How much of a time commitment is pursuing a PhD in Polisci?

Question

Is it like a doctor where you have no life and have to eat Cup O' Noodles for several years, or can you have a job and such so long as you work reasonably hard?

Answer 1

You wish.

Medical school is one bit of craziness, but the pursuit of an academic doctorate involves skating right into the Emerald City on silver roller blades.

The assumption is that you're pretty dedicated to the idea of going to school for an extended period. For the first few years, you take courses, and it's not vastly different from undergraduate work, except that it's expected that you're not going to run off and play video games at a bar somewhere at every opportunity. In general, you'd have an assistantship; either teaching lower-level courses (unlikely in political science) or grading papers or doing research for a professor.

Then at some point you're expected to begin a research project of your own, and that's what you'll be doing for the next few years. There's no scheduled time off, because it's pretty much an all-consuming effort. This doesn't mean that you're suffering, particularly, because you'd have to be in love with political science to start the damn thing to begin with.

One problem with a doctorate in the humanities is that they tend to take a long time compared to those in, say, engineering, where eventually they let you out.

I didn't have to eat Cup 'o Noodles because I was with a splendid lady who was working on her doctorate while I was working on mine. We pooled our assistantship stipends and lived fairly well; and she could cook.

If you are asking questions like this and are planning to pursue a doctorate yourself, you clearly need more exposure to the field and to university departments and professors and graduate students. Examine their lifestyles and attitudes and see how that sort of life might fit you. But please note: don't be concerned with the horror stories they'll tell you about dissertations and dissertation committees. Everyone has a load of those and enjoys hazing prospects with them.

Mostly you read and write and teach classes.

Answer 2

I can think of no highly ranked PhD programs in Poli Sci that are terribly amenable to part-time study. And I am aware of lots and lots of Poli Sci PhD programs.

Doctoral work in most academic fields is almost always pursued full time, with the assistance of a fellowship or assistantship, which provides full tuition remission and a small living stipend. (Translation: No life and Cup O' Noodles.)

There are some fields in which doctoral study can be pursued part-time. Education comes to mind.

However, this is not to say that it cannot be done. There are generally two years of coursework in a Poli Sci PhD program. After finishing the coursework, a student could conceivably work full time and still complete language exams, qualifying exams, and propose, research, write and defend a dissertation. But it would take a loooong time.