Timeline through the PhD

As a PhD student, you will have many things to learn, many responsibilities to juggle, and many deadlines to meet over the course of the next five years. It certainly can be difficult to keep track of it all, so this chapter gives you a maximally condensed overview of the five years in the program. Check the later chapters for detailed information on course requirements, milestones, advisor selection, and much more.

The table below gives a rough overview of what your journey through your PhD should look like, assuming you start the program in a Fall semester. Keep in mind that this table only talks about the programmatic aspects of the PhD. Depending on what career path you want to pursue after your PhD, there’s a lot of other things you’ll have to do. For example, an academic career will require an impressive CV with many presentations and peer-reviewed publications, whereas an industry career would benefit from internships and practical experience outside the academic setting. These are things beyond the purview of a handbook for all PhD students, but of course you should discuss these issues with your advisor.

The columns of the table indicate the following:

Year: what year of the program you are in
Semester: what semester of the year you are in
Status: what status of grad student you are (refer to this page for the explanation of G3, G4, G5)
Courses: how many courses you need to take, and what required courses you need to take
Required milestone: a specific task or goal that you are expected to have taken care of by the end of the semester
Suggested milestone: a specific task or goal that the Department urges you to take care of by the end of the semester because students who delay this milestone are likely to run into issues later on
Evaluation: whether you will receive a letter at the end of the semester that summarizes the Department’s evaluation of your performance in the program; students get an evaluation at the end of the Fall semester only if this is their first year in the program or if their previous evaluation did not include a rating of Satisfactory progress

Year	Semester	Status	Courses	Required milestone	Suggested milestone	Evaluation?
1	Fall	G3/G4	Phonology 1, Syntax 1, 1 or 2 more	Attend university TA training workshop	Get used to your new life	Yes
	Spring	G3/G4	Phonology 2, Syntax 2, 1 or 2 more	Choose academic advisor	Identify a second mentor	Yes
2	Fall	G4	3 courses		Form QP-1 committee	only if issues
	Spring	G4	3 courses	Pass Qualifying Paper 1	Submit QP-1 for publication	Yes
3	Fall	G4	3 courses		Form QP-2 committee	only if issues
	Spring	G4	3 courses	Pass QP-2 & advance to candidacy	Submit QP-2 for publication	Yes
4	Fall	G5	Dissertation research	Choose tentative dissertation committee		only if issues
	Spring	G5	Dissertation research	Have a dissertation proposal discussion		Yes
5	Fall	G5	Dissertation research		Get dissertation committee approved	only if issues
	Spring	G5	Dissertation research	Defend and file dissertation		only if no defense scheduled