much-delayed gratification—you must do many things that are not intrinsically enjoyable (such as running itself, ice baths, going to bed early, etc.) in order to achieve success. If you don’t have a solid reason for why you want to achieve your running goal, you won’t do the numerous things you do not want to do but must do to achieve your goal. The same is true for finishing a PhD. Therefore, it is important to know the reason(s) why you want to finish your dissertation and why you want a PhD.

As a side note, it can also be immensely helpful to choose a dissertation topic that you are personally very interested in, rather than a topic that will simply make you more employable. Of course, being employable is something many of us must consider. Yet, if you pick a topic that is so boring to you that you have significant difficulty finding the motivation to finish your dissertation, then picking an “employable dissertation topic” will be anything but employable.

(5) Prioritize your goal . “Be selfish” were the words of exhortation my college cross-country team heard from our coaches before we returned home for Christmas break. As someone who teaches ethics courses, I feel compelled to clarify that “be selfish” is not typically good advice. However, to be fair to my coaches, the realistic point they were trying to convey was that at home we would be surrounded by family and friends who may not fully understand our running goals and what it takes to accomplish them. For example, during my first Christmas break home from college, I was trying to run eighty miles per week. Because I was trying to fit these miles into my social schedule without much compromise, many of these miles were run in freezing temps, in the dark, on concrete sidewalks with streetlights, rather than dirt trails. After returning to campus following the holidays, I raced my first indoor track race with a terribly sore groin, which an MRI scan soon revealed was due to a stress fracture in my femur. I learned the hard way that I have limits to what I can do, which entails I must say “no thanks” to some invitations, even though that may appear selfish to some.

A PhD researcher writing a dissertation has a substantial goal before her. Yet, many people writing a dissertation have additional responsibilities, such as teaching, being a loving spouse, a faithful friend, or a present parent. As I was teaching while writing my dissertation, I often heard the mantra “put students first.” Yet, I knew if I prioritized my current students over and above finishing my dissertation, I would, like many, never finish my dissertation. However, I knew it would be best for my future students to be taught by an expert who has earned a PhD. So, I put my future students first by prioritizing finishing my PhD . This meant that I had to limit the teaching responsibilities I took on. Now, my current students are benefitting from my decision, as they are taught by an expert in my field.

While prioritizing your dissertation can mean putting it above some things in life, it also means putting it below other things. A friend once told me he would fail in a lot of areas in life before he fails as a father, which is often what it means to practically prioritize one goal above another. Prioritizing family and close friendships need not mean that you say ‘yes’ to every request, but that you intentionally build consistent time into your schedule to foster relationships with the people closest to you. For me, this practically meant not working past 6:00pm on weekdays and taking weekends off to hang out with family and friends. This relieved pressure, because I knew that if something went eschew with my plan to finish my PhD, I would still have the people in my life who I care most about. I could then work toward my goal without undue anxiety about the possibility of failing and the loss that would entail. I was positively motivated by the likely prospect that I would, in time, finish my PhD, and be able to celebrate it with others who supported me along the way.

(6) Just start writing . Yesterday morning, it was five degrees below freezing when I did my morning run. I wanted to skip my run and go straight to my heated office. So, I employed a veteran distance running trick to successfully finish my run. I went out the door and just started running. That is the hardest part, and once I do it, 99.9% of the time I finish my run.

You may not know what exactly you think about a specific topic in the chapter you need to write, nor what you are going to write each day. But perhaps the most simple and helpful dissertation advice I ever received was from David Horner, who earned his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford. He told me: “just start writing.” Sometimes PhD researchers think they must have all their ideas solidified in their mind before they start writing their dissertation. In fact, writing your dissertation can actually help clarify what you think. So “just start writing” is not only simple but also sage advice.

(7) Never write a dissertation . No great marathoner focuses on running 26.2 miles. Great distance runners are masters of breaking up major goals into smaller goals and then focusing on accomplishing one small goal at a time, until they have achieved the major goal. Philosophers can understand this easily, as we take small, calculated steps through minor premises that support major premises to arrive at an overall conclusion in an argument.

Contained within each chapter of a dissertation is a premise(s) in an overall argument and individual sections can contain sub-premises supporting the major premise of each chapter. When you first start out as a doctoral researcher working on your dissertation, you have to construct an outline of your dissertation that maps out the various chapters and how they will relate to your overall conclusion. Once you have that outline in place, keep it in the back of your mind. But do not focus on writing the whole, which would be overwhelming and discouraging. Rather, focus on writing whichever chapter you are working on. The fastest American marathoner, Ryan Hall, wrote a book that sums up the only way to run long distances in the title Run the Mile You’re In . And Galen Rupp discusses in this interview how he mentally breaks up a marathon into segments and focuses on just finishing one segment at a time. Whatever chapter you’re writing, make it your goal to write that chapter. Once you’ve accomplished that goal, set a new goal: write the next chapter. Repeat that process several times and you will be halfway through your dissertation. Repeat the process a few more times, and you will be done.

By the time you have finished a master’s degree, you have written many chapter-length papers. To finish a dissertation, you essentially write about eight interconnected papers, one at a time, just as you have done many times before. If you just write the chapter (which you could call a “paper” if that feels like a lighter load) you’re writing, before you know it, you will have written a dissertation.

(8) Harness the power of habits . Becoming a great distance runner requires running an inordinate number of miles, which no one has the willpower to do. The best marathoners in the world regularly run well over one hundred miles a week, in addition to stretching, lifting weights, taking ice baths, and eating healthy. Not even the most tough-minded distance runner has the gumption to make all the individual decisions that would be required in order to get out the door for every run and climb into every ice bath apart from the development of habits. The most reliable way around each distance runner’s weakness of will, or akrasia , is developing and employing habits. The same can be true for writing.

If you simply try to write a little bit each weekday around the same time, you will develop a habit of writing at that time each day. Once you have that habit, the decision to write each weekday at that time will require less and less willpower over time. Eventually, it will take some willpower to not write at that time. I have found it helpful to develop the routine of freewriting for a few minutes just before starting my daily writing session of thirty minutes during which I write new content, before working on editing or revising existing content for about thirty minutes. My routine helped me develop the daily habit of writing, which removes the daily decision to write, as I “just do it” (to use Nike’s famous line) each day.

I have also found it helpful to divide my days up according to routines. As a morning person, I do well writing and researching in the morning, doing teaching prep and teaching during the middle of the day, and then doing mundane tasks such as email at the end of the day.

(9) Write for today and for tomorrow . Successful distance runners train for two reasons. One reason—to win upcoming races—is obvious. However, in addition to training for upcoming races, the successful distance runner trains today for the training that they want to be capable of months and years ahead. You cannot simply jump into running eighty, ninety, or one-hundred-mile weeks. It takes time to condition your body to sustain the stress of running high mileage weeks. A runner must have a long-term perspective and plan ahead as she works toward her immediate goals on the way to achieving her long-term goals. Similarly, for the PhD researcher, writing a dissertation lays the groundwork for future success.

For one, if the PhD candidate develops healthy, sustainable, productive habits while writing a dissertation, these habits can be continued once they land an academic job. It is no secret that the initial years on the job market, or in a new academic position, can be just as (or more) challenging than finishing a PhD. Effective habits developed while writing a dissertation can be invaluable during such seasons, allowing one to continue researching and writing even with more responsibilities and less time.

It is also worth noting that there is a sense in which research writing becomes easier, as one becomes accustomed to the work. A distance runner who has been running for decades, logging thousands of miles throughout their career, can run relatively fast without much effort. For example, my college roommate, Travis Boyd, decided to set the world record for running a half marathon pushing a baby stroller nearly a decade after we ran for the University of Washington. His training was no longer what it once was during our collegiate days. Nevertheless, his past training made it much easier for him to set the record, even though his focus had shifted to his full-time business career and being a present husband and father of two. I once asked my doctoral supervisors, Nikk Effingham and Jussi Suikkanen, how they were able to publish so much. They basically said it gets easier, as the work you have done in the past contributes to your future publications. Granted, not everyone is going to finish their PhD and then become a research super human like Liz Jackson , who finished her PhD in 2019, and published four articles that same year, three the next, and six the following year. Nevertheless, writing and publishing does become easier as you gain years of experience.

(10) Go running . As Cal Newport discusses in Deep Work , having solid boundaries around the time we work is conducive for highly effective academic work. And there is nothing more refreshing while dissertating than an athletic hobby with cognitive benefits . So, perhaps the best way to dissertate like a distance runner is to stop writing and go for a run.

Acknowledgments : Thanks are due to Aryn Owen and Jaden Anderson for their constructive feedback on a prior draft of this post.

• Matthew Owen

Matthew Owen (PhD, University of Birmingham) is a faculty member in the philosophy department at Yakima Valley College in Washington State. He is also an affiliate faculty member at the Center for Consciousness Science, University of Michigan. Matthew’s latest book is Measuring the Immeasurable Mind: Where Contemporary Neuroscience Meets the Aristotelian Tradition .

• Dissertating
• Finishing your PhD
• graduate students
• Sabrina D. MisirHiralall

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How Long Does It Take to Get a Ph.D. Degree?

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Earning a Ph.D. from a U.S. grad school typically requires nearly six years, federal statistics show.

(CAIAIMAGE/TOM MERTON/GETTY IMAGES)

A Ph.D. is most appropriate for someone who is a “lifelong learner.” 

Students who have excelled within a specific academic discipline and who have a strong interest in that field may choose to pursue a Ph.D. degree. However, Ph.D. degree-holders urge prospective students to think carefully about whether they truly want or need a doctoral degree, since Ph.D. programs last for multiple years.

According to the Survey of Earned Doctorates, a census of recent research doctorate recipients who earned their degree from U.S. institutions, the median amount of time it took individuals who received their doctorates in 2017 to complete their program was 5.8 years. However, there are many types of programs that typically take longer than six years to complete, such as humanities and arts doctorates, where the median time for individuals to earn their degree was 7.1 years, according to the survey.

Some Ph.D. candidates begin doctoral programs after they have already obtained master’s degrees, which means the time spent in grad school is a combination of the time spent pursuing a master’s and the years invested in a doctorate. In order to receive a Ph.D. degree, a student must produce and successfully defend an original academic dissertation, which must be approved by a dissertation committtee. Writing and defending a dissertation is so difficult that many Ph.D. students drop out of their Ph.D. programs having done most of the work necessary for degree without completing the dissertation component. These Ph.D. program dropouts often use the phrase “ all but dissertation ” or the abbreviation “ABD” on their resumes.

According to a comprehensive study of  Ph.D. completion rates  published by The Council of Graduate Schools in 2008, only 56.6% of people who begin Ph.D. programs earn Ph.D. degrees.

Ian Curtis, a founding partner with H&C Education, an educational and admissions consulting firm, who is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in French at Yale University , says there are several steps involved in the process of obtaining a Ph.D. Students typically need to fulfill course requirements and pass comprehensive exams, Curtis warns. “Once these obligations have been completed, how long it takes you to write your dissertation depends on who you are, how you work, what field you’re in and what other responsibilities you have in life,” he wrote in an email. Though some Ph.D. students can write a dissertation in a single year, that is rare, and the dissertation writing process may last for several years, Curtis says.

[ READ: What Is a Doctorate or a Doctoral Degree?  ]

Curtis adds that the level of support a Ph.D. student receives from an academic advisor or faculty mentor can be a key factor in determining the length of time it takes to complete a Ph.D. program. “Before you decide to enroll at a specific program, you’ll want to meet your future advisor,” Curtis advises. “Also, reach out to his or her current and former students to get a sense of what he or she is like to work with.”

Curtis also notes that if there is a gap between the amount of time it takes to complete a Ph.D. and the amount of time a student’s funding lasts, this can slow down the Ph.D. completion process. “Keep in mind that if you run out of funding at some point during your doctorate, you will need to find paid work, and this will leave you even less time to focus on writing your dissertation,” he says. “If one of the programs you’re looking at has a record of significantly longer – or shorter – times to competition, this is good information to take into consideration.”

Pierre Huguet, the CEO and co-founder of H&C Education, says prospective Ph.D. students should be aware that a Ph.D. is designed to prepare a person for a career as a scholar. “Most of the jobs available to Ph.D. students upon graduation are academic in nature and directly related to their fields of study: professor, researcher, etc.,” Huguet wrote in an email. “The truth is that more specialization can mean fewer job opportunities. Before starting a Ph.D., students should be sure that they want to pursue a career in academia, or in research. If not, they should make time during the Ph.D. to show recruiters that they’ve traveled beyond their labs and libraries to gain some professional hands-on experience.”

Jack Appleman, a business writing instructor, published author and Ph.D. candidate focusing on organizational communication with the  University at Albany—SUNY , says Ph.D. programs require a level of commitment and focus that goes beyond what is necessary for a typical corporate job. A program with flexible course requirements that allow a student to customize his or her curriculum based on academic interests and personal obligations is ideal, he says.

[ READ: Ph.D. Programs Get a Lot More Practical.  ]

Joan Kee, a professor at the University of Michigan  with the university’s history of art department, says that the length of time required for a Ph.D. varies widely depending on what subject the Ph.D. focuses on. “Ph.D. program length is very discipline and even field-specific; for example, you can and are expected to finish a Ph.D, in economics in under five years, but that would be impossible in art history (or most of the humanities),” she wrote in an email.

Jean Marie Carey, who earned her Ph.D. degree in art history and German from the  University of Otago  in New Zealand, encourages prospective Ph.D. students to check whether their potential Ph.D. program has published a timeline of how long it takes a Ph.D. student to complete their program. She says it is also prudent to speak with Ph.D. graduates of the school and ask about their experience.

Bennett urges prospective Ph.D. students to visit the campuses of their target graduate programs since a Ph.D. program takes so much time that it is important to find a school that feels comfortable. She adds that aspiring Ph.D. students who prefer a collaborative learning environment should be wary of graduate programs that have a cut-throat and competitive atmosphere, since such students may not thrive in that type of setting.

[ READ: 4 Fields Where Doctorates Lead to Jobs.  ]

Alumni of Ph.D. programs note that the process of obtaining a Ph.D. is arduous, regardless of the type of Ph.D. program. “A Ph.D. is a long commitment of your time, energy and financial resources, so it’ll be easier on you if you are passionate about research,” says Grace Lee, who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience and is the founder and CEO of Mastery Insights, an education and career coaching company, and the host of the Career Revisionist podcast.

“A Ph.D. isn’t about rehashing years of knowledge that is already out there, but rather it is about your ability to generate new knowledge. Your intellectual masterpiece (which is your dissertation) takes a lot of time, intellectual creativity and innovation to put together, so you have to be truly passionate about that,” Lee says.

Erin Skelly, a graduate admissions counselor at the IvyWise admissions consulting firm, says when a Ph.D. students struggles to complete his or her Ph.D. degree, it may have more to do with the student’s academic interests or personal circumstances than his or her program.

“The time to complete a Ph.D. can depend on a number of variables, but the specific discipline or school would only account for a year or two’s difference,” she wrote in an email. “When a student takes significantly longer to complete a Ph.D. (degree), it’s usually related to the student’s coursework and research – they need to take additional coursework to complete their comprehensive exams; they change the focus of their program or dissertation, requiring extra coursework or research; or their research doesn’t yield the results they hoped for, and they need to generate a new theory and conduct more research.”

Skelly warns that the average completion time of a Ph.D. program may be misleading in some cases, if the average is skewed based on one or two outliers. She suggests that instead of focusing on the duration of a particular Ph.D. program, prospective students should investigate the program’s attritition and graduation rates.

“It is worthwhile to look at the program requirements and the school’s proposed timeline for completion, and meet current students to get their input on how realistic these expectations for completion are,” Skelly says. “That can give you an honest idea of how long it will really take to complete the program.”

Searching for a grad school? Access our  complete rankings  of Best Graduate Schools.

How Long Does It Take to Get a Ph.D. Degree?

Earning a Ph.D. from a U.S. grad school typically requires nearly six years, federal statistics show.

How Long It Takes to Get a Ph.D. Degree

Caiaimage | Tom Merton | Getty Images

A Ph.D. is most appropriate for someone who is a "lifelong learner."

Students who have excelled within a specific academic discipline and who have a strong interest in that field may choose to pursue a Ph.D. degree. However, Ph.D. degree-holders urge prospective students to think carefully about whether they truly want or need a doctoral degree, since Ph.D. programs last for multiple years.

According to the Survey of Earned Doctorates, a census of recent research doctorate recipients who earned their degree from U.S. institutions, the median amount of time it took individuals who received their doctorates in 2017 to complete their program was 5.8 years. However, there are many types of programs that typically take longer than six years to complete, such as humanities and arts doctorates, where the median time for individuals to earn their degree was 7.1 years, according to the survey.

Some Ph.D. candidates begin doctoral programs after they have already obtained master's degrees, which means the time spent in grad school is a combination of the time spent pursuing a master's and the years invested in a doctorate. In order to receive a Ph.D. degree, a student must produce and successfully defend an original academic dissertation, which must be approved by a dissertation committtee. Writing and defending a dissertation is so difficult that many Ph.D. students drop out of their Ph.D. programs having done most of the work necessary for degree without completing the dissertation component. These Ph.D. program dropouts often use the phrase " all but dissertation " or the abbreviation "ABD" on their resumes.

According to a comprehensive study of Ph.D. completion rates published by The Council of Graduate Schools in 2008, only 56.6% of people who begin Ph.D. programs earn Ph.D. degrees.

Ian Curtis, a founding partner with H&C Education, an educational and admissions consulting firm, who is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in French at Yale University , says there are several steps involved in the process of obtaining a Ph.D. Students typically need to fulfill course requirements and pass comprehensive exams, Curtis warns. "Once these obligations have been completed, how long it takes you to write your dissertation depends on who you are, how you work, what field you're in and what other responsibilities you have in life," he wrote in an email. Though some Ph.D. students can write a dissertation in a single year, that is rare, and the dissertation writing process may last for several years, Curtis says.

Curtis adds that the level of support a Ph.D. student receives from an academic advisor or faculty mentor can be a key factor in determining the length of time it takes to complete a Ph.D. program. "Before you decide to enroll at a specific program, you’ll want to meet your future advisor," Curtis advises. "Also, reach out to his or her current and former students to get a sense of what he or she is like to work with."

Curtis also notes that if there is a gap between the amount of time it takes to complete a Ph.D. and the amount of time a student's funding lasts, this can slow down the Ph.D. completion process. "Keep in mind that if you run out of funding at some point during your doctorate, you will need to find paid work, and this will leave you even less time to focus on writing your dissertation," he says. "If one of the programs you’re looking at has a record of significantly longer – or shorter – times to competition, this is good information to take into consideration."

He adds that prospective Ph.D. students who already have master's degrees in the field they intend to focus their Ph.D. on should investigate whether the courses they took in their master's program would count toward the requirements of a Ph.D. program. "You’ll want to discuss your particular situation with your program to see whether this will be possible, and how many credits you are likely to receive as the result of your master’s work," he says.

How to Write M.D.-Ph.D. Application Essays

Ilana Kowarski May 15, 2018

Emmanuel C. Nwaodua, who has a Ph.D. degree in geology, says some Ph.D. programs require candidates to publish a paper in a first-rate, peer-reviewed academic journal. "This could extend your stay by a couple of years," he warns.

Pierre Huguet, the CEO and co-founder of H&C Education, says prospective Ph.D. students should be aware that a Ph.D. is designed to prepare a person for a career as a scholar. "Most of the jobs available to Ph.D. students upon graduation are academic in nature and directly related to their fields of study: professor, researcher, etc.," Huguet wrote in an email. "The truth is that more specialization can mean fewer job opportunities. Before starting a Ph.D., students should be sure that they want to pursue a career in academia, or in research. If not, they should make time during the Ph.D. to show recruiters that they’ve traveled beyond their labs and libraries to gain some professional hands-on experience."

Jack Appleman, a business writing instructor, published author and Ph.D. candidate focusing on organizational communication with the University at Albany—SUNY , says Ph.D. programs require a level of commitment and focus that goes beyond what is necessary for a typical corporate job. A program with flexible course requirements that allow a student to customize his or her curriculum based on academic interests and personal obligations is ideal, he says.

Joan Kee, a professor at the University of Michigan with the university's history of art department, says that the length of time required for a Ph.D. varies widely depending on what subject the Ph.D. focuses on. "Ph.D. program length is very discipline and even field-specific; for example, you can and are expected to finish a Ph.D, in economics in under five years, but that would be impossible in art history (or most of the humanities)," she wrote in an email.

Kee adds that humanities Ph.D. programs often require someone to learn a foreign language, and "fields like anthropology and art history require extensive field research." Kee says funding for a humanities Ph.D. program typically only lasts five years, even though it is uncommon for someone to obtain a Ph.D. degree in a humanities field within that time frame. "Because of this, many if not most Ph.D. students must work to make ends meet, thus further prolonging the time of completion," she says.

Jean Marie Carey, who earned her Ph.D. degree in art history and German from the University of Otago in New Zealand, encourages prospective Ph.D. students to check whether their potential Ph.D. program has published a timeline of how long it takes a Ph.D. student to complete their program. She says it is also prudent to speak with Ph.D. graduates of the school and ask about their experience.

Online Doctoral Programs: What to Expect

Ronald Wellman March 23, 2018

Kristin Redington Bennett, the founder of the Illumii educational consulting firm in North Carolina, encourages Ph.D. hopefuls to think carefully about whether they want to become a scholar. Bennett, who has a Ph.D. in curriculum and assessment and who previously worked as an assistant professor at Wake Forest University , says a Ph.D. is most appropriate for someone who is a "lifelong learner." She says someone contemplating a Ph.D. should ask themselves the following questions "Are you a very curious person... and are you persistent?"

Bennett urges prospective Ph.D. students to visit the campuses of their target graduate programs since a Ph.D. program takes so much time that it is important to find a school that feels comfortable. She adds that aspiring Ph.D. students who prefer a collaborative learning environment should be wary of graduate programs that have a cut-throat and competitive atmosphere, since such students may not thrive in that type of setting.

Alumni of Ph.D. programs note that the process of obtaining a Ph.D. is arduous, regardless of the type of Ph.D. program. "A Ph.D. is a long commitment of your time, energy and financial resources, so it'll be easier on you if you are passionate about research," says Grace Lee, who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience and is the founder and CEO of Mastery Insights, an education and career coaching company, and the host of the Career Revisionist podcast.

"A Ph.D. isn't about rehashing years of knowledge that is already out there, but rather it is about your ability to generate new knowledge. Your intellectual masterpiece (which is your dissertation) takes a lot of time, intellectual creativity and innovation to put together, so you have to be truly passionate about that," Lee says.

Curtis says a prospective Ph.D. student's enthusiasm for academic work, teaching and research are the key criteria they should use to decide whether to obtain a Ph.D. degree. "While the time it takes to complete a doctorate is an understandable concern for many, my personal belief is that time is not the most important factor to consider," he says. "Good Ph.D. programs provide their students with generous stipends, health care and sometimes even subsidized housing."

Erin Skelly, a graduate admissions counselor at the IvyWise admissions consulting firm, says when a Ph.D. students struggles to complete his or her Ph.D. degree, it may have more to do with the student's academic interests or personal circumstances than his or her program.

"The time to complete a Ph.D. can depend on a number of variables, but the specific discipline or school would only account for a year or two's difference," she wrote in an email. "When a student takes significantly longer to complete a Ph.D. (degree), it's usually related to the student's coursework and research – they need to take additional coursework to complete their comprehensive exams; they change the focus of their program or dissertation, requiring extra coursework or research; or their research doesn't yield the results they hoped for, and they need to generate a new theory and conduct more research."

Skelly warns that the average completion time of a Ph.D. program may be misleading in some cases, if the average is skewed based on one or two outliers. She suggests that instead of focusing on the duration of a particular Ph.D. program, prospective students should investigate the program's attritition and graduation rates.

"It is worthwhile to look at the program requirements and the school's proposed timeline for completion, and meet current students to get their input on how realistic these expectations for completion are," Skelly says. "That can give you an honest idea of how long it will really take to complete the program."

Searching for a grad school? Access our complete rankings of Best Graduate Schools.

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• How Long Does A PhD Take?
• Doing a PhD

Sometimes, just knowing how long a PhD takes can be enough to sway your decision on whether a research degree is for you. So with that in mind, exactly how long does a PhD take?

In the UK, a full-time PhD takes 3 to 4 years to finish whilst a part-time PhD takes twice as long at 6 to 7 years. Alongside these average durations, there are time limits on how long you can be enrolled on to a PhD programme. To discover these limits, the factors which most influence doctoral degree durations and how the UK durations compare to international PhDs, continue reading on.

How Long Does It Take to Get a Full-time PhD?

In the UK, a full-time PhD will typically take you 3 to 4 years. You will usually spend the first three years on the technical aspects of your doctorate. This includes undertaking independent research, designing your research methodology and collecting and analysing data. You will then spend an additional academic year on writing up your PhD thesis and sitting your viva.

How Long Does It Take to Get a Part-time PhD?

In the UK, a part-time PhD will typically take you 6 to 7 years; twice as long as doing a full-time PhD. The reason for this is that as a part-time PhD student, you would dedicate around 20 hours per week to your PhD as opposed to the typical 40 hours full-time students would put into their subject.

How Long Does a Distance Learning PhD Take?

Similarly, distance learning PhD’s take an average of 6 to 7 years to complete. This is because the vast majority of students who undertake a distance learning PhD do so because they can’t relocate closer to the university. Although these commitments will differ, they often mean the student isn’t able to dedicate 40 hours per week to their studies.

Students in STEM disciplines will often take longer to finish a distance learning doctorate degree than those in non-STEM disciplines. This because the progress of a STEM PhD student will be limited by how often they can access a laboratory for experiment work.

How Does Funding Impact a PhD’s Duration?

In reality, the actual time it will take you to complete your PhD degree will depend on your funding situation.

If you’re receiving  funding , it will usually only cover you for 3.5 years if you’re studying full-time or for 7 years at half the stipend if you’re studying part-time. Although this could vary slightly, most PhD funding providers, e.g. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), follow this timescale as indicated on their ‘ length of PhD studentships’ page. Because of this, most students who obtain scholarships try to complete their PhD within the timeframe of their funding so they don’t incur additional fees which they need to cover themselves.

It’s also worth noting that some funded PhD positions have additional conditions attached to them as part of their eligibility requirements. For example, they may require teaching undergraduate students, hosting laboratory sessions or attend presentations and conferences. This will be especially true if you’re on a Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA). Although these shouldn’t add considerable time to the length of a PhD programme, they have the potential to do so if they aren’t managed properly.

As self-funded students cover their own annual tuition fees and other associated costs, how long they’ll spend to complete their PhD project will largely depend on their own personal financial situation. Because of this, most self-funded PhD students find it best to complete their PhD study in the shortest time-frame they can manage.

Are There Deadlines?

Yes – unfortunately, all good things must come to an end! Within the UK, the deadline for your PhD is defined as the last date which you must submit your final thesis by. This date is set by your university’s overall regulations and varies depending on the arrangements of your PhD, e.g. whether it’s full or part time. In the vast majority of cases, the adopted deadlines are four years for full-time PhDs and seven years for part-time PhDs from the date you were officially registered onto your programme, as shown below from the University of Leicester’s registration guidance page .

This time-frame may vary from university to university. For example, the University of Sheffield adopts an additional year for part-time PhDs as shown below.

Can I Complete It Faster?

Although it’s possible to complete a full-time PhD in under 3 years, it’s a significant feat that’s rarely heard of. When these feats occur, they’re usually where the doctoral student already has extensive knowledge and experience in their field before undertaking their PhD.

Whilst it’s possible to complete a part-time PhD in under 6 years, it largely depends on your commitments outside your studies. For example, if you have a part-time career alongside your PhD, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to commit the additional hours required to complete your doctorate a year faster.

However, if instead of a steady part-time job you take on occasional work as a freelancer, you’ll be able to set aside many more hours towards your doctoral degree.

Will Having only A Bachelor’s Degree or Being an International Student Limit My Rate of Progression?

Not at all. While there are benefits to having a Master’s degree such as an additional year of learning and greater research experience due to your fourth-year dissertation project, this doesn’t mean not having one would limit you. A PhD is very different to both Bachelor and Master degrees due to being heavily research-based, therefore, both types of students will have just as much to learn on their way to completing their doctorate.

Similarly, whether you’re an international student will bear no influence on the duration of your PhD.

Finding a PhD has never been this easy – search for a PhD by keyword, location or academic area of interest.

How Does This Compare to the Duration of EU and US PhDs?

PhD hosted by universities within the EU, such as those in France, Norway and Spain, have the same programme structure as those within the UK. As a result, there are no noticeable differences in the time to complete a doctorate between UK and EU institutions.

However, this is not the case in the US. Compared to PhDs conducted within the UK or EU, PhDs conducted within the US take considerably longer to obtain. According to a  2017 study conducted by the National Science Foundation, a US government agency which supports research and higher education, the average time to get a PhD within the US is 5.8 years. Besides this, the average completion time can further increase depending on the disciplines. For example, they found doctorates within the humanities and arts to take an average of 7.1 years to achieve.

The primary reason for this difference is the way PhD degrees are structured within the United States. As mentioned previously, PhDs conducted within UK and EU universities are essentially broken into two sections – one covering the analytical aspects and the other covering the writing up aspects. However, within the US, doctorate programmes comprise additional sections. PhD students are first required to undertake 2 to 3 years of courses, which cover a broad range of topics related to their schools’ discipline. This is then followed by coursework and several examinations, which only once passed can the PhD candidate then start working on their research project and dissertation.

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How Long Does It Take to Earn a PhD?

Cece Gilmore is a Content Writer at Scholarships360. Cece earned her undergraduate degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from Arizona State University. While at ASU, she was the education editor as well as a published staff reporter at Downtown Devil. Cece was also the co-host of her own radio show on Blaze Radio ASU.

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Cari Schultz is an Educational Review Board Advisor at Scholarships360, where she reviews content featured on the site. For over 20 years, Cari has worked in college admissions (Baldwin Wallace University, The Ohio State University, University of Kentucky) and as a college counselor (Columbus School for Girls).

Maria Geiger is Director of Content at Scholarships360. She is a former online educational technology instructor and adjunct writing instructor. In addition to education reform, Maria’s interests include viewpoint diversity, blended/flipped learning, digital communication, and integrating media/web tools into the curriculum to better facilitate student engagement. Maria earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from Monmouth University, an M. Ed. in Education from Monmouth University, and a Virtual Online Teaching Certificate (VOLT) from the University of Pennsylvania.

How long is a PhD program? That might be one of the first questions you ask yourself If you are thinking of earning a PhD. You have probably heard a range of years, and that is because how long it takes to earn a PhD depends on a number of factors. Keep reading to learn more!! 

What is a PhD? 

PhD stands for a “Doctorate of Philosophy.” This is an academic degree that qualifies the degree holder to teach their chosen subject at university level or to work in a specialized position in their chosen field. In general, the PhD is the highest level of degree a student can achieve. 

Also see: Top fully funded PhD programs

Why get a PhD? 

A PhD is a serious commitment with a serious return on investment. Here is a list of professional and personal benefits for earning a PhD. 

How long does it take to earn a PhD? 

Earning a PhD usually takes between four and seven years to complete, depending on the type of PhD as well as the schools requirements, the students educational background, and personal progress. Students who take full-time classes can typically finish in four years. A typical PhD program requires anywhere from 60 to 120 semester credit hours . 

Why earning a PhD takes years to earn

Assistantship obligations.

Teaching and research assistantships can be very beneficial for the experience they provide and the potential funding, but they can also be time consuming obligations for PhD students. Therefore, assistantships may affect the amount of time it takes to complete a PhD program. 

Comprehensive examinations

Universities often require students to demonstrate their readiness in a PhD program through comprehensive exams. These comprehensive exams may be known as: 

• Preliminary examinations
• Major field examinations
• Comprehensive exams or “Comps”
• General examinations

Dissertation

A dissertation is an in-depth research document that serves as the culmination of a doctoral program. It is an important document that demonstrates a student’s original research and contribution to their field of study. 

The dissertation involves conducting extensive research, reviewing previous literature, analyzing data, and presenting your findings in a structured manner. Once the dissertation is completed, it is typically defended orally in front of a committee of faculty members who assess the quality and validity of the research. 

Average PhD timeline

The specific of a PhD timeline carried by college and university. However, the following is a good overview of the average PhD program. 

• Year 1: Take advanced courses
• Year 2: Take advanced courses and begin preparing for exams
• Year 3: Study, take and defend your comprehensive exams and begin researching your dissertation proposal
• Year 4: Begin working on your dissertation
• Year 5: Finish and defend your dissertation 

Average PhD completion by focus

According to data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics the average time in years from graduate school entry to doctorate it took students to receive their degree in 2020 in certain fields is listed below. 

• Life sciences = 6.9 years
• Physical sciences and earth sciences = 6.3 years
• Mathematics and computer sciences = 7.0 years
• Psychology and social sciences = 7.9 years
• Engineering = 6.8 years
• Education = 12.0 years
• Humanities and arts = 9.6 years
• Other non-S&E fields = 9.3 years

Related : Top 10 PhD in Education programs

How to finish your PhD is less time

Look for accelerated classes.

Accelerated courses are an easy way to reduce the amount of time it takes to finish a PhD. Therefore, look into if your program offers any shorter courses. 

Work on your dissertation throughout the program

Working on your dissertation little by little throughout the program will allow you to speed up your doctoral timeline. In addition, it may reduce the likelihood that you’ll drop out before finishing your final project.

Maintain regular communication with your advisor

Establish regular communication with your advisor or supervisor. Regular meetings can help you receive guidance, address any issues, and ensure you are heading in the right direction.

Seek feedback early and often

Share your work and progress with your advisor, peers, or other trusted individuals often. Then, you should incorporate suggestions and revisions as you go along. This will help you refine your work and avoid major revisions later.  

Maintain a healthy school-life balance

While it is important to be dedicated to your PhD, it’s just as important to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Therefore, be sure to prioritize yourself! While finishing your PhD in less time is a great feat, it is important that you are not sacrificing your well-being while doing so.

Key Takeaways

• PhD stands for “doctorate of philosophy” and is generally the highest level of degree a student can earn
• There are many professional and personal benefits to earning a PhD which can lead to a serious return on investment
• A PhD program typically takes 4-7 years to complete. However, it can take longer or shorter depending on personal circumstances and field of study 
• With planning and guidance from advisors, students can sometimes complete PhDs in less time

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Frequently asked questions about how long it takes to earn a PhD 

Do i need to have a master’s degree to get a phd, what is the easiest phd to earn, can i finish my phd earlier than the estimated time frame, what happens if i don’t complete my phd within the expected timeframe, can i work while pursuing a phd, can i accelerate the process of earning a phd, scholarships360 recommended.

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Why I Left a PhD Program in Wildlife Biology and Became a Teacher

• First Online: 10 May 2024

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I am currently a retired teacher. I spent 35 full time years teaching science and math at various education levels, from high school to undergraduate university. I went to graduate school, but I lacked a passionate research interest and thus did not finish my PhD work. In this memoir-like chronology, I explain how my career developed and changed. Major factors that impacted my path include my family, my teachers, the economy, and baby boomer demographics. I hope that readers will empathize or sympathize with or otherwise enjoy my story.

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Furman, G.C. (2024). Why I Left a PhD Program in Wildlife Biology and Became a Teacher. In: Markovac, J., Barrett, K.E., Garrison, H. (eds) Life Science Careers. Perspectives in Physiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50694-9_20

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Elections today, delegate tracker, georgia, oregon, idaho and kentucky primaries 2024: live results and analysis, black astronauts say 90-year-old ed dwight's 1st trip to space was 'justice'.

"I needed to finish it," Dwight said.

Hours after his historic first trip to space, 90-year-old Ed Dwight sat among three retired Black NASA astronauts who thanked him for forging a path for them to go into orbit and called his voyage aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-25 spacecraft "justice."

More than six decades after President John F. Kennedy tapped him to be the nation's first Black astronaut candidate to the elite Aerospace Research Pilot School -- the Air Force program from which NASA astronauts were chosen -- Dwight finally accomplished on Sunday what he was denied all those years ago.

When he returned to Earth as the oldest person ever to travel to space, he was greeted and applauded by retired NASA astronauts and Space Shuttle veterans Leland Melvin, Charles Bolden and Bernard Harris who told him their achievements were only made possible by standing on his shoulders.

MORE: 'The Space Race' explores the history of the 1st Black astronauts

"Now we have justice in getting the history books filled with Ed Dwight flying into space and getting his justice," Melvin, who flew on two space missions aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, told ABC News.

Despite being appointed by Kennedy to the Aerospace Research Pilot School and recommended by the Air Force, Dwight was not chosen for the NASA astronaut corps in the aftermath of Kennedy’s assassination.

After entering private life in 1966, Dwight spent a decade as an entrepreneur before becoming a sculptor of historic Black figures. He told ABC News that after leaving the Air Force, he conceded he was haunted by the feeling of not being able to accomplish his goal of becoming an astronaut.

"Every time I started a project, I've got it finished. And here this thing came along and it was a great big mysterious question mark sitting there," Dwight said. "And so, the tendency for human beings in a situation like that is to blow it off and say you don't need it."

But he said as more and more supporters and fans encouraged him to seize the opportunity, he began "analyzing the necessity of bringing it up to the front of my brain."

"I found out that I did need that because I needed to finish it," Dwight said.

Dwight was one of six people who blasted off to space from the remote Texas desert on Sunday aboard the New Shepard. Dwight's flight was sponsored by the nonprofit Space for Humanity.

A retired Air Force captain, Dwight told ABC News that it wasn't the weightlessness from zero G-force gravity that he was most interested in, saying he had experienced plenty of that during his time training in the 1960s.

"I wanted to look outside," Dwight said. "I was told by several people that I respect that given the choice of being weightless for 10 minutes or something like that or looking, it was determined that looking was a hell of a lot more important to me because I'm a curious person."

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He added, "When you see something as magnanimous as this Earth is and you really pay attention to it, it's mind-boggling. I mean, it shakes up your head."

Dwight said the experience was life-altering and suggested that every elected leader to Congress be required to view Earth from space .

MORE: Blue Origin recap: William Shatner 'overwhelmed' by 'moving' trip to space

"If they were to fly around this globe two or three times they would see the necessity of this planet [being] unified and see what they're losing by destroying it," Dwight said.

Harris, who flew on two NASA Space Shuttle missions, said that as he watched Dwight finally achieve his goal, he thought of what doors might have been opened earlier for Black Americans had Dwight become an astronaut six decades ago.

"I dreamed of being an astronaut by looking at Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when I was 13 years old," Harris said. "What if Ed had actually flown? What a difference it would have made in my life because, during that time, I didn't see anyone that looked like me."

Turning to Dwight seated next to him, Harris said, "And so, to see you today lift off, we all cried. And we really appreciate what you did today and what you did for us years ago."

Bolden, who flew on four Space Shuttle missions before becoming the first Black Administrator of NASA, said seeing Dwight go to space "filled a hole."

"We really, really, really needed this," said Bolden, calling Dwight an example to young people that any goal can be achieved with "persistence."

Asked by ABC News what's left on his bucket list, Dwight laughed and said his space voyage was like "getting a taste of honey."

"I want a whole jar of that," Dwight said. "I'd like to go into orbit. That's what I'd like to do."

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PGA Championship Final Payouts: Xander Schauffele Cashes $3.3 Million for Title

John schwarb | may 19, 2024.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Golf's gold rush continues at the major championships. Xander Schauffele is the latest to cash in.

One month after the Masters boosted its purse from $18 million to a record $20 million, with $3.6 million to winner Scottie Scheffler , the PGA Championship also paid out a record amount this week, $3.3 million to its new champion.

The 78 players who made the cut divvy up $18.5 million, up $1 million from last year. Brooks Koepka took home $3.15 million for his win in 2023.

Runner-up Bryson DeChambeau earned just a shade under $2 million, with $1,998,000. Viktor Hovland took solo third and $1,258,000.

Here are the final payouts for the 2024 PGA Championship.

2024 PGA Championship Final Payouts

WIN: $3,330,000: Xander Schauffele

2: $1,998,000: Bryson DeChambeau

3: $1,258,000 - Viktor Hovland

4: $814,000 - Collin Morikawa, Thomas Detry

T6: $639,440 - Shane Lowry, Justin Rose

T8: $521,418 - Scottie Scheffler, Billy Horschel, Justin Thomas, Robert MacIntyre

T12: $359,943 - Rory McIlroy, Alex Noren, Taylor Moore, Dean Burmester, Lee Hodges, Sahith Theegala

T18: $230,764 - Ryo Hisatsune, Keegan Bradley, Austin Eckroat, Harris English, Tony Finau

T23: $170,137 - Russell Henley, Maverick McNealy, Tom Hoge

T26: $113,962 - Brooks Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood, Corey Conners, Brian Harman, Kurt Kitayama, Ben Kholes, Mark Hubbard, Min Woo Lee, Tom Kim

T35: $79,182 - Max Homa, Doug Ghim, Brice Garnett, Hideki Matsuyama,

T39: $66,847 - Jordan Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Alexander Bjork, Aaron Rai

T43: $48,969 - Dustin Johnson, Greyson Murray, Byeong-Hun An, Adam Svensson, Lucas Glover, Will Zalatoris, Jason Day, Matt Wallace, Jordan Spieth, Lucas Herbert

T53. $48,969 - Zac Blair, Thorbjorn Olesen, Patrick Reed, Jesper Svensson, Patrick Cantlay, Erik Van Rooyen, Andrew Putnam

T60. $27,016 - Gary Woodland, Adam Hadwin, Talor Gooch

T63. $25,202 - Tyrrell Hatton, Cameron Young, Rickie Fowler, S.H. Kim, Cameron Smith

T68. $23,538 - Nicolai Højgaard, Luke Donald, Rasmus Højgaard, Sebastian Söderberg

72. $22,830 - Braden Shattuck

T73. $22,560 - Alejandro Tosti, Martin Kaymer

75. $22,350 - Ryan Fox

76. $22,230 - Stephan Jaeger

77. $22,140 - Jeremy Wells

78. $22,100 - Brendon Todd

JOHN SCHWARB

John Schwarb is the Senior Editor of SI Golf. He has covered golf for the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times), PGATour.com and Visit Florida; and has also written for ESPN.com, The Golfers Journal and several magazines. He lives in Indianapolis and graduated from Indiana University.

Senators urge $32 billion in emergency spending on AI after finishing yearlong review

A bipartisan group of four senators led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is recommending that Congress spend at least $32 billion over the next three years to develop artificial intelligence and put safeguards around it

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of four senators led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is recommending that Congress spend at least $32 billion over the next three years to develop artificial intelligence and place safeguards around it, writing in a report released Wednesday that the U.S. needs to “harness the opportunities and address the risks” of the quickly developing technology.

The group of two Democrats and two Republicans said in an interview Tuesday that while they sometimes disagreed on the best paths forward, they felt it was imperative to find consensus with the technology taking off and other countries like China investing heavily in its development. They settled on a raft of broad policy recommendations that were included in their 33-page report.

While any legislation related to AI will be difficult to pass, especially in an election year and in a divided Congress, the senators said that regulation and incentives for innovation are urgently needed.

“It’s complicated, it’s difficult, but we can’t afford to put our head in the sand,” said Schumer, D-N.Y., who convened the group last year after AI chatbot ChatGPT entered the marketplace and showed that it could in many ways mimic human behavior.

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The group recommends in the report that Congress draft emergency spending legislation to boost U.S. investments in artificial intelligence, including new research and development and new testing standards to try to understand the potential harms of the technology. The group also recommended new requirements for transparency as artificial intelligence products are rolled out and that studies be conducted into the potential impact of AI on jobs and the U.S. workforce .

Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, a member of the group, said the money would be well spent not only to compete with other countries who are racing into the AI space but also to improve Americans’ quality of life — supporting technology that could help cure some cancers or chronic illnesses, he said, or improvements in weapons systems could help the country avoid a war.

“This is a time in which the dollars we put into this particular investment will pay dividends for the taxpayers of this country long term,” he said.

The group came together a year ago after Schumer made the issue a priority — an unusual posture for a majority leader — and brought in Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana and Rounds of South Dakota.

As the four senators began meeting with tech executives and experts, Schumer said in a speech over the summer that the rapid growth of artificial intelligence tools was a “moment of revolution” and that the government must act quickly to regulate companies that are developing it.

Young said the development of ChatGPT, along with other similar models, made them realize that “we’re going to have to figure out collectively as an institution” how to deal with the technology.

“In the same breath that people marveled at the possibilities of just that one generative AI platform, they began to hypothesize about future risks that might be associated with future developments of artificial intelligence,” Young said.

While passing legislation will be tough, the group’s recommendations lay out the first comprehensive road map on an issue that is complex and has little precedent for consideration in Congress. The group spent almost a year compiling the list of policy suggestions after talking privately and publicly to a range of technology companies and other stakeholders, including in eight forums to which the entire Senate was invited.

The first forum in September included X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Schumer said after the private meeting that he had asked everyone in the room — including almost two dozen tech executives, advocates and skeptics — whether government should have a role in the oversight of artificial intelligence, and “every single person raised their hand.”

Still, there are diverse views in the tech industry about the future of AI. Musk has voiced dire concerns evoking popular science fiction about the possibility of humanity losing control to advanced AI systems if the right safeguards are not in place. Others are more concerned about the details of how proposed regulations could affect their business, from possible government oversight over the most capable AI systems to tracking of highly sought-after AI computer chips for national security.

The four senators are pitching their recommendations to Senate committees, which are then tasked with reviewing them and trying to figure out what is possible. The Senate Rules Committee is already moving forward with legislation, on Wednesday approving three bills that would ban deceptive AI content used to influence federal elections, require AI disclaimers on political ads and create voluntary guidelines for state election offices that oversee candidates.

Schumer, who controls the Senate’s schedule, said those election bills were among the chamber’s “highest priorities” this year. He also said he planned to sit down with House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has expressed interest in looking at AI policy but has not said how he would do that.

Still, winning enough votes on the legislation may be not be easy. The bills that would ban deceptive AI election content and require AI disclaimers on political ads were approved by the Rules panel on party line votes, with no GOP support. Republicans argued that the legislation would usurp states that are already acting on the issue and potentially violate political candidates’ rights to free speech.

Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said that the rapid development of AI is a “hair on fire” moment for elections. And while states may be passing similar bills, she said the country is “unguarded on the federal level.”

Some experts warn that the U.S. is behind many other countries on the issue, including the EU which took the lead in March when they gave final approval to a sweeping new law governing artificial intelligence in the 27-nation bloc. Europe’s AI Act sets tighter rules for the AI products and services deemed to pose the highest risks, such as in medicine, critical infrastructure or policing. But it also includes provisions regulating the new class of generative AI systems like ChatGPT that have rapidly advanced in recent years.

“It’s time for Congress to act,” said Alexandra Reeve Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology. “It’s not enough to focus on investment and innovation. We need guardrails to ensure the responsible development of AI.”

Others said the senators’ road map wasn’t tough enough on tech companies. Some groups calling for tighter AI safeguards and civil rights protections said it showed too much deference to industry priorities.

Alix Dunn is a senior adviser at AI Now, a policy research center that pushes for more accountability around AI technology. She criticized the closed door sessions with tech CEOs. “I don’t see how it got us even an inch closer to meaningful government action on AI,” she said.

The senators emphasized balance between innovation and safeguards, and also the urgency of action.

“We have the lead at this moment in time on this issue, and it will define the relationship between the United States and our allies and other competing powers in the world for a long time to come,” Heinrich said.

O’Brien reported from Providence, R.I. Associated Press writer Dan Merica in Washington contributed to this report.

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2024 NBA playoffs bracket, schedule, scores, results: Pacers vs. Celtics in Game 1 as conference finals begin

Just four teams remain in the battle for the larry o'brien trophy.

The NBA playoffs continue Tuesday as the conference finals start with the Indiana Pacers visiting the Boston Celtics for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. On Wednesday, the Minnesota Timberwolves will host the Dallas Mavericks for the opening game of the Western Conference finals.

The reigning champion Denver Nuggets  exited the postseason on Sunday. Denver was stunned by the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 7 of their second-round series after the Wolves overcame a 20-point second-half deficit. No reigning champion has made it to the conference finals since the 2019 Warriors.

Earlier on Sunday, the Indiana Pacers ended the New York Knicks ' season with a Game 7 win at Madison Square Garden. The Pacers were down 2-0 and 3-2 in the second-round series against the Knicks, but were stellar offensively as they eliminated the banged-up Knicks from the playoffs. The Pacers are moving on to face the top-seeded Boston Celtics.

The Mavericks are in the Western Conference finals for the second time in three years after eliminating the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round. The Mavs won a nail-biting Game 6 on Saturday night to oust OKC.

The Celtics, meanwhile, are in their sixth Eastern Conference finals in the last eight seasons. The 64-win Celtics are the East's top seed and will have home-court advantage against the sixth-seeded Pacers.

The postseason field started with 20 teams, and now we're down to four. The Warriors , Kings , Hawks and Bulls were ousted in the Play-In Tournament before the Pelicans , Suns , Clippers , Lakers, Heat , 76ers , Bucks and Magic were eliminated in the first round. And now the Cavs, Thunder, Knicks and Nuggets have been sent home in the second round.

Here's a look at the upcoming schedule, as well as all the playoff scores. All games airing on ABC, ESPN and NBA TV are streaming on  fubo  (try for free).

Sundays playoff scores:

• Game 7: Pacers 130, Knicks 109 -- Indiana wins series 4-3
• Game 7: Timberwolves 98, Nuggets 90 -- Minnesota wins series 4-3

Below is a look at the complete playoff bracket.

2024 NBA playoff bracket

Upcoming NBA playoffs schedule

(All times Eastern)

Tuesday, May 21 Game 1: Celtics vs. Pacers, 8 p.m., ESPN/ fubo

Wednesday, May 22 Game 1: Timberwolves vs. Mavericks, 8:30 p.m., TNT

Thursday, May 23 Game 2: Celtics vs. Pacers, 8 p.m., ESPN/ fubo

Friday, May 24 Game 2: Timberwolves vs. Mavericks, 8:30 p.m., TNT

Saturday, May 25 Game 3: Pacers vs. Celtics, 8:30 p.m., ABC/ fubo

Sunday, May 26 Game 3: Mavericks vs. Timberwolves, 8 p.m., TNT

Monday, May 27 Game 4: Pacers vs. Celtics, 8 p.m., ESPN/ fubo

Tuesday, May 28 Game 4: Mavericks vs. Timberwolves, 8:30 p.m., TNT

Wednesday, May 29 Game 5*: Celtics vs. Pacers, 8 p.m., ESPN/ fubo

Thursday, May 30 Game 5*: Timberwolves vs. Mavericks, 8:30 p.m., TNT

Friday, May 31 Game 6*: Pacers vs. Celtics, 8 p.m., ESPN/ fubo

Saturday, June 1 Game 6*: Mavericks vs. Timberwolves, 8:30 p.m., TNT

Sunday, June 2 Game 7*: Celtics vs. Pacers, 8 p.m., ESPN/ fubo

Monday, June 3 Game 7*: Timberwolves vs. Mavericks, 8:30 p.m., TNT

Thursday, June 6 NBA Finals Game 1, 8:30 p.m., ABC/ fubo

Sunday, June 9 NBA Finals Game 2: 8 p.m., ABC/ fubo

Wednesday, June 12 NBA Finals Game 3: 8:30 p.m., ABC/ fubo

Friday, June 14 NBA Finals Game 4: 8:30 p.m., ABC/ fubo

Monday, June 17 NBA Finals Game 5*: 8:30 p.m., ABC/ fubo

Thursday, June 20 NBA Finals Game 6*: 8:30 p.m., ABC/ fubo

Sunday, June 23 NBA Finals Game 7*: 8 p.m., ABC/ fubo

NBA playoffs: Second-round scores

Celtics vs. Cavaliers Game 1: Celtics 120, Cavaliers 95 Game 2: Cavaliers 118, Celtics 94 Game 3: Celtics 106, Cavaliers 93 Game 4: Celtics 109, Cavaliers 102 Game 5: Celtics 113, Cavaliers 98 (Boston wins series 4-1)

Knicks vs. Pacers Game 1: Knicks 121, Pacers 117 Game 2: Knicks 130, Pacers 121 Game 3: Pacers 111, Knicks 106 Game 4: Pacers 121, Knicks 89 Game 5: Knicks 121, Pacers 91 Game 6: Pacers 116, Knicks 103 Game 7: Pacers 130, Knicks 109 (Indiana wins series 4-3)

Thunder vs. Mavericks Game 1: Thunder 117, Mavericks 95 Game 2: Mavericks 119, Thunder 110 Game 3: Mavericks 105, Thunder 101 Game 4: Thunder 100, Mavericks 96 Game 5: Mavericks 104, Thunder 92 Game 6: Mavericks 117, Thunder 116 (Dallas wins series 4-2)

Nuggets vs. Timberwolves Game 1: Timberwolves 106, Nuggets 99 Game 2: Timberwolves 106, Nuggets 80 Game 3: Nuggets 117, Timberwolves 90 Game 4: Nuggets 115, Timberwolves 107 Game 5: Nuggets 112, Timberwolves 97 Game 6: Timberwolves 115, Nuggets 70 Game 7: Timberwolves 98, Nuggets 90 (Minnesota wins series 4-3)

NBA playoffs: First-round scores

Celtics vs. Heat Game 1: Celtics 114, Heat 94 Game 2: Heat 111, Celtics 101 Game 3: Celtics 104, Heat 84 Game 4: Celtics 102, Heat 88 Game 5: Celtics 118, Heat 84 (Boston wins series 4-1)

Knicks vs. 76ers Game 1: Knicks 111, 76ers 104 Game 2: Knicks 104, 76ers 101 Game 3: 76ers 125, Knicks 114 Game 4: Knicks 97, 76ers 92 Game 5: 76ers 112, Knicks 106 (OT) Game 6: Knicks 118, 76ers 115 (Knicks win series 4-2)

Bucks vs. Pacers Game 1: Bucks 109, Pacers 94 Game 2: Pacers 125, Bucks 108 Game 3: Pacers 121, Bucks 118 (OT) Game 4: Pacers 126, Bucks 113 Game 5: Bucks 115, Pacers 92 Game 6: Pacers 120, Bucks 98 (Indiana wins series 4-2)

Cavaliers vs. Magic Game 1: Cavaliers 97, Magic 83 Game 2: Cavaliers 96, Magic 86 Game 3: Magic 121, Cavaliers 83 Game 4: Magic 112, Cavaliers 89  Game 5: Cavaliers 104, Magic 103 Game 6: Magic 103, Cavaliers 96 Game 7: Cavaliers 106, Magic 94 (Cleveland wins series 4-3)

Thunder vs. Pelicans Game 1: Thunder 94, Pelicans 92 Game 2: Thunder 124, Pelicans 92 Game 3: Thunder 106, Pelicans 85 Game 4: Thunder 97, Pelicans 89 (Oklahoma City wins series 4-0) 

Nuggets vs. Lakers Game 1: Nuggets 114, Lakers 103 Game 2: Nuggets 101, Lakers 99 Game 3: Nuggets 112, Lakers 105 Game 4: Lakers 119, Nuggets 108 Game 5: Nuggets 108, Lakers 106 (Denver wins series 4-1)

Timberwolves vs. Suns Game 1: Timberwolves 120, Suns 95 Game 2: Timberwolves 105, Suns 93 Game 3: Timberwolves 126, Suns 109 Game 4: Timberwolves 122, Suns 116 (Minnesota wins series 4-0)

Clippers vs. Mavericks Game 1: Clippers 109, Mavericks 97 Game 2: Mavericks 96, Clippers 93 Game 3: Mavericks 101, Clippers 90 Game 4: Clippers 116, Mavericks 111 Game 5: Mavericks 123, Clippers 93 Game 6: Mavericks 114, Clippers 101 (Dallas wins series 4-2)

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The golfers who made — and missed — the PGA Championship cut

More than 70 golfers were cut from the major championship ahead of saturday's round 3, including several big names., by eric mullin • published may 17, 2024 • updated on may 18, 2024 at 10:12 am.

The 2024 PGA Championship began with 156 golfe r s in contention for the Wanamaker Trophy. But the field will be much smaller than that for the final two rounds at Valhalla Golf Club .

More than 70 golfers were officially cut from the major tournament in Louisville, Kentucky, after the second round, which was suspended Friday night due to darkness, wrapped up Saturday morning.

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Xander Schauffele is halfway to his first major championship as he maintained his position atop the leaderboard in Round 2. After posting the best round in tournament history Thursday, Schauffele shot a 3-under 68 in Round 2 to push his score to 12-under.

But right on Schauffele's heels is 2020 tournament winner Collin Morikawa at 11-under. Morikawa shot a 6-under, tied for the best score of Round 2, to climb up to second on the leaderboard. Sahith Theegala, also eyeing his first major title, sits in third at 10-under.

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Meanwhile, world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler shot a 5-under just hours after he was arrested outside the tournament for not following police orders during the investigation of a pedestrian fatality. Scheffler, who faces multiple charges stemming from the incident, is tied for fourth with Bryson DeChambeau, Thomas Detry and Mark Hubbard at 9-under as he tries to become just the fifth player since 1960 to sweep the first two majors of the year.

Reigning tournament champion Brooks Koepka remains in striking distance at 7-under, tying him for 11th. Koepka is looking to go back-to-back at the PGA Championship for a second time in his career.

So, which other golfers will continue their chase for a major title this weekend? Here's what to know about this year's PGA Championship cuts:

How many golfers make the cut at the 2024 PGA Championship?

The top 70 golfers, plus ties, make the cut at the PGA Championship.

What is cut line at the 2024 PGA Championship?

This year's cut line is 1-under, leaving 78 golfers in the field.

Did Tiger Woods make the cut at the 2024 PGA Championship?

Tiger Woods missed the PGA Championship cut for the fifth time in his career. The four-time tournament champ followed up his 1-over first round with a 6-over, which included two triple bogeys in a span of three holes.

How Scottie Scheffler fared during second round of PGA Championship following arrest

Scottie Scheffler eagles his first hole since becoming a dad

What is the updated 2024 pga championship leaderboard.

Here's a full look at the remaining leaderboard entering Saturday's Round 3:

1. Xander Schauffele: -12

2. Collin Morikawa: -11

3. Sahith Theegala: -10

T-4. Thomas Detry: -9

T-4. Scottie Scheffler: -9

T-4. Mark Hubbard: -9

T-4. Bryson DeChambeau: -9

T-8. Austin Eckroat: -8

T-8. Viktor Hovland: -8

T-8. Tony Finau: -8

T-8. Dean Burmester: -8

T-12. Robert MacIntyre: -7

T-12. Harris English: -7

T-12. Brooks Koepka: -7

T-12. Matt Wallace: -7

T-12. Hideki Matsuyama: -7

T-12. Taylor Moore: -7

T-18. Lee Hodges: -6

T-18. Aaron Rai: -6

T-18. Keegan Bradley: -6

T-18. Lucas Herbert: -6

T-18. Justin Thomas: -6

T-23. Alex Noren: -5

T-23. Justin Rose: -5

T-23. Rory McIlroy: -5

T-23. Tom Kim: -5

T-23. Alejandro Tosti: -5

T-23. Doug Ghim: -5

T-29. Kurt Kitayama: -4

T-29. Cameron Smith: -4

T-29. Byeong Hun An: -4

T-29. Jason Day: -4

T-29. Jordan Spieth: -4

T-29. Shane Lowry: -4

T-29. Max Homa: -4

T-29. Min Woo Lee: -4

T-29. Billy Horschel: -4

T-29. Patrick Cantlay: -4

T-29. Maverick McNealy: -4

T-29: Alexander Björk: -4

T-41. Tom Hoge: -3

T-41. Lucas Glover: -3

T-41. Adam Svensson: -3

T-41. Ryo Hisatsune: -3

T-41. Russell Henley: -3

T-41. Will Zalatoris: -3

T-41. Luke Donald: -3

T-41. Brice Garnett: -3

T-41. Jesper Svensson: -3

T-41. Zac Blair: -3

T-41. Patrick Reed: -3

T-52. Tyrrell Hatton: -2

T-52. Adam Hadwin: -2

T-52. Sebastian Söderberg: -2

T-52. Andrew Putnam: -2

T-52. Gary Woodland: -2

T-52. Rasmus Højgaard: -2

T-52. Cameron Young: -2

T-52. Brian Harman: -2

T-52. Thorbjørn Olesen: -2

T-52. Brendon Todd: -2

T-52. Ben Kholes: -2

T-52. Grayson Murray: -2

T-52. Ryan Fox: -2

T-52. Martin Kaymer: -2

T-52. Erik van Rooyen: -2

T-52. Jeremy Wells: -2

T-68. Tommy Fleetwood: -1

T-68. Jordan Smith: -1

T-68. Talor Gooch: -1

T-68. Nicolai Højgaard: -1

T-68. Joaquin Niemann: -1

T-68. Dustin Johnson: -1

T-68. Rickie Fowler: -1

T-68. Braden Shattuck: -1

T-68. S.H. Kim: -1

T-68. Stephan Jaeger: -1

T-68. Corey Conners: -1

Who missed the cut at the 2024 PGA Championship?

Woods isn't the only notable name exiting the PGA Championship after two rounds. Ludvig Åberg (even), Matt Fitzpatrick (even), Jon Rahm (even), Adam Scott (3-over), Wyndham Clark (4-over), Phil Mickelson (4-over) and Padraig Harrington (10-over) finished below the cut line as well.

You can check out the PGA Tour's live leaderboard for a full list of golfers below the cut line.

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