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I am in the final course of my bachelor degree program. I am from the country of Georgia.

I am aiming to complete a PhD in USA without a master's degree in a mathematics field.

So I have one question about it:

  • Will I be able to fly back to Georgia on holidays and see my family? Are there holidays on PhD in the USA? Is it possible to fly back to Georgia without holidays?
Buffy
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JohnNash
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    A PhD in math takes 5-6 years in the US.

    For going back home, there are two things that come into consideration: visa and time off. For visa, most F-1 visa are valid for 5 years so you can travel in and out freely during that 5 years. For holidays, there is the Thanksgiving, Christmas and new year, and summer. If you are not planning on teaching or going to conference during summer, you can do whatever you want.

     – k99731 Sep 19 '22 at 17:58
  • @k99731 what's the length of each holiday? can I travel without holidays too? – JohnNash Sep 19 '22 at 18:01
  • @k99731 And spring break. – Elizabeth Henning Sep 19 '22 at 18:22
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    Universities publish their academic calendar in advance. Most are similar. The big differences are whether the Spring term starts early or late in January and the placement of Easter/Spring break. There are a few outliers, though. – Buffy Sep 19 '22 at 18:59
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    Especially in mathematics, advisors tend to be very flexible, as for the most part you can work from anywhere. Every single person in my program visits their family every holiday season (the vast majority of them foreign students), and many of us also frequently go on trips during the summers and breaks. – pedroelpanda Sep 20 '22 at 00:29
  • My experience (a bit dated) is that the departments are very flexible. They will place some constraints though. Many grad students are funded via teaching assistantships, and those involve modest teaching duties. That will constrain the timing of your travelling. Similarly, if they offer a bit extra funding via a summer scolarship, the terms of such extras do include a certain amount of residence. Nothing unreasonable. – Jyrki Lahtonen Sep 20 '22 at 06:32
  • IIRC my F1 visa needed an extra ok (a stamp or something) to allow re-entry without questions (basically to ascertain that I was allowed to continue with my studies). A fellow grad student from the UK got into minor trouble when travelling to Mexico for a week with his US fiancée without such an extra. Rules may have changed since though. – Jyrki Lahtonen Sep 20 '22 at 06:36
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    If you have a TA, then you need to match travel to the academic calendar since you have time-sensitive responsibilities. However, as @pedroelpanda notes, you can do math even on a plane. – Buffy Sep 20 '22 at 13:10

6 Answers6

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Yes, it's normal for PhD students in the US to travel to visit family. You'll have to pay all costs yourself. You'll want to pay careful attention to any restrictions with your visa, and consider complications of international travel that may make it difficult for you to either return home or get back to the US. Certainly international conflicts and sanctions, as well as health-related travel restrictions as have been experienced along with the COVID-19 pandemic are all concerns, but these are not particularly specific to being a graduate student.

PhD students in the US are most often funded by doing some sort of work while they study; for math, in particular, this is often through appointment as a teaching assistant. Being a TA means that travel during the semester is problematic, as you are likely expected to be present for all course sessions and avoidable reasons for absence (like personal travel) are frowned upon.

University-level education in the US is not monolithic - every institution will have their own policies and structure, but a common structure is to have a fall semester from September to early/mid December, followed by a break of a month or so, with courses resuming for Spring semester mid/late January and continuing to early May. Undergraduates may have a week off during Spring (typically March or April), and a few days around US Thanksgiving (4th Thursday of November). Summers can be complicated funding- and responsibility-wise, as you may either more or less have the summer "off" or may be busy teaching an additional semester.

PhD students do not typically have specified "vacation days" the way ordinary employees do, but you'll want to coordinate your vacation time with your PhD advisor at least. This is certainly a question you should ask when interviewing with prospective graduate programs: "I would like to visit my family in my home country during my PhD; what are the opportunities and limits on taking time off to travel?" is a very valid question to ask, and anyone who reacts negatively to such a reasonable request is not someone you want to work with.

Bryan Krause
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  • So as I guess the best period to visit family is summer right? ( Maybe If I would have enough money I could visit my family on winter holidays too.) – JohnNash Sep 19 '22 at 18:45
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    @JohnNash The "best" period is going to be different for everyone. Yes, summer is likely the longest duration break in the calendar for most schools in the US. Note that research is a lot different than other schooling - you're largely working on your own, rather than to a schedule, but that also means you will likely fall behind in your research progress relative to your peers if you actually take the entire summer off each year, unless you can work while traveling. – Bryan Krause Sep 19 '22 at 18:49
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    I can work in Georgia too . Maybe even better because I would be happy to see my family after stressful year . – JohnNash Sep 19 '22 at 18:53
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    Expectations on how much work students do during the summer can also vary based on program and advisor. This is certainly something that should be clarified ahead of time. – Michael Mior Sep 20 '22 at 18:08
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I don't know anything about the visa you may be granted to study in the US, so purely a calendar answer:

There are traditionally three vacation periods in the US academic calendar:

  • The end-of-year holiday break, centered around Christmas, Hanukah and New Year's. This may be a couple of weeks or longer than a month.

  • Spring break: Usually a week long, sometime in March or April. This can be a great time to escape miserably cold universities.

  • Summer break: While most PhD students are not "off" in the summer, it is easier to travel because taking and teaching classes is less common. Summer break usually lasts from May or June to August or September. Many conferences take place in the summer, however.

Some universities also give a whole week off for American Thanksgiving or have a week-long fall break, but this is less common. Many Americans travel home for Thanksgiving, which may complicate or even make a trip home easier.

That said, if you are not doing research that requires your presence, or are able to take classes virtually, PhD programs can be very flexible in allowing you to continue your studies and work while not in your city. However, the pay is probably not high enough to allow you to take many trips home (especially since Georgia isn't a huge travel destination for Americans like say, London or Paris).

Azor Ahai -him-
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  • @AzorAhai-him- So as I guess the best period to visit family is summer right? ( Maybe If I would have enough money I could visit my family on winter holidays too.) – JohnNash Sep 19 '22 at 18:46
  • @JohnNash That's a personal assessment. I go to school in a city that gets very cold and my parents live somewhere that does not, so I'd choose winter. – Azor Ahai -him- Sep 19 '22 at 18:57
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You specified Georgia as your home country and unfortunately I don't know what kind of student visa you will get but this can be an issue.

From personal experience graduate students from Western Europe had 5 year visas that allowed unlimited entries and exits to the US, so for them there were no visa considerations.

However students from China or Iran only got 1 year visas which include the possibility to stay in the US after the 1 year is over but not the possibility to leave and reenter. This meant that these students had to reapply for a new visa every time they went home. The Chinese students regularly 'took the risk' to go home and most of the time got a new visa without problems, although some had to stay in China longer than they intended before the new visa was available. The Iranian student did not dare to travel home because he was unsure whether he would be granted a new visa.

So carefully check the conditions on your visa before you do travel plans.

Edit from comments: It seems to be official policy that Georgians students should get 5 year visa. If you indeed have such a visa you do not have to worry about this issue.

quarague
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  • IMO this answer is not very useful because it is possible to verify what kind of visas are issued to Georgian citizens so we don't have to tell OP to go look it up on their own. So why not provide a direct answer? – JonathanReez Sep 20 '22 at 16:26
  • @JonathanReez I don't know whether all Georgian get the same visa but if they do and you know which kind please add it in. – quarague Sep 20 '22 at 18:26
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    @JonathanReez Are you sure that this can be verified at all? Is it published policy that citizens of some countries get the 1 year visa, or is it just what they do in practice? I believe it's the latter. This is also something that is constantly changing, and not usually for the better. What will happen in 5 years (the typical time to complete a PhD in the US) is anyone's guess. – Szabolcs Sep 20 '22 at 18:44
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    FWIW, for Georgia, the 2020 B visa refusal rate was 67%, much higher than for China. https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/RefusalRates/FY20.pdf Having had rather unpleasant experiences at some US embassies, I can only imagine the conditions there ... – Szabolcs Sep 20 '22 at 18:51
  • https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Georgia.html (click on F) says that Georgian citizens should be getting 5 year F-1 visas by default. – JonathanReez Sep 20 '22 at 18:55
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    @JonathanReez It says the same for China ... Going by that information would be very naive. – Szabolcs Sep 20 '22 at 19:00
  • @Szabolcs only some groups of students from China get 1-year visas. Or you might be remembering an older policy because 5-year visas were only introduced in 2014 for Chinese citizens. There's nothing secretive/mystical about the US visa issuance process, it's all well documented. – JonathanReez Sep 20 '22 at 19:10
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tl;dr The US makes it significantly more difficult to visit home than most other countries.

In most countries, the visa is the document that grants you the permission to: (1) enter the country and (2) stay within the country. The US is unusual in that these two things are separated. A US visa is only for entering the country. Many students find themselves in the situation that they do have the authorization to stay and study in the US, but their visa is expired. Thus once they leave the country, they must apply for a new visa before they can return.

Citizens of some countries typically get visas with short validity (1 year). In practice, they must apply for a new visa each time they go home. It is not guaranteed that the new visa will be granted. Therefore, the visa application can be stressful, and can take time away from your holidays.

I have seen cases where the visa was initially denied, and the student was unable to return to the US for some time.

I have seen cases where people did not leave the US because of the difficulty and risk in obtaining a new visa.

Szabolcs
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Yes, there are holidays. Exactly when they are depends on the school.

The biggest problem for international students is the possibility that your visa will be revoked or your home country will not allow you to return to the US. But these are not questions that can be answered here. You need to know what the current diplomatic status is of Georgia with the US and whether that is likely to change in the future.

Elizabeth Henning
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  • Note that Georgia is working toward NATO membership and has close ties with many EU countries and is a UN member nation. Diplomatic ties between US and Georgia seem secure. – Buffy Sep 19 '22 at 18:57
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    @Buffy Sure, but s*** happens and is happening right now. – Elizabeth Henning Sep 19 '22 at 18:59
  • Truly, but Georgia seems pretty firm in its western focus. – Buffy Sep 19 '22 at 19:01
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    You're giving too much credit to American voters. My point was only that students not from the EU or a Five Eyes country need to take into account the possibility that things could change quickly. – Elizabeth Henning Sep 19 '22 at 19:22
  • -1 because said revocation of visa status has only happened once to students from 7 Middle Eastern nations and is unlikely to happen again soon. The odds of being banned from leaving by Georgia are minuscule as well. Let's not scare OP with events that have a 1 in 1000 chance of happening. – JonathanReez Sep 20 '22 at 16:25
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    @JonathanReez Wasn't trying to scare anyone and I'm certainly not pretending to be an expert on international politics, just pointing out the potential issues. BTW I'm pretty sure a whole lot of Chinese students recently had visas either denied or revoked for dubious "national security" reasons. – Elizabeth Henning Sep 20 '22 at 18:54
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Yes, you can visit family; you will have annual leave in your program

I have no experience with US programs, so I base my answer here on information in the sample of leave policies in this related question. A standard PhD program provides annual leave that can be used at the discretion of the candidate. You can review the PhD rules at specific universities of interest to you to see how much annual leave they provide. In the linked question there is some discussion of the average amount of annual leave in a PhD program in the US, so it may aid your understanding of common levels of entitlement.

Additionally, in current circumstances it is becoming common in the professions to have "hybrid work" where workers do some of their work remotely. Depending on your field of study and your advisor, it might be possible for you to do some of your candidature remotely, at least for small periods. Once you have an advisor in mind, you can inquire into options for working on your candidature remotely for relatively small periods to augment your leave entitlement and give you some additional time with family. Bear in mind that this option would depend heavily on whether your advisor approves, so it is really a conversation that you would need to have with specific advisors during the application process; you should also be careful to ensure that potential advisors are aware of your overall commitment to the candidature.

Ben
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    "A standard PhD program provides annual leave that can be used at the discretion of the candidate, just as with any normal full-time job" - this is highly variable in the US (and grad students are not typically seen as having a full time job from a legal perspective), and at my institution it even depends how exactly your position is funded. It's important to recognize, though, that even if a position does not come with explicit leave it is still considered normal to take some by all but the most insane supervisors. – Bryan Krause Sep 20 '22 at 01:36
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    This is misleading from a US standpoint. I think the system in Australia is quite different from that here. I don't even think that in mathematics the advisor's permission would be needed or relevant. Pure math, at least. Doctoral students are students, not employees. A TA position would imply constraints during the academic term(s). – Buffy Sep 20 '22 at 13:21
  • Whether or not the advisor's permission is needed for remote work, the advisor presumably has significant input into advising the university on whether the candidate is performing adequately and meeting their performance obligations (e.g., in performance milestones) so it would be wise to have them onside. The linked post suggests that even at most US universities there is an explicit period of formal leave, and that appears to me to validate my answer. I haven't even raised TA positions, so no idea how I could mislead on that score. – Ben Sep 20 '22 at 14:03
  • @Ben "The linked post suggests that even at most US universities there is an explicit period of formal leave" - I don't understand how you gather this. The top answer there says what my comment does: there are often not explicit policies for vacation for PhD students because they are students, not employees. It mentions something typical for entry-level employees, not students. All the other answers state that this varies, except for one that lists some schools that have explicit policies posted, but they've cherry picked from those that have a specific number of days granted. – Bryan Krause Sep 20 '22 at 14:25
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    I also cannot comprehend the idea that it's okay to not mention a TA position or other source of funding that will almost certainly impact OP's ability to take time off. As Buffy suggests, this is very important; leaving it out of your answer makes your answer misleading for most US PhD students, especially when you imply a graduate student position is like a full-time job: you've left out the most job-like part! – Bryan Krause Sep 20 '22 at 14:28
  • The linked answer that lists leave policies (which you have noted) confirms the existence of formal leave policies. I have no reason to believe it is "cherry-picked", as opposed to just being a non-exhaustive sample of policies. Re TA positions, that is not part of the question, and it should go without saying that one needs to obey explicit job requirements for an additional position. (Yours is the only answer that mentions it.) – Ben Sep 20 '22 at 14:32
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    @Ben All the other answers are telling you that it depends and that there are often not leave policies. One answer that found some institutions that do have formal leave policies does not contradict those answers. If you aren't familiar with US academia, maybe that should be clear in your answer. If you're treating a graduate student as an employee, you can't ignore the job part of the gig, and for a PhD student in mathematics that's almost certainly as a TA. Why insist on misleading? – Bryan Krause Sep 20 '22 at 14:37
  • The answer listing leave policies appears to be the only case where the answerer has actually gone to the trouble to look up and link to policies, so I find it more trustworthy than the other answers (some of which are directly contradicted by the linked policies). As you are well aware, I do not "insist on misleading"; I merely have a different view to you; your remark is trolling. – Ben Sep 20 '22 at 14:40
  • For purposes of alleviating your concern, I have edited to note that I have no experience with US academia, and I base my answer on the linked question. – Ben Sep 20 '22 at 14:42
  • In case it needs clarifying, I am not saying that a PhD candidature is always treated as a type of employment, only that the existence of annual leave is like what you get in a job. – Ben Sep 20 '22 at 14:47
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    @Ben In the US, there is no requirement for a normal job to have any paid leave and some/many jobs have no paid leave, while other jobs have unlimited/as-needed paid leave. So "just like you get in a job" is, in the US, anywhere from 0 to infinite depending on your specific contract (can even be different for different people doing the same job with the same employer, if one of them negotiates more leave in their contract). https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/holiday – user3067860 Sep 20 '22 at 16:00
  • @user3067860: Thanks for providing this information. Since the analogy to a job appears to be the sticking-point in the answer, I have edited to remove that part. – Ben Sep 20 '22 at 22:57
  • @Ben I think actually the opposite... "just like a normal job" is about accurate, in that there is no paid holiday leave unless specified in your contract. The problem is that since no paid leave is the default, a search for leave policies won't turn up all the programs with no paid leave...because they just don't mention anything. (The PhD programs that DO mention it in their policies are (probably) the outliers, but more visible because they are more searchable.) – user3067860 Sep 21 '22 at 14:21
  • With the added complication that PhD students are still students, so depending on how someone's particular funding is, what type of project they are doing, etc., they could be even not "employed" at all, in which case their schedule is like any undergraduate student (show up for classes and the university doesn't care if you teleport to the moon in between, but won't pay you for it)...or they could be employed with a lot of constraints (they may have classes to teach or they may even have experiments that require they be physically present at very arbitrary or long hours). – user3067860 Sep 21 '22 at 14:28