Yep, I finished my PhD in just under three years. Which is how long my scholarship funding lasted. Amazing how the threat of poverty concentrates the mind.

In France, the expected length of a PhD in science is 3 years. Year 1 is the "buildup" (bibliography and building your tools/models/tests), year 2 is "the work" testing/analyzing/writing your first paper/going to conferences. Year 3 is the "expert" year where your research topic is becoming your specialty. This is usually the year where you make discoveries and start to "teach" your supervisor on the topic, while writing additional papers. The 6 last months are dedicated to writing your thesis and preparing your defence.

I'm soon to start my PhD and your channel is already helping me tremendously. Thank you kindly!

This is really good advice. Finishing a PhD in 3 years is achievable. However, I think it is important to acknowledge that different PhD students have different journeys. In particular, for those halfway through (or even at other stages) their PhD when the pandemic hit, there have been unexpected disruptions to research plans (especially for non lab-based research involving the recruitment of human participants) and some universities, especially in the UK have provided extensions of time and funding to cushion the effect of the pandemic. In normal circumstances, I am also aware that for some universities in the UK there is no tuition fee charged in the 4th year (ideally for writing up), just a small continuation fee. Overall, doing a PhD is about adaptability, resilience and getting things done in as good a time as possible, as you have highlighted.

I am a Ph.D. student in the US at Yale and have seen Ph.D. students graduate in 3 years. I finished two master's degrees in 3 years, so it's definitely possible. Yes, every academic journey is different, but there is always a way to accomplish something with A LOT of aligned work and focused action. My advice to any Ph.D. student in the US wanting to finish early is to (1) ask students who have finished early and figure out what they did, (2) ask a lot of questions and guidelines and requirements, and (3) don't try to do it alone. Best of luck!!

One of the best videos I've seen in a really long time! I can see myself applying these rules to other sectors of life and work. Thanks a mil Andrew! (and great beard man!)

This is one of the most important videos that I ever read in your channel. Thank you

How can someone dislike such an informative video? Thank you so much for these videos.

Great video! It seems to summarise a few of your older videos into a single concise unit.

Thanks 👍 for the great videos you put out there. Very insightful and helpful

This is great! Thanks for the useful content!

Your content is so valuable and clearly presented. I have just enrolled in my PhD, which is partly funded so I need to finish it in three years to avoid more fees. Luckily I have already worked with my supervisors for the past three years and we have a great working relationship. It's going to be a tough few years, but your tips and advice have already helped so much with my project planning and knowing what to expect for the next few years.

Thank you for these videos. It is really helpful.

Thank you, Andy. Such valuable information.

You're GOLDEN Andy! Thank you so so much. I'm in my 6th month and honestly not feeling the vibes of learning new skills just yet. Got to work on building those relationships and learning all relevant instruments.

I'm starting my PhD in Health Sciences in July, I'm so excited! Here in Switzerland it is now the norm in many fields to do a cumulative dissertation, meaning that I'll have to publish at least three peer-reviewed papers. Your videos are very helpul nonetheless!

It's simply a beautiful piece of presentation, precisely focusing on the ingredients that could really make it happen, Kudos to you dear Andy sir!

Will be impossible in some countries (Germany, USA). In UK from my experience it was just good personal project management to get it done in 3 years (I was a geek and had a Gantt chart). Map out the schedule for the 3 years early on, adjust and take action to keep it on track when things change, simply be organized on a weekly, monthly and yearly level and have a plan. For engineering it was get my equipment basics right - no point carrying on with the experiments if there is something flawed with the kit fundamentals - take the time to get it fixed, lost a few months doing that producing no results but saw my PhD colleagues waste a year or more getting variable results (needing repeats) because their equipment was flawed. Was done with the research in 2 years so could have realistically done it in 2.5 years but expanded the write up to a full year and enjoyed myself travelling for half of that.

Thank you, your experience is very inspiring.

I really appreciate your content as I preparing myself for PhD. It is really inspiring.

Your videos have helped me to carry on. Thanyou so much 😊

Thankyou 👍 I just submitted for registration and one year is getting over !

I love your videos!

I will save this video to watch later but I failed to do this in 3 years but gave some advice to a colleague who did succeed in doing this in Switzerland where most PhD’s end up being considerably longer than 3 years. The first thing I told him was to keep focused on his work. If his supervisor was anything like mine you would go in with one question and come out with five more. Which is what a good supervisor should do but you need to recognise that answering all those questions might not progress your research aim and some may distract you and send you in directions that are not relevant. The other was not to accept a full time job half way through your PhD, a mistake I made. For 3 years after that I had no life working all day at my job and every evening and weekend on my PhD. But I did eventually make it through though it ended up adding a few more very stressful years than had I not done this.

Great job! I completed my MS Thesis and PhD at Purdue University in 3.5 years during the height of the pandemic. It was a lot of fun but I definitely had to finesse my way into getting a lot of work done in a shorter amount of time. Also, I used a dissertation coach during the last 6 months of my PhD.

Had I not found you....I d just stay in the burnout zone... seriously thanks so much👍

Hi Andy! Your videos are indeed helpful👍🏻 I shall be grateful if you can make a video on effective documentation of literature review and the research work 🙏🏻

I have an opportunity to do a PhD in a subject I'm already specialist in and wouldnt need as much research early in so this makes me think about doing it sooner

Thanks a lot

This is really hard to do in the US. I've read the average is 5 for stem and even more for nonstem or humanities. You did a good job and I was inspired. Still would be hard. Thanks for putting something positive out for phds.

Thank you, Andrew for all the content in your channel 🙏 🙌 👏 👍!!! I'm planning to do my PhD PT, what do you think about PT PhD? I need to continue working FT. Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response!

I start my PHD program tomorrow. This video has helped to calm my nerves.

I'm finishing up my masters and will be starting my PhD next year so this was really helpful - I want to spend three years on it and not 4.

I'm making notes!

Love your content! Going to start a PhD in Oct and your videos get me pumped 😄 could you do a video on tips for the first (and second) year of a ‘1+3’ programme please?

Please do a tutorial on XRD and AFM.

All your tips are quite usefull and much appreciated!... nevertheless, they do not apply to any research that depends on extensive field work within any given social framework. When your data depends on social interaction, time does not depend on your planning but on the specific social context, problematics and interaction.... And this can be quiet exhausting, considering your dependency on healthy relationships, if focussed on overall schedules and deadlines...

In undergrad and already starting on my thesis, I'm bouta speedrun my PhD

Wow It’s really very impressive for those who newly stated PhD students and I want to take some suggestions from you that I’m from faculty of Management which is the best topics for me in such levels

Good video! Do you have any video on literature review?

There's a huge difference if you join a lab and you are expected to create protocols from literature vs adapt a protocol vs following a protocol from a kit to being shown how to do a protocol by another member in the lab. You could struggle for a month on one small thing not understanding why it doesn't work when someone with expertise could show you how it's done in a few hours. Also if your boss insists on doing an assay that may not work, but you don't realize it because you are a new student could make you waste years.

Thanks Andy, but you didn't factor in coursework in the video, please how does that fit in?

I will finish asap considering that my program has a minor. I've always completed every program on time so far by not taking any semesters off.

Thank you so much for the video Andy, very helpful. I have enrolled in a PhD program in April (last month) while working a full time job. So far I don't think I can complete it in 3 years, but I would appreciate any advice you can give me.

Another amazing video. Thanks Andy

Can you have on a visitor that was working while studying, that perspective would be helpful. thanks

Great guidance! One a different note, your beard has become absolutely brilliant!! Keep up the great work on your channel!!

I plan on starting my PhD Sept 2022 in Sustainable chemistry (waste materials into fuels and chemicals) after working 1.5 years in industry. Any advice for people going back to PhD after getting industry experience? I have masters already and work as a chemist at a pharma company

Very difficult to complete the PhD in 3 years in USA, India and some other countries. The course requirement is too much. But true for UK and Europe I think which are based mostly on research.

I'm starting my PhD in two weeks, and you channel helped me a lot, can you also produce videos focusing on fields like Business Management which is a bit different from STEM fields.

It might make sense if you’re trying to go to industry next, but for government or academic jobs, they’re going to be interested in how big your publication and oral presentation lists are. If you are efficient enough to get done in 3 years. you could probably double your output in 5, and that would be preferable if you wanted to enter into these fields, I would imagine. A lot of time limit countdowns for things like grant eligibility, early career awards, eligibilities for certain jobs, etc. turn on when you get your PhD, so it’s actually advantageous to pad your CV before then as much as you can, up to the 5 year mark imo. More time than that could count against you, though it’s field-dependent, but I don’t think you would get any special advantage for being a candidate who generated an average graduate’s CV in 3 vs an above-average graduate’s CV in 5. Of course, this can all be disregarded if you’re looking for an industry job for sure.

Great video! But the reality is that PhD isn't linear process, there are many down and up. Thank you!

PhD in 3 years? --> a joke in Australia in this pandemic, with having no access to the university labs and supervisors asking you to produce papers so they can put their names as first authors and supervisor naming you as a low contributor although you know you did all the work and they just commented on your paper. And university deans supporting this academic misconduct as they get more grants from the Australian government. Australia: The place where most academic misconducts happen. Most supervisors and deans should be in jail in Australia.

Thank you so much for these videos, they are extremely helpful! I have a question, when you say "your supervisor " do you mean an advisor?

When an experiment fails or if a student has technical problems, is it more appropriate to turn to labmates for help instead of supervisors? I found that supervisors can't help much. But labmates usually have no time to help. What kinds of help exactly should a student expect from his/her supervisor? Thanks.

hi Andy, thanks for the content. I m in year 3, last 6 months! would u plz tell us how u created nice schematic draws in ur thesis?

How to balance work life and phd?plz help

Do you have any advice for people in the USA on their PhD?

2nd yr dig in my 80/20

Amazing video I will share it with my Lab mates God willing , so interesting thank you so much for the scheduale too. I hope I can understand how to work with the principal of Pareto 20/80. Peace from Morocco

How can I get PhD funded scholarship in Electrical Engineering? Any advice

Dear Andy, thanks for the information. after watching your video i have some questions, Around the very beggining of my phD my supervisor immideately pushed me into paper research where i found some models for my research and had a meeting where they pushed for a model that had supposedly already decided for. By june of that year i had my ethical and by november i had the approval to go ahead for my experiments. Meaniwhile these months i was researching for some plans that were supposed to be on my third year. From november until now i have finished my pilot study and am doing lab training for the third year project. im being really pushed by my supervisor to produce some results for the third year goal and im stuck. Im not sure how to organize my self. I try to do reading and catching up on all the things i did but because my lab training didnt start until october of last year and i was just wandering around asking people their knowledge i feel very lacking. Right now im learning statistics and r programming language and have been signed up for a poster presantation and oral presantation in two congresses. i'm also learning LC-MS and that is the part im having a lot of trouble and making mistakes. Do you have nay advice on how to pace my self better because i feel like im all over the place and at the same time nowhere.

Plymouth massive!! That made me laugh, being a Penzance boy in China!

Thanks for your videos, very insightful! would be even greater if shorter! :)

PhD in Nursing is 4-5 years in Canada.

PhD in Philosophy.. Can you please talk about it??

I am 5th year and my advisor is not optimistic if I can finish it in my 6th year. I am so concerned and need to increase my speed but not sure what should I do

Hi i am in the process of writting my proposal and gaining entry into a phd ive decided to do one by publication i wondered if its possible to cover one on youtube or not it would be helpful

I need to get quicker and better at my academic writing. Any tips for that?

I want to finish my PhD in 3 years (just starting the 3rd one now) but I also feel guilty because my peers are asking for a 4th year... does it make me a bad PhD student not wanting to stay longer in my lab? One of the major reasons is I can't deal with my supervisor anymore 🥲🥲🥲, but also, I think 3 years is enough... very confusing times. Advices from anyone here are highly appreciated ! Regards from Paris :)

I’m a first reserve candidate for a PhD scholarship. What is my chances?

I'm in my 2nd year, i hope i saw this before 😭

I was told to publish as an undergrad.

Man, I’m great at failing stuff. Been doing it for years. Maybe a PhD will be easy for me.

I'm approaching the halfway point in my humanities Ph.D. and I'm aiming to complete it within three years But what do you mean by finish, do you mean submit the thesis or have the viva within three years?

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

4 years in the US is ooofff

Can you do a video on bachelors vs masters.

17:16 🤣🤣

Hi, this is a really nice video, but it's not saying why three years and not four years etc. (if you have a choice/funding, that is)

But PhD is already 3 years in EU

AI/ ML could knock out a dissertation in 3 weeks. 👀

here i am doing bsc and watching this vedio anyone from bsc???

I don't think anyone could manage themselves to finish their PhD in a North American system with a two-year coursework plus a PhD qualification exam set in the middle. Four years are considered super-quick, 5 to 6 years are norm, more than 6 years is not uncommon especially in the humanities field. I completed mine in 4.5 year and was the quickest among all the former students to finish it in my lab.

Did you not have to take any graduate-level coursework for your phd?

anyone from south korea

Spending my time looking at videos on how to succeed instead of doing the stuff i need to do in order to succeed...

Only if you are in a direct admit and don’t have an insane load of coursework and required NIH training courses 😭😭 welcome to the USA.

need to change the title to How to complete your PhD in 3 years if it's not a global pandemic

Yes, how to complete your PhD in three yours so you can work 30 years in post-doc hell. Sign me up! /s

1st yr reproducing

No one any good values anyone who got a PhD in 3 years.

If you want to win you don't take advice from losers.

Many PhD students would be asked to be mentor of master students or laboratory practice, this is sometimes annoying and costs much time, do you have any ideas how to deal with it?