Graduate School Experience: Formal process
The first 2 years are taking required classes and writing your Master’s Thesis.
1. You’ll probably begin your thesis research end of your first year.
2. You’ll need a thesis committee to consult regarding your research.
1. You’ll probably begin your thesis research end of your first year.
2. You’ll need a thesis committee to consult regarding your research.
- Your Thesis Committee is usually made of at least 2 faculty members who will guide you in your master’s thesis research.
- Once you are done writing up your thesis, your thesis will be reviewed by at least 2 thesis readers. The thesis readers will decide whether you pass or need to rework your thesis. They will send their recommendation to the department larger thesis committee.
- You and your thesis committee will have a chance to defend your work and respond back to the thesis readers. Your thesis committee members should be there to help and defend your work. Note I said “should” because they don’t always.
- An agreement will be reached on whether you will make minor or major revisions to satisfy the thesis readers. If there is disagreement, there would be an arbitration committee (3rd readers) to settle the disagreement.
3. You need to have a pass on the thesis to move on to the next stage.
4. Occasionally, the department decides that you are “not Ph.D. material” and will urge you to discontinue the program by giving you a terminal master’s degree.
The 3rd and fourth year are more classes and preparing for your field or comprehensive exams. Some programs have two; others have 4 to 6 exams.
1. Basically, you need to demonstrate mastery of the field. They usually give you a list of books to read and a list of questions that could be asked on the exams. You prepare yourself and file when you’ll be taking the exam. The test can involve a whole day, several days or a whole week of typing up your answer to the questions given on the beginning day of the exam
2. Sometimes, the department allows you to come up with your own questions for the exam. In this case, it is a selfdesign exam. Often times, this self-designed exam is a literature review for your dissertation project
3. Around this time, you should consider exploring other resources and meeting other faculty outside your department. In your dissertation time, you will need an outside faculty for your dissertation committee.
4. After taking required courses, you’ll have time for elective courses. Make sure you take classes that will prepare you for the dissertation, to help you narrow down your topic of interest.
4. Occasionally, the department decides that you are “not Ph.D. material” and will urge you to discontinue the program by giving you a terminal master’s degree.
The 3rd and fourth year are more classes and preparing for your field or comprehensive exams. Some programs have two; others have 4 to 6 exams.
1. Basically, you need to demonstrate mastery of the field. They usually give you a list of books to read and a list of questions that could be asked on the exams. You prepare yourself and file when you’ll be taking the exam. The test can involve a whole day, several days or a whole week of typing up your answer to the questions given on the beginning day of the exam
2. Sometimes, the department allows you to come up with your own questions for the exam. In this case, it is a selfdesign exam. Often times, this self-designed exam is a literature review for your dissertation project
3. Around this time, you should consider exploring other resources and meeting other faculty outside your department. In your dissertation time, you will need an outside faculty for your dissertation committee.
4. After taking required courses, you’ll have time for elective courses. Make sure you take classes that will prepare you for the dissertation, to help you narrow down your topic of interest.
- Be careful not to get stuck with taking classes after classes without seeing an end in sight. You will always find interesting classes to take within and outside your department.
- There are too many information out there; you cannot know everything. The point is to be able to know the overall picture and where your work is situated in the larger picture. It is impossible to know everything.
Your fifth-year and on involves preparing your dissertation proposal or project.
1. You need to write up a dissertation proposal and have it approved by your dissertation committee before you can carry out your dissertation project.
1. You need to write up a dissertation proposal and have it approved by your dissertation committee before you can carry out your dissertation project.
- You need to set up a dissertation committee who will guide you in your research design, execution and write-up.
- Pick faculty who knows something or is expert in your area of research. If not, he/she should be open to learn new things and is able to guide you in what they know. They should want to help you in your endeavor and not give up on you just because they are not familiar with your topic.
- The dissertation committee usually consists of 2-3 faculty members in the department and an outside faculty member.
- One person will be your dissertation committee chair or 2 can be your dissertation committee cochairs.
- The Chair or Co-Chairs are the ones working most closely with you. They are the ones to defend and support you when other committee members disagree about the direction of your work.
- Dissertation committee members should know your work better than any other faculty. They will also be the ones you most likely to turn to when you need recommendation letters as you apply for jobs.
- Try to pick members who can give different types of feedback to your work (methodological, theoretical, substantive, moral support, etc.). As well, they should be people you respect and can work with; they have your interests of finishing the program.
- Some people may be reliving their dissertation stage and won’t pass you until you have a “perfect” and flawless dissertation. This could drag you in the program for many more years than necessary.
2. Once your dissertation project is approved, you need to carry out the research, collect the data, analyzed the data and write up your findings.
3. For some dissertation advisors, they want full report every week or month. For others, they don’t see you until you’re ready to defend your final dissertation. In any case, make sure to consult them when you are stuck, and make sure that they also feel that it’s their job to advise you through while you’re working on the dissertation.
4. Often, you’ll need to meet up with your committee members again to defend your dissertation. Sometimes, they just need to sign off the dissertation and do not require a formal dissertation defense meeting.
5. The final passing test of the dissertation process after the substantive test by your dissertation committee is the librarian’s formatting test. This is just tedious work of making sure your filed dissertation meets the formatting standards and requirements of the university’s library. It may take several days to make sure your formatting (margins, fonts, type of paper, table and figures, page numbering, headings, etc.) is correct.
3. For some dissertation advisors, they want full report every week or month. For others, they don’t see you until you’re ready to defend your final dissertation. In any case, make sure to consult them when you are stuck, and make sure that they also feel that it’s their job to advise you through while you’re working on the dissertation.
4. Often, you’ll need to meet up with your committee members again to defend your dissertation. Sometimes, they just need to sign off the dissertation and do not require a formal dissertation defense meeting.
5. The final passing test of the dissertation process after the substantive test by your dissertation committee is the librarian’s formatting test. This is just tedious work of making sure your filed dissertation meets the formatting standards and requirements of the university’s library. It may take several days to make sure your formatting (margins, fonts, type of paper, table and figures, page numbering, headings, etc.) is correct.
