Do PhD students get breaks?
PhD candidates will have breaks from their courses like any other university student; they will have a Thanksgiving break, a break over Christmas and New Year’s, a spring break, and a summer break (unless they take summer classes). Just because there are no courses in session does not mean they are not working hard.
How stressful is a PhD?
The high stakes and daily hardships of research can seed feelings of isolation and personal failure during the long years of a PhD. The time demands of lengthy and complex experiments can also lead to unpredictable working hours, skewing work-life balance and creating a sense of loss of control.
Do PhD students have free time?
Most of the successful students I’ve witnessed treat a PhD just like a job. They work consistent 8 hours days, take some time off to workout, relax. They work on some weekends and relax on others. They have as much free time as any productive/ambitious individual in industry could have.