Ivy League PHD/Doctoral Programs

What are the Executive Doctorate programs offered by the Ivy League?

Executive programs are for developing research abilities and analytical thinking. The Ivy League does have executive doctorate programs to offer. Some of the Executive PHD courses offered by the Ivy League are Human Resource Management, Entrepreneurial Studies, Health Policy (Management), Management, Marketing, Organizational Behavior, Strategy, Technology and Operations, Accounting and Management, Business Economics, etc.

One of the best Ivy League schools, i.e., Harvard Business School, does offer some excellent executive PHD programs. For example, HBS offers Executive PHD Courses in Organizational Behavior for 4-5 years with a cost of $52,456. Wharton (UPenn) also offers an executive PHD program in Accounting with a tuition cost of $45,062.

How much time does it usually take to complete one’s PHD?

In usual scenarios, it can take about 3-6 years on average to complete one’s PHD. The duration depends on your chosen course if it is a Physics PHD, it will depend on the timeline needed for the completion of a certain project. Depending on the thesis's subject, the tools at hand, and the researcher's temperament, even in less time than three years. Some of the PhDs that usually take the least time are done in the fields like Law, Counseling, and Healthcare. The completion duration depends on various factors.

• The program design
• The subject area you're studying
• The institution offering the program

The usual time span of 3-6 years can be either minimized or exceeded depending on the subject, the project, guidance, and the institution. Hence it is important to choose a University that specializes in publishing the research, has a good stipend rate, and assures the returns on time and monetary investment made into the program.

You can complete the PHD programs from Stanford in just 3 years, 4 years at Yale, and 5-6 years of coursework required at Harvard University to get a PHD degree.

Can I get a part-time PHD program from the Ivy League?

There are only countably many Ivy league universities that offer part-time PHD programs for students to enroll in. This includes Columbia university, which offers a Doctor of Science in Engineering (EngScD) program which can be earned part-time, and the Hybrid Doctor of Nursing Practice program offered by Yale university which can be completed part-time or full-time.

How much does the PHD programs at Ivy League cost?

You can expect to pay an average annual tuition fee of $20,000 to $60,000 per year for a PHD at an Ivy League university. Most of the Ivy Leagues provide stipends and financial support to students once they are enrolled or after completing certain milestones in their PHD work. This will lead to more funding for their project and will minimize the fees or give benefits on the cost of their PHD endeavors.

The fees will vary from courses undertaken for the PHD program as well as the project.

Cornell University offers PHD at the least tuition fee of around $30,000 per year for its course, while Harvard has tuition fees of around $60,000 per year. But most of the fees paid are earned back in the course of PHD through the stipend earned via assistantships and fellowships.

Cornell has assistantship and fellowship programs that pay an average stipend of around $32,000 for about 9 months of work to its PHD scholars. This will nullify the cost of tuition fees previously paid. The stipend does depend on one's performance and the progress in the project undertaken for PHD.

Some of the variations when it comes to different fields and their variable tuition rates are given below in the table.

Which is the cheapest Ivy League that offers PHD?

The tuition fees for the PHD program depend on the selected course for PHD. However, the major aspect while taking a look at the tuition fees is not how much one needs to pay but what are the output and stipend like. Since most PHD programs in Ivy Leagues provide scholarships, assistantships, and stipends. Cornell University has the lowest tuition fees among all of the Ivy Leagues, however, Harvard is more monetarily beneficial since it provides fellowships and assistantships that cover and nullify the fees paid as a return on investment. In most cases, the stipends that students receive through Harvard's fellowship stipends cover-up about 70%-99% of the fees paid.

Which is the Fastest PHD degree one can get?

Accelerated PHD programs are founded on the idea that you could conceivably complete your degree in three or even two years rather than taking 6 years to acquire a doctorate. They are only provided in subjects that don't call for as much education, study, or internship time. The most common themes for expedited doctoral degree programs are those that deal with business or education.

For instance, Columbia University's PHD in Computer Science offers a fast-track Ph.D. to MS graduates with a minimal GPA of 3.3. Each Spring or Fall, the 30-credit PHD program begins with courses from Columbia Video Network's 4000 level and one-on-one research counseling. It only takes two years to complete specialties in areas like machine learning, network security, robotics, and computational biology.

The average PHD program can be completed in up to four years, but depending on the subject, it may take up to eight to ten years.

What are the eligibility criteria for PHD programs at Ivy Leagues?

The prerequisites for Ivy League PHD programs may range between institutions and academic fields. Due to the strong demand, admission to select programs at particular colleges may be extremely competitive. For specific topics, some of these colleges can have minimum work requirements. Any accomplishments, whether academic or extracurricular, will help one stand out from the competition.

The overall list of documents needed to be accepted is shown below:

• Transcript of grades
• Scores on standardized tests
• Language proficiency in English Test results
• Reference Letters
• Resume
• Statement of Purpose

What are the admission requirements for a PHD program at Ivy League?

As the PHD programs are evaluated based on research goals and your intellectual ability, for admission the Ivy League universities ask for your GPA, GRE, CV, Essay, Letters of Recommendation, Interview, and previous research experience.

The GPA score is suggested to be a minimum GPA of 3.5. Ivy Leagues asks for a high GRE score in verbal, quantitative, and analytical sections, but there is even a program offered by these universities that don't require GRE.

Are there NO GRE PHD Ivy League colleges?

Almost all the Ivy League universities offering PHD programs don’t accept GRE scores for many of its PHD programs. Here is the detailed list of programs offered by Ivy Leagues that have waived off or eliminated GRE scores for their doctoral programs.

Brown university: Brown University has eliminated GRE scores for its 24 doctoral programs. The PHD programs for which the GRE is no longer required include American Studies, Biotechnology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Comparative Literature, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, English, French Studies, German Studies, Hispanic Studies, Italian Studies, Mathematics, Modern Culture and Media, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry, Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, Neuroscience, Pathobiology, Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, Religious Studies, Slavic Studies, and Theatre and Performance Studies.

Columbia University: Columbia University has excluded GRE scores for most of its PHD programs. The programs that don’t require GRE are Architecture, Art History and Archaeology Applied Physics, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Astronomy, Classical Studies, Chemical Physics, Astronomy, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Classics, Earth and Environmental Sciences, East Asian Languages, and Cultures, Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, English and Comparative Literature, French, Germanic Languages, History, Historic Preservation, Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Music, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology, Religion, Slavic Languages, Statistics, Theatre and Performance, and Urban Planning.

The PHD programs that require GRE offered by Columbia University are Anthropology, Italian, Political Science, Sustainable Development, Sociology, Economics, and Mathematics.

Cornell University: Cornell University doesn’t accept GRE scores only for some of its PHD programs, which include Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and Theoretical & Applied Mechanics, American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Political Theory, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering.

Dartmouth College: Except for the Computer Science PHD program, Dartmouth has made GRE scores optional for its doctoral programs.

Harvard University: The PHD programs offered by Harvard University that don’t require GRE includes, Anthropology, Applied Mathematics, Applied Physics, Archaeology, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning, Astronomy, Bioengineering, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Biological Sciences in Public Health, ​Biophysics, Comparative Literature, Computer Science, Economics, Electrical Engineering, Engineering and Applied Sciences, English, Environmental Science & Engineering, Film and Visual Studies, History of Art and Architecture, Human Evolutionary Biology, Materials Science & Mechanical Engineering, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Quantum Science and Engineering, and Virology.

Some of the PHD programs offered by Harvard University also have the option called ‘GRE score is Optional’, which means you may submit GRE scores if you wish.

Optional: American Studies, Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics, Biostatistics, Celtic Languages and Literature, Chemical Biology, Chemical Physics, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Classics, Earth and Planetary Sciences, History, History of Science, Immunology, Middle Eastern Studies, Music, Philosophy, Physics, Population Health Sciences, Psychology, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, and Statistics, Systems, Synthetic, and Quantitative Biology​.

University of Pennsylvania: UPenn has made GRE scores optional for all of its PHD programs. Students who have taken the GRE exams and wish to submit the GRE scores can submit them.

Princeton University: The PHD programs offered by Princeton University that don’t require the GRE include, Anthropology, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Applied and Computational Math, Architecture, Art and Archaeology, Astrophysical Science, Biophysics, Chemical & Biological Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chemistry, Classics, Comparative Literature, Computer Science, East Asian Studies, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Electrical and Computer Engineering, English, French and Italian, Geosciences, German, History, History of Science, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Mathematics, Molecular Biology, Music Composition, Musicology, Near Eastern Studies, Neuroscience, Operations Research and Financial Engineering, Philosophy, Physics, Public and International Affairs, Psychology, Quantitative & Computational Biology, Religion, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Sociology, and Spanish and Portuguese.

Yale University: The PhD programs offered by Yale University that don’t require GRE includes, African American Studies, African Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, Applied Physics, Archaeological Studies, Astronomy, Biochemistry, Quantitative Biology, Biophysics and Structural Biology, Classics, Comparative Literature, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Computer Science, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Biomedical Engineering, English Language and Literature, European and Russian Studies, Germanic Languages and Literatures, History, Immunology, Investigative Medicine, Law, Linguistics, Mathematics, Medieval Studies, Microbiology, Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics, and Development, Music, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Neuroscience, Nursing, Physics, Plant Molecular Biology, Psychology, Philosophy, Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Religious Studies, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Sociology, Spanish and Portuguese, Statistics and Data Science, Translational Molecular Medicine, Pharmacology and Physiology, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

What kind of Assistantships and Fellowships are offered for PHD programs at Ivy Leagues? Are there a fully funded PHD program offered at Ivy Leagues?

The concept of fellowships and assistantships is to provide stipends to students and funding for their projects. These are of utmost importance and taken very seriously during the PHD course. Such forms of funding are acquired by different means like making progress good enough to raise funding or in some cases by being an assistant to the professors or even teaching lower courses at times. Harvard has the most prestigious forms of fellowships established by former Harvard president Lawrence Summers, alumni, and donors to support students committed to careers in public service. These tend to cover the entire tuition fee leading to no least to no money being spent on getting the PHD. The fellowship pays a stipend amount of $50,000/year for 3 years.

The good news is that while the costs of PHD programs at Ivy League universities may appear hefty, it's uncommon for students to cover the entire expense of their degree. Ivy League universities offer PHD candidates significant financial aid packages. Many will even pay for your tuition in full and provide a stipend to help with living expenses. Certain funding packages could also come with extras like health insurance. Indeed, receiving complete coverage for their PHD fees is quite typical at Ivy League universities. About 97% of PHD’s at Cornell University, for instance, receive full funding from a combination of scholarships, assistantships, and stipends.

A typical funding package includes:

• Scholarships for tuition and the Harvard University Student Health Program covered in full for years G1 through G4 and the dissertation completion year, with the option of a partially subsidized dental plan.
• During the G1 through G4 years, a combination of stipends, teaching fellowships, and/or research assistantships.
• After the first four academic years, faculty grants or GSAS summer research assistance.

PHD students in the sciences often receive full financing up until the end of their programs of study, though funding packages vary by program.

Ivy League fellowships cover full tuition costs and living expenses. Taking the example of Cornell university which offers fully funded merit-based fellowships for 95% of its PHD students.

Most Ivy Leagues provide generous stipends and compensation for students doing their PHD. This depends on the kind of funding the project receives and their progress with the given project that they are assisting or working on. In reality, full financial support for PHD expenses is quite typical at Ivy League institutions. About 97% of PHDs at Cornell University, for instance, receive full funding from a combination of scholarships, assistantships, and stipends.