THE MYSTERIES
REVEALED
(ver: 6 May 02)
Graduate school does not work like college did. This is whole different ball game. Because the stakes (like your entire future) are higher, the potential pitfalls can be deeper. Conversely, if you “read & heed” the material in this booklet, your experience will be far more pleasant. This guide is designed to provide you with the information you need to know if you want to complete grad school in a successful and timely manner. It contains all the things your advisor, grad director, or department may or may not have told you. Most of it is stuff you don’t know that you don’t know (and, in most cases, neither do your classmates). So, if you are interested in preventing an ulcer, avoiding a caffeine addiction, or other stress-related maladies, keep reading...
Rule Number One
You are responsible for your own
education. Unlike your undergraduate
days, nobody is going to hold your hand or light a fire under you. This is graduate school, and you are expected
to chart your own course and fly it.
Faculty members are here to coach, mentor, and guide, but you must take
the overall initiative. At the risk of
sounding a bit blunt, if you drop out, it’s no sweat off anyone’s back—except
yours. If you take seven years to do a
two-year program and pay for a bunch of courses you don’t
need, no one’s really gonna care. The
choice is yours—and so is the payment.
Throughout this document, you will see it is the student who must be
assertive, pick up the ball and run with it.
Your faculty will greatly appreciate your efforts and doing so will
prepare you for handling the rigors of reality outside the hallowed halls of
The Cast of
Characters
Advisor. Member of the Graduate Faculty who is responsible for guiding you
through a program. Normally selected by the student and serves as coach,
mentor, benefactor, protector, and preventive medicine specialist. See the section on “Picking Your Advisor.”
Committee Chair. A member of the Graduate Faculty who heads up your thesis or
dissertation committee. With rare exception, this should be your advisor.
Selecting your committee chair is one of the most important decisions you will
make in grad school. See the section on “Picking Your Committee.”
Dean. The head of a college or school. Department chairs report to deans, and deans
report to the provost (top academic officer of the university). For example, there
is a Dean
of the
Department Chair. Faculty member who is in charge of an academic department.
Usually an excellent source for professional guidance and for support (academic,
administrative, and financial) of your academic goals. Get to know him or her.
They can’t help you if they don’t know you.
Faculty
informal relationship for the purpose of professional development. Usually it is
someone in your department with whom you have a natural rapport and can
discuss sensitive things with. He or she can help you avoid numerous potholes.
The Go-To Person. This is an administrative person in your department who actually
does all of the paperwork associated with your presence in that program. They
assist the graduate director in making sure everything gets done that needs to be
done to get you in and out of the program. Seek him or her out and make them
your first stop when you have an administrative question. They are the ones who
know everything that you need to know, but don’t know that you need to know it.
Graduate Director. A faculty member in a department who oversees the graduate
portion of its academic program. They deal with your application, request for an
assistantship, and are to provide you with all of the departmental and grad school
guidelines for completing your program in a proper manner. Sometimes called
the Director of Graduate Studies (DOGS).
The
application, program of study, and request for graduation. You can’t get into or
out of grad school without these folks. They oversee all of the rules and
requirements for completing your degree. They’d be good people to know. Go
see them
on the 3rd floor of the
Grad Student. A diligent, disciplined person who is willing to pay the personal price to
obtain mastery of an academic field. Frequently seen in hot computer labs with a
1,000-mile stare and a 30-pound backpack.
Program Coordinator. The staff worker in The Graduate School who handles your
application, program of study, and clears (or denies) you for graduation. There
are several of them, with each handling one or more academic programs. They are there to help you negotiate the administrative maze of grad school. Find out who yours is and introduce yourself to him/her (3rd floor of Byrnes, 777-4243)
Terms You Need To
Know
Academic Rank. A classification system for those who teach at colleges and
universities. From bottom to top: Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate
Professor, Professor, Professor Emeritus (retired). Grad students do not hold
academic rank unless they teach their own class (as a doctoral student), in which
case they are normally classified as Instructors.
Assistantship. The way most of you get paid to attend grad school. The general
deal is that you work X hours per week for your department and, in turn, you get
reduced tuition and a stipend (paycheck). There are many variations on this
theme, so see your Graduate Director for details. See section on assistantships.
Chain of Command. While this is not a military organization, there is a formal hierarchy
to graduate school. It goes like this: you, your advisor, the graduate director,
department chair, college/school dean, dean of the graduate school, provost,
president, board of trustees, governor. If you have a problem, take it to these people in the proper order. The results will be much better if you do.
Dissertation. An original, academic work completed as part of a doctoral degree.
Usually the maker-or-breaker of doctoral students. You will eat, sleep, and
breathe your dissertation, so pick a topic you like. See section on “Dissertation.”
Grad Student Office. A cramped, usually windowless room occupied by a
weary band of grad students who hold assistantships. It has desks, chairs, and
possibly a phone, all of which have been there for the past 28 years. This
becomes your home. The alternative is to live out of your backpack, so smile.
The Lab. A science or computer laboratory where you will exist for the duration of your
graduate career. It will be too hot or cold, but in it you will form strong friendships
as you diligently wrestle with myriad challenges. Determination and discipline
are exercised here as are endurance and persistence.
Ph.D. Perseverance, Hardwork, and Determination. Contrary to popular opinion, one
does not have to be particularly smart to obtain a Ph.D., but they must have
these three qualities. Alternate definitions: Pretty Hefty Dissertation, Piled Higher
& Deeper, Post Hole Digger, Pile it Here Dummy.
Thesis. An original, academic work completed as part of a masters degree. Good
practice for doing a dissertation. A mondo “senior thesis” on steroids.
How to Pick A
The key word here is “fit.” Find a department/school where your particular interests fit well with those of the faculty. Are you interested in studying the topics and specialties they do? What about their philosophies and perspectives? At the masters level, you may manage to be admitted to a program, but if “the fit” isn’t there, you’ll have a miserable time and may very well leave before finishing. At the doctoral level, normally a specific professor has to be willing to take you on as an advisee before you can be admitted. No matter how qualified you are, if you don’t fit with the department and a specific professor, you probably won’t be admitted.
So, to avoid these problems, take the initiative and begin dialoging (emailing / calling) prospective departments and hook up with a professor who you’d be interested in working with. Try to ascertain how well you’d fit in that program. If things look promising, submit an application and visit the campus (before the department meets to decide who gets accepted or rejected).
Your Application
Learn how to fill out forms. A fair number of applicants (maybe about a quarter to a third) can not get into graduate school because they do not submit a complete application. Read everything in the application materials before doing anything. Then read it all again. Make yourself a checklist of items to be completed, especially if you are applying to multiple schools. Send all of the materials in the same packet and be sure to follow up with the school to be sure everything arrived on time, including the letters of recommendation. You are responsible for doing this correctly. (Refer to Rule Number One.)
Learn how to write. The personal statement you send makes a significant impression—for good or bad. Being able to read, write, and speak competently is essential for getting through grad school and for being successful in the real world. You will have a continuous opportunity to do all three while pursuing your degree. It’s best to come prepared. Seek extra help, get some tutoring, take an extra undergrad class, do whatever it takes to move towards being professionally proficient. Once you get your graduate degree, you are expected to perform at professional standards so the further along you are before you arrive, the less painful your graduate academic will be.
Once you have the readin’ and writin’ down pat, and are ready to send in an application, please be aware that you are really making two applications: one to The Graduate School and one to an academic department. Both entities have to accept you in order for you to “get into grad school.” Read the instructions very carefully to be sure you know which materials have to go to which entity. If it’s not crystal clear, get on the horn and ask somebody.
Once in a Lifetime
By now, you’re probably thinking grad school is a real drag and are combing classifieds for a nice vanilla job. But, before you do, consider that Graduate school is one of most unique opportunities available to the intellectually inclined. Think of it...where else on this planet can you have the chance to study whatever you want to study, become the world’s expert in it, and get paid to do so? There is no better opportunity in our society to devise and develop an original, creative work of your choice. If you write a dissertation (and in many cases, a thesis), you are the world’s most knowledgeable person on that specific subject. Yes, it will take a concentrated effort like you’ve probably never put forth before (or will again), but it’ll be worth it.
A notable part of what you learn in graduate school has nothing to do with academic facts. Mark Twain said that he refused to let his schooling stand in the way of his education. In graduate school you should learn how to ascertain truth. You should be able critically examine an idea, subject, place, or activity and determine what is really true about it. You should gain the ability to conduct research and create knowledge. You should learn how to minimize bias in your understanding of the world around us. Learning how to use your brain should be a major benefit of attending grad school. However, one of the most significant things you will hopefully learn is how much you really don’t know. Arriving at this understanding is a humbling experience. There is so much knowledge out there, you can’t possibly know it all. If you think you have mastered a discipline, then someone (either you or your faculty) has failed in the education process.
Graduate school offers one of life’s rarest opportunities. Remember, there are three things, once released, that can never be taken back: an arrow from a bow, a word spoken, and an opportunity not taken. So go for it.
Counting the Cost
Before you jump in with both feet, you might want to be sure you count the cost of going to graduate school. What kind of costs? For starters, it will take several years of your life. A masters is frequently done in two years if you have your act together and a doctorate can take anywhere from three to ??? years depending on the program and the student. If you go part-time, it will take even longer. It will also cost money. Unless you have one of the very few lucrative fellowships or assistantships, you will be poor while in grad school and you’ll probably go into debt. Furthermore, you will loose the opportunity to earn an income while in school. Ask yourself whether the long-term benefits are worth the lost income. Third, your education will come at the expense of your family and social life. Unless you can survive on three hours of sleep a night, your family and friends will pay a steep price. Your family (if you have one) will have to sacrifice for the duration. Don’t plan on “having a life” while in grad school if you want to finish in a timely manner. Fourth, you will have to earn your education from the sweat of your brow and the toil of your mind. You will have to deny yourself many of the pleasures of life to obtain this goal. While everyone else is out playing, you will be at your computer, in the lab, or at the library. Are you really willing to spend just about every single weekend sitting at a computer for the next ??? years? Do you have the self-discipline?
What Should I
Study?
Frankly, if you’re asking this question, you’re probably not ready for graduate school. Go out and work for a few years and then consider getting an advanced degree. Hard work will teach you things you’ll never learn in a classroom. If you don’t know what you want to study, you’re basically wasting everybody’s time (especially yours).
Graduate school is a place for those who have a goal and are willing to expend the effort to attain it. Ideally, you should be able to communicate your goals to the faculty before you apply. If accepted, you can hit the ground running and get squared away in short order. Professors really like students who are focused and know where they are going – and why. You need to figure this out before you get here. If you don’t know what you’re aiming at, the faculty can’t help you much. You must first go to them with your ideas, goals, and dreams. Then they can guide you. You take the initiative.
Ok, let’s say you know what you’re after and have gained admission to an appropriate department—then what? In the big picture of things, you should obtain a broad base of your discipline (i.e. chemistry, sociology) at the bachelor’s level. That is, make a survey of the discipline, take a little bit of everything that composes the field, see what you like. At the master’s level, you pick one portion of the discipline and work within it. At the doctoral level, you are generally specialize in one aspect of the field. Further, you dissertation is tightly focused on one, narrow subject.
For example, let’s say your
discipline is basket weaving. As an
undergrad, you take courses in all aspects of basket weaving such as underwater
weaving, open-air weaving, basket materials, basket design, the history of
basket weaving, and so forth. When you
do your masters, you may want to pick the underwater weaving portion of the
discipline. You’ll take coursework on
the various aspects of underwater weaving such as the history of underwater
weaving, water quality, cultural practices of underwater weaving, and teaching
techniques for underwater weaving. You
may do a thesis on something like “Underwater Weaving Designs of the 19th
Century.” Now, at the doctoral level,
you find that you are really interested in a specific aspect of underwater
weaving, that of cultural practices. So,
you will become a specialist in culture and basket weaving and may do a
dissertation entitled “The Cultural Ramifications of Underwater Basket Weaving
in the
Choosing Your
Advisor
Once you’ve been accepted into a program, moved into your new apartment, and stocked up on the mac & cheese, the first order of business is to get a permanent advisor. Most departments will assign students to temporary advisors before you first arrive. This allows you to function administratively until you can figure out who you want to have as your permanent advisor. As a masters student, the matching of the student and advisor is important, but less so than at the doctoral level. Various departments have different policies regarding advisee assignments, so go to your Graduate Director and find out what they are. Do some checking with your classmates to get the scoop on the faculty in your department. Schedule office visits with prospective advisors and lay out your plans and goals. See how they respond. Talk with them casually in the hall. In other words, take the initiative to do your homework before choosing you advisor. Refer to Rule Number One.
At the doctoral level, the professor who you’d like to work under (and with whom you’ve probably been corresponding) normally becomes your advisor. While it can change down the road, it usually doesn’t unless unforeseen circumstances arise. Essentially, the professor has to “take you under their wing” before you even get accepted. It is tough to know from a distance if you will get along with a particular person, so your detective skills need to be used very effectively.
While your advisor is (hopefully) friendly, he or she is not really meant to be a friend in sense that your classmates are. There is a fine professional line here. You are still a student and they are still the advisor. You are not their peer and the relationship should be handled accordingly. Sure, a group of faculty and students may go out for Happy Hour or attend a departmental picnic and drink a few beers, but, you must maintain the professional nature of your relationship (even if your advisor doesn’t). It is common for a student and advisor to have lunch together periodically. This is an excellent time to be mentored, to work through problems, make plans, and be encouraged. If your advisor behaves in a socially or professionally inappropriate manner towards you, speak with your faculty mentor, the graduate director, or departmental chair. If the matter is not resolved, keep moving up the chain until it is. Keep all of your academic relationships clear and professional.
As a doctoral student working under a particular professor, you become “one of their students." This can unfortunately lead to some turf battles as some departments are factionalized. Not everything is sweetness and light. Some professors don’t like other professors and you may get caught in the middle. The best thing to do in this situation is, first of all, try to be at peace with all of your associates. Take a team approach in your relationships, promote unity, and try to stay out of the partisan politics. Failing that, keep your head down, your mouth shut, and do the best quality work you can.
On a more positive note, you need to be aware of academic pedigrees. Even though you will be working like a dog, your pedigree is more related to your professor’s reputation than to your diligent labor. Once you receive your doctorate, (or even before), the academic world will ascribe to you some of your advisor’s qualities, philosophies and perspectives. It’s kind of an academic lineage, a family tree if you will. You will be forever associated with your professor in the historical record of your discipline. Also, having a good academic pedigree can be helpful in securing positions and in professional advancement. Hence, it is very important to pick your advisor carefully.
Choosing Your
Committee
If you now realize the importance of selecting your advisor wisely, put your seatbelt on. The single most important decision you make in graduate school is the selection of your committee. Read this again: the single most important decision you make in graduate school is the selection of your committee. The decision of whom will be on your dissertation committee is absolutely crucial to your survival in graduate school. Failure to assemble a good committee has the potential to rob you of getting your degree. By contrast, putting together a solid team will propel you to success.
A thesis committee is normally composed at least three faculty, a dissertation committee of at least four (with one being from outside your department). With rare exception, your advisor should be the chair. Check with your department and The Graduate School to nail down the applicable policies. The purpose of this committee is to guide your research and to assure it is up to the standards expected by the university and the professional community. They are the people who (literally) sign off your thesis/dissertation and are the gatekeepers of your degree.
How do you form your committee? First, secure a good, permanent advisor who will serve as your chair. Second, be sure you have a research topic in mind and are prepared to give a brief outline of what you’d like to do (see section on “Finding A Topic”). Third, start talking with your classmates about “who’s who” in the department. Find out who is good to have on your committee and who to avoid. With this info, you can talk with your advisor to get his/her input on whom to approach. Fourth, set up an office visit with each prospective committee member and get their responses to your research plan. If they respond positively, file that way, make no commitments, and don’t ask them to be on the committee just yet. Thank them and move on to the others. As for identifying an outside committee member, start asking your classmates and faculty about who around the university has an interest in your topic. Track down leads, make phone calls, keep asking folks, go see’em. Fifth, after you’ve pretty well done your homework on possible committee members, get together with your advisor and determine who you will ask to be on your committee.
Here are some degree-saving checklist items:
1. Be sure you can work well with every member of the committee.
2. Be sure your advisor can work well with every member.
3. Be sure each member can work well with all of the other members.
There are some combinations of faculty you definitely don’t want to put
together. Find out who they are before you ask them to be on your
committee.
Once you have identified a good team, then formally ask each professor if they will serve on your committee. This whole deal is an exercise in relationships and diplomacy. Learn these skills—professionals are expected to practice them.
Its Your Degree
Let’s talk philosophy for a minute. It is your degree. It’s not your professor’s degree, not your parent’s degree, not anyone else’s—it’s yours. The university is here to serve you – not the other way around (although it may look like it sometimes!). Don’t get confused, while the numerous hoops you are required to jump through to obtain your degree make it seem like you are at the school’s beckoning, this is not the case. Yes, you need to accomplish the tasks set forth by the university, but the nature of those endeavors is up to you.
Let’s put it in practical terms. The discipline you decide to study (i.e. history, social work, business) is up to you. The specialty within that discipline is also up to you as are the particular courses and research topics. Further, the focus of your thesis or dissertation is also your choice. What do you what to learn? What skills do you want to obtain? What do you want to become an expert in? Perhaps your advisor conducts research on a particular topic. That does not mean you have to do your research on that topic. You certainly can—if it coincides with your interests, but would you be really learning what you want to learn? Whose agenda is being advanced? Remember, you are here for you, not for your professors. Seek their guidance and insight as you formulate your own research plans, but the choice is yours. See Rule Number One.
In a similar vein, you get out of it what you put into it. Grad school is a fabulous opportunity (in many ways). If you just want to slack off and do the minimums, that’s up to you. If you settle for less-than-your-best effort, you’re shortchanging yourself. Obviously, going overboard is not recommended, but making the most of the opportunity is. You will thank yourself after you get out there in the real world where high standards are expected.
Rule Number Two
As mentioned above there are numerous hoops you have to jump through to be awarded a degree. But, as a new student, you probably don’t even know what those hoops are. How do you find out? Well, there are several ways. The first way is the cause of many headaches and heartaches, and that is: my friend told me...yada, yada, yada. Unless your friend has memorized the Graduate Bulletin or works at The Graduate School, he or she is probably mis-informed to some extent. Using incorrect info will cost you some (precious) time, generate a lot of hassle, and in some cases, prevent you from graduating. All due respect to your friends and classmates, but they are generally not good sources for university policies, procedures, and regulations.
The primary, authoritative source for information governing your graduate career is the Graduate Studies Bulletin. It is online at: www.sc.edu/bulletin/grad/index.html. Get your nose in the book and start educating yourself on the “rules of the road.” Granted, such a document can be a little unclear sometimes. So, who do you go to? Go to your “Go-To” person in your department, the administrative staffer who handles all the paperwork for grad students (see “Cast of Characters”). You can also call or visit The Graduate School. Since they either make or enforce the policies, they can set you straight very easily. The point here is this: seek out authoritative sources for information. This is Rule Number Two.
What’s The Deal With Assistantships?
Except for the independently wealthy, most of you will be able to fund your education with a Graduate Assistantship (GA). In short, the general set up is that you work a certain number of hours (usually 10 or 20) per week for your department and, in turn, you get reduced tuition and a paycheck (called a “stipend” in academic parlance). Have a friendly visit with your Graduate Director to learn the specifics. GAs come in basically four flavors:
Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA). This is a grad student who teaches their own
course. They are the instructor of record and are usually a doctoral student.
Graduate Instructional Assistant (GIA). Here, a grad student helps a professor
administrate a course, with duties that may include making copies, grading
papers, and taking attendance.
Graduate Research Assistant (GRA). In this category, the grad student assists a
professor with the professor’s research.
Graduate Staff Assistant (GSA). Relatively few in number, GSAs are assigned either to
their department or to another unit on campus, and provide administrative help.
Because the purpose of this document is not to bore you with administrivia, we will stick to the crucial, important stuff. To get the official scoop on assistantships, you may want to visit: http://www.sc.edu/policies/acaf400.html. Rule Number Two applies.
How do you get an assistantship? Talk to your Graduate Director. GAs originate in academic departments, not in The Graduate School. Departments are able to offer assistantships based on the available departmental funding and the current departmental need. So, be sure to clearly communicate your interest in obtaining an assistantship to your department during the application process. The department will commonly offer/not offer assistantships when they send you your acceptance letter. At the start of each semester, assistantship duties will be assigned by (usually) the Graduate Director.
If your assistantship is for 20 hours per week, and they give you 30 hours worth of work, make sure you superiors are aware of this and correct it. You should not work more than the agreed number of hours. On the other hand, you may be getting paid for a 20-hour per week assistantship, but only have to work 10 or 15 hours. This may seem like a double standard, but it is common and accepted practice. This is because the University knows that you are here to get an education and one of the main purposes of an assistantship is to help you get through grad school without starving.
Get Your Arrows
Lined Up
Being schizophrenic in graduate school is not really a good idea. One of the big dangers you need to be aware of is being pulled in several different directions at once. If you don’t plan things well, your courses will be on one subject, your research topic on another, and your assistantship has you doing something totally different. Not a very efficient way to do things.
Instead, try to get all of your arrows going in the same direction. That is, try to have the topics of your coursework be related to the topic of your research. And better yet, see if your assistantship duties can be in line with your thesis or dissertation topic. If you are working on three different subjects, there is no synergistic effect, only a schizophrenic effect.
If your professional goal is to teach at the college level, for example, ask if you can have an assistantship in which you teach a lab or a course (GIA or GTA). This experience is essential to landing a tenure-track position after you graduate. Conversely, if you wish to do research as a professional, get an assistantship that has you doing research. The closer you can align your thesis/dissertation topic and your assistantship, the better.
If you’re
getting a little drowsy about now...WAKE UP!
You are about to read a piece of information that could save you years
of work. Are you AWAKE??? Good.
Here it is. Orchestrate your courses
so that the research papers you have to write can be used in your thesis or
dissertation. That’s right – double
dip. We’re not talking about ice cream
here, but if you follow this tip, your graduate career will go down smooth,
sweet, and easy. Let’s say you are
taking a seminar on the history of basket weaving and your thesis /
dissertation is on the “The Cultural Ramifications of Underwater Basket Weaving
in the
The key to all this is planning. Establish a research topic as early as you can in the process (even before you set foot on campus if possible). Let’s get smart about this, your entire graduate experience is centered on your research topic. It is the hub of the wheel from which all of the spokes extend. It is the kingpin of your academic wagon. Everything is tied to it – your advisor, your committee, your assistantship, your coursework, your career, your sweat, and your tears. See Rule Number One.
Choosing a Thesis
/ Dissertation Topic
If you want to fail in graduate school, here’s a sure-fire way to do so – lollygag around in finding a topic. Wanna know why people don’t finish or take a decade to get the degree? They are afraid to tackle the most challenging task of the graduate experience – selecting a topic. The event looms before them like a raging thunderstorm and they either don’t want or don’t know how to deal with it. Let’s take some of the mystery away from this degree-hobbling hurdle.
First, some foundational facts. As you’ve read, it is critically important to establish a topic as early as possible (before you get here is best). Next, you should keep in mind that your thesis topic may serve as a stepping stone to an eventual dissertation. It would be wise to have some long-range vision of your professional goals. If you don’t have this vision, then you probably shouldn’t be in graduate school. If you’re doing a dissertation, be aware that your topic will, in all likelihood, follow you for life. It will mark you as an expert in that particular subject for at least a decade. Hence, pick something you will enjoy living with! Now, while you’re doing it, the dissertation will not seem too enjoyable. On the contrary – it will probably be the most difficult, arduous, and demanding task you will ever face short of being a parent. This is why is essential to pick a subject that you are passionate about. Find something that strikes a chord deep inside of you, that you have a genuine, deep-seated interest in. You will need this passion during the many dark months (or years) it takes you to finish the dissertation.
Second, your study should make an original contribution to knowledge. It must add to the body of knowledge on a particular topic. You must “create knowledge.” This is why we do research. Picking a topic is similar to walking out into a field with a shovel. You can either dig a hole where no one has dug before, or you can go to someone else’s hole and dig it wider or deeper. The choice is yours. When your work is finished, you must be able to answer the question: “what do we know now that we didn’t when you started?”
Third, the identity of the topic is already inside of you, but you will need others to help draw it out. Here’s how this works: move from the general to the specific. Ask yourself “what am I passionate about, what things have I always been naturally interested in, what do I innately like, what subjects have been a thread throughout my life?” Ask those who know you about what abilities, strengths, inclinations, and skills you have. Enlist your faculty, friends, classmates, and family in the discussion of finding a topic. Talk with all sorts of people. Finding a topic is a lot like baking bread. You start with a simple idea and add some yeast to the basic ingredients so it can grow. The initial idea comes from you, but the yeast is added by others. You turn it over and over, kneading it, letting it sit, adding more ingredients, working it, more yeast, turn it over... You must take the initiative in this process and keep it in motion.
Using our loony example, let’s say
you know you want to do something related to basket weaving (a general
idea). As you talk with many others, you
discover that you the cultural ramifications of this activity really intrigue
you (narrowing it down a bit). You have
a personal passion for cultures and the human experience. You are motivated by wanting to know how our
lives (cultures) are affected by technology and artifacts. This is the core of what you are doing. But you still need to frame your study more
definitively. You know from your
coursework and readings that basket weaving was practiced in the
The Mechanics of a
Thesis or Dissertation
A very common question is: “how long does a thesis / dissertation have to be?” The answer: you need to use enough paper to wrap the package. There is no set length a study has to be, but it does need to be a complete work. Its length will be determined by you and your committee. In general, however, master’s theses are commonly in the 70-100 page range while dissertations tend to be at least 200 pages, and normally longer. Studies done in the hard sciences tend to be relatively shorter than those done in the social sciences. Theses / dissertations commonly have five or six chapters, which vary on the following theme: introduction, background, methodology, results, summary & conclusions. The literature review can go in either chapter 1 or 2. The methodology chapter describes exactly what you did (necessary in case someone else wants to replicate your work). The results chapter tells the world what you found. The summary & conclusions chapter should also contain suggestions for further research. Talk with your advisor about the structure of your thesis or dissertation.
Once you have narrowed your topic down, you need to write and defend a proposal. The proposal should contain the following elements: a problem statement, a purpose statement, a defining of the study, the contribution of the study, methodology, and literature review. The problem statement and purpose statement should be very clearly focused, and precisely defined. This is absolutely essential. The portion on defining the study is meant to put a solid fence around your topic like a corral around cows. A warning to the wise...research topics will take on a life of their own and grow into 800-pound gorillas unless they are precisely defined by strong boundaries that are continually adhered to. Finally, the literature review should show where your work fits within the existing body of knowledge.
Programs of Study
No coach takes to the playing field without a plan, no traveler heads overseas without a map, and no grad student should start a degree without a “program of study.” They come in two varieties: unofficial and official. After sorting all this out, you should end up with three pieces of paper. The first is an unofficial program of study. This is something you make up on your own and is composed of a list of courses you intend to take. Sit down with the Graduate Bulletin and with the pertinent documents from your department and write out the course requirements for your degree (i.e.: how many credits of core courses are required, how many of electives, how many from cognates, how many for thesis/dissertation, and so on). List all of these on a piece of paper by category. You will probably have to change some of the courses as the years go on because they may not be offered. But that’s ok, at least you have a plan to work from. The second piece of paper is a timeline for your graduate program. Figure out how many courses you can take each semester and about how long this degree is gonna take you. Add to it the desired dates for each step of your journey. That is, when you plan to have your topic established, literature review done, proposal defended, field or lab work done, comprehensive exams scheduled, final chapters written, defense, and graduation. If you aim at nothing—you will hit nothing. Take these unofficial plans to your advisor and get his or her input.
There is also an official program of study required by The Graduate School (the third piece of paper). This is a list of the actual courses you have or will take for to satisfy the requirements for your degree. It must be signed off by several people in your chain and be on file in The Graduate School in order for you to graduate. Check with your advisor, director of graduate studies, or program coordinator for details. No program of study—no degree.
Running the
Graduate school is like running a marathon – gird your mind for the long haul. Endurance is a necessary trait. Like any athlete, you need to know your capabilities and your limitations. You must also be disciplined enough to live within them. If you overextend yourself, you will probably suffer psychologically, physically, and academically. It is common for grad students to be under such stress during the semester that their bodies hold off sickness until after finals—then they get ill. Most students will sleep for a week. Burnout is a very real threat and you can’t get much done if you’re a smokin’ hole in the ground.
So how do you minimize these hazards? First, take good care of yourself. Eat right, exercise, and get plenty of sleep. You’ve heard all this before, so no need to go into great detail. Keep in mind that our bodies get fatigued from doing brainwork. You need more sleep than you think (recognize that you’re not 18 anymore). Your social life will suffer, but that is part of cost you must be willing to pay for a gradate degree. And don’t forget to care for the spiritual side of yourself. Take time to attend worship services and associate with others of your faith. Running this race requires you to practice energy management. You only have so much mental and physical energy (you’ll have more if you take care of yourself). Work at a sustainable pace. A useful motto is: “steady pace wins the race.” Work consistently. Find a pace that you can maintain for a long, long time. Saving work until the end of the semester is dumb. Frontload the semesters as much as you can because academic events tend to accumulate towards the end. Someone once said, life is tough; it’s even tougher if you’re stupid.
Comprehensive
Exams
There are a lot of nightmare stories going around about comprehensive exams. Many of them are actually true. Your comprehensive exam experience can either be the most awful, agonizing event of your career or it can simply be the challenging exercise it is meant to be. It’s up to you. The basic idea behind comps is to examine the knowledge gained from your coursework. The length and format of the exams varies from department to department. Generally, it is 8 to 10 hours of written exams over one or two days, covering four portions of the discipline. There are four members of your comps committee (which may or may not be the same four individuals as your dissertation committee). Comps are normally taken at the end of the last semester of your coursework. See your advisor on how comps are done in your department.
Studying for comps can take a long, long time, perhaps up to a year. It is beneficial, therefore, to talk with your advisor and comps committee members early. Discuss what material will be used for the exams. It may consist of the readings from a seminar, the content of a textbook, or a particular body of literature. Come to a clear agreement with each faculty member on the content and format of each exam. Then start studying. Knock out a little at a time. Steady pace wins the race. Be disciplined.
The Defense
After you successfully write your proposal and conduct your research, you will need to defend your work. This is called “the defense” and does not have to be feared by graduate students. This is another instance where lack of understanding may trip you up. The defense is intended to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge about a research topic. It is not meant to be a shooting gallery. (If it becomes one, then either you did not select your committee prudently or you failed to prepare. Refer to Rule Number One.) A few months before the defense, talk with your committee chair/advisor about what his or her ideas are for the event. How do they see it? What format would they like you to use? Make absolutely sure you understand them accurately!
Normally, you will give a brief review of your work (for the guests—yes, the defense is an open event to which friends, family, and classmates may come). Next will come questions from your committee. This is “the defense” part. The defending is not done in your presentation (your committee knows what you did), it is done in the answering of the questions. Following this, the audience may be invited to ask questions. Then you and the guests are excused to the hallway for the longest 10 minutes of your life. Your friends go home and leave you to await the results of your committee’s deliberations. You will be called back in, the committee will discuss their conclusions with you, and they’ll indicate any changes or revisions they’d like made. If there are major problems with your work, they will point them out to you and give you instructions on what needs to be accomplished before they “sign off” on your research. If they find your work in satisfactory condition, they will sign the title pages of your thesis or dissertation, shake your hand, and congratulate you. (Be sure to have the title pages printed up [one on the special paper] and ready to autograph [in black ink] before arriving at your defense.)
So how do you prevent this from becoming a very negative event? Pave your own road. First, pick your advisor and committee very, very carefully. Second, in the months and years before the defense, pay regular visits to your committees’ offices to keep them apprised of how your project is going. Iron out any problems early on. Communicate, coordinate, cooperate, and graduate. Third, make sure all members have read and approved of your chapters in a timely manner. Dumping chapters on a professor at the last minute is a formula for trouble. Fourth, visit with each member before the defense to talk about what the plan for the event is (as put forth by the chair). In other words, make sure everyone is on the same sheet of music. If you do not do this, you’ll be in for a rough time and may not walk in May.
On Final Approach
The
In addition to the above criteria, The Graduate School also has some format guidelines which supersede those in the style manuals. You can get a paper copy by going over to The Graduate School. While the format checks are to be made in your department, it is a good idea to pay a visit to your program coordinator to be sure you have your all of your paperwork complete, your title page arranged properly, and your thesis/dissertation formatted correctly. Finding out that you goofed after you made eight copies is definitely not fun.
Graduation!
There are
several graduation ceremonies here at
Academic attire for graduation is called regalia. Regalia consists of gowns, hoods, and caps. At each degree level, there are specific regalia. These items can be rented or purchased from the bookstores or from local businesses. The authoritative source for “who wears what” is the American Council on Education. All of the details can be found at: http://www.acenet.edu/faq/costume_code.html
Conclusion
This guide is meant to help you avoid some of the many potholes and smooth the road of your graduate career. If you take responsibility for your own education, you will minimize the risks and maximize the opportunities. Best wishes to you as you embark on this unique chapter of your life.