In This Issue:
The start of the academic year can provide a sense of a new beginning. I look forward to meeting the students at Purdue on September 11, 2007. Let’s start the academic year off right by envisioning the completion of that thesis, proposal, coursework, or dissertation by the end of the academic year.
10 Mistakes Graduate Students Should Avoid:
Mistake #7: Assuming Your Advisor/Principal Investigator Knows More about Your Project than You
Success in graduate school requires a certain degree of confidence and maturity. You will need to be able to defend your ideas and take constructive criticism — of your writing, working style, your experiments, or your ideas. Let’s face it, you and you alone are in charge of your program and the degree that you will get has one name on it, yours. Expect and demand to be treated like an adult and a colleague; act like one and you will be treated like one.
Particularly when you start a Ph.D., you may believe that your advisor should be the authority on everything … but that’s not practical or possible. That doesn’t mean that an advisor can’t be a fantastic resource for teaching you how to integrate your work into the big picture. Although it’s natural to want someone to tell you exactly what to do, your advisor expects you to be a mature person who can direct your own life. Your ultimate goal in grad school is to learn how to think for yourself. For example, what do you think about your own work? How do you feel you can better focus your project? Avoid falling into the pitfall of assumptions: “If she/he didn’t think this would work, he wouldn’t have been awarded a $500,000 grant”; “I’m sure someone would tell me if this strategy, method, approach was not right”; or even “This $50,000 piece of equipment must be the right tool for this job, because he wouldn’t have me using it or wouldn’t have spent so much money on it.”
One of the most common mistakes grad students make is backing down from an advisor when their research and convictions are telling them they shouldn’t.
Always remember that you are more familiar with your work than your mentor is. As an independent scientist and thinker, you need to be prepared to defend your position and fight for your ideas. As such, your first and most critical advisor should be you … and only when you are completely comfortable with the strength and relevance of your work should you seek another point of view from your advisor. And, while it’s important to listen and absorb any constructive criticism offered, it’s equally important to have faith in yourself and your work. Remember, you must be responsible for your own research ideas and progress.
Research is about finding new answers or asking better questions. After trying the same experiment over and over again to make sure the results are consistent, or rewriting countless drafts of the same paper for your professor, YOU are the person most likely to identify an unproductive direction, an insoluble analysis problem or other mis-steps. Ultimately, it is up you to get the project to work. While taking classes is straightforward and familiar, research can sometimes be more ill-defined and messy. Your task is to create some structure out of apparent chaos. So what if the first set of experiments, statistical models, or design doesn’t work out? Make the necessary adjustments and move on.
Keep in mind that your mentor isn’t the only source of praise you should have in graduate school. Get additional positive reinforcement and feedback by broadening your circle of friends and professional networks, and bouncing your work and ideas off of them.
If your major professor can’t advise you on your thesis or dissertation topic, then it is up to you to get the help you need. If you need advice, help, or expertise ask for it: if you want to pick somebody’s brains, you’ll have to go to him or her, because they won’t be coming to you. Use your professional networks that you have developed. Don’t be afraid to talk to other committee members, your undergraduate advisor, other graduate students in your lab, people you have met at conferences, authors whose work you find interesting, or faculty in other departments or universities.
Email Question of the Month:
Q:
Dr. Carter,
It’s your fellow SH resident and Dissertation House participant. I’m writing to let you know that I’ll be defending my dissertation proposal in 2 weeks. I’m really excited at having met my goals, in large part because of your seminar, but I do have a lingering concern that I’m hoping you might be able to assist me with.
I’m still not entirely happy with my methodology. I took your previous recommendation and attempted to contact Dr. O, twice, but have not received any response. I’ve also tried Dr. H to the same effect (no response). Either people are really busy, or I’m pursuing them the wrong way. Either way, I’m really at a loss here. My advisor likewise admits he has no idea who I might seek out for assistance with my methodology. Would you have any suggestions you can offer me?
Thanks in advance for your consideration!
G.M.
A:
Hello G.M.
Congrats on the defense date being set. I would recommend that you attempt to attend these two professors’ office hours especially if they are teaching a class this semester. Generally students do not visit professors until there is an assignment due. If you contact them via email send them a 1 pager about your project and an outline on the current methodology that you have selected; ask them specific questions you have about sample size, validity, reliability, snowball sampling etc. Be specific enough so that they know that you are looking for a specific answer instead of them thinking that you want them to teach you statistics via email. Show them what you know already so that they can fill in the gaps your in knowledge.
The quickest option is to visit The Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Consulting (CIRC)a consulting service on mathematics and statistics provided by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics on campus. Established in 2003, CIRC is dedicated to support interdisciplinary research for the campus community and the public at large. They provide a full range of consulting services from free initial consulting to long term support for research programs.
Dr. Carter
TA-DA!™ Graduates —
Congratulations on Your Success
Thanks for the Dissertation House. I successfully completed my dissertation proposal defense on Aug 27, 2007. See the LLC WebPage link below: http://www.umbc.edu/llc/index.html
Chik T
Lisa M. from Electrical Engineering at Morgan State passed her defense with one revision!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She knocked it out from proposal to PhD in just over 1 year.
Sincerely,
Wendy Y. Carter, Ph.D.
email: drcarter@tadafinallyfinished.com
www.tadafinallyfinished.com
About the Author: As a single mother, professor Wendy Y. Carter, Ph.D., completed three masters’ degrees and a PhD. Her motto is a Good Thesis/Dissertation is a Done Thesis/Dissertation. She is the creator of a new innovative interactive resource tool on CD—TADA! Thesis and Dissertation Accomplished. To learn more and sign up for her FREE tips and teleclasses, contact us at info@tadafinallyfinished.com. Privacy is our policy. TADA™ Finishline does not give out or sell our subscribers’ names or e-mail addresses.
