PhD in the United States: coursework, exams, the dissertation (thesis) and defense

An American PhD is the longest and most structured of the English-language doctorates. You complete two years or so of coursework, pass qualifying or comprehensive exams, defend a dissertation proposal, conduct the research, write the dissertation and defend it. Most programs take five to six years, and many fund their doctoral students through assistantships.

Americans call the doctoral document a dissertation and reserve thesis for master's work, while most other countries call the doctoral document a thesis. This guide says dissertation, and anything said here about the dissertation applies to your PhD thesis as well.

Admission

Applicants apply to each university or department separately, because there is no single national application. A typical file includes transcripts, a CV, three recommendation letters, a statement of purpose, and a writing sample or research statement in some fields. Application fees commonly fall between $50 and $100 per program, and many applicants apply to six or more.

The GRE is required by some departments, optional at others and dropped by many. Check each program's page, because policies differ even inside one university. International applicants whose first language is not English submit TOEFL or IELTS scores, and universities set their own minimums. Some programs set a higher bar for applicants who want teaching assistantships, since those posts involve classroom contact.

The statement of purpose carries the most weight. It names the research you want to do, shows that you know the department's faculty, and explains why this program fits. A generic statement sent to twenty schools fails. See how to write a PhD research proposal for international applications for the thinking behind a statement that holds up.

Funding

Many US PhD programs fund admitted students through teaching assistantships, research assistantships or fellowships that cover tuition and pay a stipend, often with a health insurance subsidy. Funding is not universal. Professional doctorates and some fields offer little or none, so ask every program what it guarantees, for how many years, and what the stipend must cover. Programs that fund their international PhD students will usually say so on their admissions pages.

International students enter on an F-1 student visa after the university issues an I-20 form. Work off campus is tightly restricted while you hold F-1 status, so your assistantship is normally your income.

The stages

1. Coursework. Two years in many programs, with methods and theory courses plus electives.
2. Qualifying or comprehensive exams. Written, oral or both, testing your command of the field. Some departments use a qualifying paper instead.
3. Candidacy. Passing the exams makes you a doctoral candidate, sometimes called ABD, all but dissertation.
4. Dissertation proposal. A written proposal with a literature review, research questions and methods, defended before your committee. Read proposal defense questions before yours.
5. Institutional review board approval for research with human participants.
6. Research and writing, with chapters reviewed by your chair and committee.
7. Final defense.

The dissertation

A traditional dissertation runs five chapters in many education and social science programs: introduction, literature review, methodology, results and discussion. Some programs accept a three-paper format. Chapter length varies widely by field, so use your program's handbook and recent dissertations from your own department as your guide. How long each chapter should be gives a working budget.

The defense

Your committee, usually four or five faculty including your chair and a member from outside your department, reads the dissertation in advance. The defense opens with your presentation, then the committee questions you. In most programs the audience leaves for the committee's private deliberation, and the committee announces whether you pass, pass with revisions, or must do significant further work. A flat failure is rare because chairs normally do not schedule defenses for work that is unready.

Prepare for it with the 12 common defense questions, build your deck from the slide templates by discipline, and plan your answers to committee feedback with how to respond to committee comments.

The final document

Universities require a specific format for the submitted dissertation. Margins, page numbering, front matter and citation style are checked by a graduate school reviewer, and a rejected format delays your degree. TDM offers formatting to your university's template and editing that leaves your argument and voice intact.