Graduate school

After spending four years in college, I went directly to a PhD program in genetics. Throughout that time, I was often asked how long it would take to get my PhD. Eventually, I came up with the formula that I’d be surprised if I finished in less than four years and I’d be disappointed if it took longer than six years. In the event, it took exactly five years from the day I arrived in Chapel Hill until the day I left for a postdoc position in St. Louis.

A few years later, I found a table in the Chronicle of Higher Education showing that the median time in a PhD program in Life Sciences was seven years. The median time from bachelors to PhD was nine years, since many people work for a couple of years before starting a PhD program. In retrospect, five years was pretty good, but when you’re in your 20s, it seems like a long time. And most of the work in my dissertation was done in my final year.

Pro tip: If you know someone in a PhD program, ask them about their project, not how long it will take for them to graduate. It's not like professional school, with a defined curriculum. Research outcomes are hard to predict in advance.