Berger, Joseph. "Exploring Ways to Shorten the Ascent to a PhD." NEW YORK TIMES October 3, 2007.

Many of us have known this scholar: The hair is well-streaked with gray, the chin has begun to sag, but still our tortured friend slaves away at a masterwork intended to change the course of civilization that everyone else just hopes will finally get a career under way. We even have a name for this sometimes pitied species — the A.B.D. — All But Dissertation. But in academia these days, that person is less a subject of ridicule than of soul-searching about what can done to shorten the time, sometimes much of a lifetime, it takes for so many graduate students to, well, graduate. The Council of Graduate Schools, representing 480 universities in the United States and Canada, is halfway through a seven-year project to explore ways of speeding up the ordeal. . . . Read the rest here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/education/03education.html?_r=3&em&ex=1191556800&en=f96cc1319be46d7b&ei=5087&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin..