获得博士学位需要多长时间?

获得博士学位需要多长时间?

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

联邦统计数据显示，从美国研究生院获得博士学位通常需要近六年的时间。

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.

在某一特定学科取得优异成绩并对该领域有浓厚兴趣的学生可以选择攻读博士学位。然而，拥有博士学位的人敦促未来的学生仔细考虑他们是否真的想要或需要一个博士学位，因为博士项目会持续多年。

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.

根据“获得博士学位调查”(Survey of Earned Doctorates)的数据，2017年获得博士学位的个人完成学业所需时间中值为5.8年。然而，调查显示，有许多项目的完成时间通常超过6年，比如人文和艺术博士学位，个人获得学位的平均时间为7.1年。

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 without completing the dissertation component. These Ph.D. program dropouts often use the phrase "all but dissertation" or the abbreviation "ABD" on their resumes.

一些博士生在获得硕士学位后才开始攻读博士学位，这意味着他们在研究生院花费的时间是攻读硕士学位的时间和攻读博士学位的时间的总和。为了获得博士学位，学生必须提交并成功答辩一篇原创的学术论文，该论文必须得到学位论文委员会的批准。写论文和答辩是如此的困难，以至于许多博士生在没有完成论文部分的情况下，从而退出了博士课程。这些博士项目的辍学者经常在他们的简历上使用“除了学位论文”或缩写“ABD”。

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.

美国研究生院理事会(Council of Graduate Schools) 2008年发布的一项关于博士结婚率的综合研究显示，攻读博士学位的人当中，只有56.6%获得了博士学位。

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.

密歇根大学艺术史系教授琼基(Joan Kee)说，攻读博士学位所需的时间长短因博士研究的科目而异。“博士项目的长度是非常有纪律的，甚至是特定领域的;比如，你可以而且有望在五年内获得经济学博士学位，但这在艺术史(或大多数人文学科)上是不可能的，”她在一封电子邮件中写道。

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.

Kee补充说，人文学科的博士课程通常要求学生学习一门外语，“人类学和艺术史等领域需要广泛的实地研究。”Kee说，人文学科博士项目的资助通常只持续五年，尽管在这段时间内获得人文学科博士学位的情况并不常见。她说:“正因为如此，许多博士生(如果不是大多数的话)必须工作以维持收支平衡，从而进一步延长了完成学业的时间。”