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> PhD over the next 6 years.

Bruh

If you shoot for 5 it might take six. If you shoot for 6 it will take 8. I know you can't read too much into such a short comment, but do some serious introspection. You're setting off like every alarm bell for someone that's about to get absolutely hosed by a doc program.

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This is really program dependent. The NSF actually publishes statistics on all kinds of aspects of degree programs. Life Sciences (which doesn't have the reputation as a super speedy science program) has a median time in PhD program of around 5.5 years. Obviously the distribution is going to be skewed, but some fields have had a push towards really reducing the time to graduation.

I'm all for doing serious introspection before (and during!) a PhD, but the comment is way too short to set off many alarm bells for me.

https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf21308/data-tables#group7

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