Curious Questions: How Long Should a Dissertation Be?

Embarking on a dissertation, one has to overcome the fear of a long write. This is an objective problem, since all dissertation papers are long, indeed. They take significant time and effort to write, and there is no guarantee that anyone, even the most capable of students, will go the distance.

To solve this problem and help you decide on the length of your paperwork, we suggest breaking it down into pieces and analyzing them one by one. That’s our go-to recipe for answering the questions of how long is a dissertation, how many pages should a dissertation be, and other similar ones.

The length of dissertation: what’s the catch here?

Dissertations are long. That’s a fact. However, a scholarly mind should be more curious to look beyond general facts. For instance, how exactly do we measure the length? Is it in pages, words, man-hours, or academic days? 

Also, how long should your particular dissertation be? Will the answer depend on the discipline, research question, or the level of graduate degree, e.g., undergraduate, master’s, or Ph.D.? 

These are all valid and highly practical questions. While the length of a dissertation does depend on a discipline to some extent, a doctoral dissertation will always be much longer than an undergraduate one.

In this article, we attempt to determine the recommended length of a dissertation paper based on a degree level: undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D. Further down each category, we present the information in the following cut:   

• dissertation length in terms of pages;
• dissertation word count, or how many words in a dissertation;
• how long to write a dissertation measured in months.

In the end, you should be able to deduce with confidence the length of your particular dissertation.  

How long is undergraduate dissertation?

Although this term is sometimes used in academic settings, a more common way to coin a significant undergraduate degree work is to call it a thesis or a senior thesis. This is still a substantial research project that students complete during their final year in the undergraduate program. Typically, it is the fourth year and the degree they pursue is a bachelor’s one.

• Measured in pages, an ideal undergraduate paper falls between 40-60 pages. The exact dissertation page length varies based on the discipline. For example:

• dissertations in humanities range between 50-60 pages;
• dissertations in natural sciences, e.g., physics, average 30-40 pages.

• Translated into a word count, that amount equals 10,000-20,000 words on average. However, do keep in mind that a word count measurement is more precise since length in pages widely depends on font size and page margins. For example:
  • a 10,000 words bachelor’s thesis written in 12 font size occupies 40 pages;
  • the same 10,000-word volume in a 14-size font approaches 60 pages.   
• In terms of time spent on writing a senior thesis, you will need to set aside at least 2-3 months, but ideally 4, which equals a standard semester at college. 

An undergraduate thesis is still a substantial writing project, requiring thorough research and analytical work, an ability to independently investigate a topic, and present findings in a formal, and academic manner.     

How long is a masters dissertation?

By the time you approach a masters dissertation, you must have clear research goals manifested in a narrow band of courses (your major). The ambitions of your dissertation work should also be higher than those of the undergraduate one, putting more strain on your mental and physical (writing) capabilities. Here is a masters dissertation extent cut in numbers:

• A master dissertation measured in pages is notably bigger than anything that you may have written before. On average, it should be 60-100 pages long, depending on the font size and style. The requirements for the latter are rather strict and don’t vary much. For example:
  • Times New Roman, 12 size font comes standard in most colleges;
  • Calibri or Garamond fonts in size 11-11.5 are common for a university in the US.
• Put into a word count format, the 60-100 pages volume will yield around 15,000-30,000 words – a rather substantial amount.
• Prepare to spend at least 4-8 months on a master dissertation of that page and word count size. 

Writing a masters dissertation should begin at the onset of the final, fourth year at college and continue into the graduation. A project like that will require all of your skills and talents, laying the foundation for your next logical academic step – a doctoral dissertation.

How long should a Phd dissertation be?

Now, if you think that a master’s dissertation is a challenging one, hold on as you are about to learn about the requirements for a doctoral, or Ph.D. dissertation.

• From a page number perspective, a Ph.D. dissertation is an imposing piece of academic work. On average, the guidelines in US universities start at 100 and end around 300 pages. However, certain instances are extending well beyond the upper limit.
• How many words is a Phd dissertation of that page volume? Expect nothing short of 80,000-250,000 words. The range is so wide because doctoral dissertations are highly unique, and discipline-specific types of scholarly projects.
• Your Ph.D. dissertation may “steal” 3-7 years of the most productive period of your life. This time is required not only for writing, but more so for finding a worthy research focus and topic, probing and analyzing its potential, discussing your work with your dissertation committee, and addressing critique and counterarguments.   

A Ph.D. dissertation is a pinnacle of one’s academic aspirations, which may never wither, by the way, dragging you into an active teaching and research career. 

The bottom line

Let’s quickly sum up the above estimates. For that purpose, nothing works better than a neat table with the key information:

The length of a dissertation work depends on many factors. The main ones are the discipline and the degree level, where an undergraduate project is the shortest, while a Ph.D. one is always the longest in terms of page and word count, as well as years needed for its successful completion.