PhD Milestones

When I started my PhD, so many things were unclear. I did not know the steps or milestones required to take in order to finally get the title '“Dr”. Surprisingly, I realized that I was not the only one who felt this way. I believe it is very beneficial for students who want to pursue a PhD to have some knowledge of each PhD milestone, therefore I have taken the time to highlight them. Please note that these are the general steps, and there can be some variations in certain schools/departments.

Let’s jump right in:

1) Get accepted to a PhD Program: First things first, before you start the PhD journey, you have to first get accepted to a PhD program. Make sure you are getting into an institution with at least two professors carrying out research that will be of interest to you.

2) Join a Lab: Different programs have different rules for joining a lab. Some provide time to do some lab rotations that take one to several months, while others require students to join a lab once they get into the program. Ensure you are communicating with the department to know how this process works.

3) Coursework: The first two years of a PhD consists of taking classes that would help forward your research. One big tip is ensuring you are communicating with your advisor, older graduate students in the lab, and other older graduate students carrying out similar research about what classes you will need. Most programs will ask students to submit a program of study that will help you plan courses you will take during a PhD. This program of study is usually submitted to the graduate program.

4) Qualifying Exam: Usually PhD programs offer qualifying exams to test students’ abilities to go through a PhD. These exams can be written and/or oral exams. It is advised to pick committee members for your qualifying exams that could also serve as your defense/thesis committee. The qualifying exam usually takes place during the end of one’s 1st year OR beginning/end of one’s 2nd year OR even one’s 3rd year. This timeline depends on your school and your department.

5) Candidacy: A student reaches candidacy when they have fulfilled all course requirements for their PhD, passed the qualifying exam, and only have research left. This is the point where one can now focus on completing the research that will help with one’s dissertation. Usually, some schools will require students to present their research plan to their committee and receive feedback before being called a PhD candidate. While some schools will consider students who have passed their qualifying exams, PhD candidates. What I have realized is that Candidacy can vary from school to school or department to department.

6) Work on Research

7) Defend Dissertation: The last step in a PhD after years of research is to defend one’s dissertation orally and finish composing a large document (dissertation) of what one has accomplished. This will include one’s hypotheses, aims, experimental plan, results, etc. After defending to committee members, one is then expected to make necessary changes and submit one’s dissertation. During the defense, a student is usually questioned by their committee members. If the defense is successful, one has now reached the final stage of the 4–5-year journey and finally obtained the title “Dr”.

8) Graduation!

Note: During the 4-5 years of a PhD, students are also expected to serve as teaching assistants (TA). Some schools require students to do this during their 2nd year, while some schools require students to do this all through their PhD or when a TA is required. In some schools, students may TA for classes that their research advisors teach, while other schools may require students to TA for random professors. I have also learned that some schools give PhD students the ability to waive gaining TAing experience based on certain funding opportunities/scholarships.

PhD Milestones