PhD programs to accept me?

[Sagan]

There was a time--back when students designed their own programs--that one could do a PhD at Union Graduate School in two years. I know of at least two cases personally. (In fact, the minimum in-program requirement at Union was originally 12 months.) However, it took an extremely disciplined and driven person who also had a very clear vision of what he/she was going to do to finish the degree. more typical was a degree that took 4-5 years.

In doctoral study, the main variant regarding time-in-program is not the design of the program. Rather, it is the time spent proposing and conducting the dissertation.