grad student connections

[Beth Shuster]

On 4/2, Julie Keith <Julia.A.Keith at dartmouth.edu> wrote:  
snip
<our program here has a minimum of 5 years (even if you
>come in with a masters already) and I know of programs (Harvard comes to mind)
>where the average grad student stay is 8-10 years.  How come the US demands so
>much more time? 
snip

  My understanding is that students in the UK are forced to specialize MUCH
earlier than in the US & have taken what we would consider to be graduate
level courses before starting the PhD program.  Thus, they take few, if any
formal courses once they do enter a program & can devote full time to
research.  
  Clarification would be appreciated from those of you who've actually gone
through the UK sustem.

Beth

Beth Shuster                        
Univ. of California, Davis
eoshuster at ucdavis.edu