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[mightykc]

I remember being told as an undergrad that I should plan on spending 2 hours outside of class for every hour that I spent in class.  I assume this number would be higher for graduate school, but I am curious what everyone else has been told (if anything).

[monkfish]

I was never told anything of this sort when I was in graduate school (except for as a bit of information to relay to the undergraduates I was teaching). The assumption was that you should spend just about every wake moment on homework, if not for specific class assignments (i.e., plan for research proposals, drown yourself in back issues of the flagship journals to get a sense of the development of the field, compiling bibliographies for qualifying exams, and so on).

[rubyslippers]

I have to agree with monkfish.  One student I know worked out a schedule in which she took one night and one day per week off for leisure.

[gennimom]

I was told 3-4 hours per hour of class when I started my PhD.
A schedule? For studying? I wish I could do that. I'm doing good to make sure I get my 20 hours a week for my asstship in. Babies have a way of making schedules laugh at you.

[kindofblue]

It depends on how serious you are and how demanding your assistantship is (as well as your other life demands, but that goes without saying). In our program, you can get an MA without killing yourself. Once you're in the PhD program, it's very hard to succeed without working long hours, especially if you're serious about being an academic -- meaning that you're presenting at conferences, working on your own research, collaborating with others, etc.

I'm in the fourth year of our PhD program (am now ABD), and I'd guess I've worked a minimum of 60 hours/week throughout. But I really enjoy what I do, so I'm not complaining.

Good luck!

[brunhilde]

Well, I'm ABD now, so I spend 0 hours in class. Does that mean I should be spending 0 hours on all my work?! Yes!

Like Kyle4, I would guess that I worked about 60 hrs/week through my program. I started keeping a time journal recently and found I worked an average of 46 hrs/week. I think this partly reflects the slower pace of summer (started time journal in July) and that I waste a lot of time on the Internet.

[nickf]

I can recall pulling an "all-nighter" once every two weeks just to keep up with readings.

[histgradstudent]

The important thing to remember about Grad School and academic work in general is that its never going to be done. It isn't like college where at the end of the night, you could finish a book and be done with the work for the week. There is always going to be something else you should read, or something you are trying to write. As a result, particularly in grad school, people take a kind of masochistic pride in how long and hard they work. I suppose there are worse things. You do have to work very hard to keep up, but you can overdo it. Remember, you are never going to be done regardless so take some time for other things besides work when you can and don't feel guily everytime you watch tv for an hour or go have a drink with some friends.

[dr_prephd]

In my master's program, I studied / researched / wrote pretty much every moment that I wasn't working or going to school.  I did take Sundays off for myself.  I expect I will do the same when I enter a doctoral program.