✳flâneur — a map of the web's best reading

A Ph.D. thesis proposal is a contract

matt.might.net · 1,396 words · saved by 1 readers

Of the three official milestones1 in Ph.D. school--qualifying exams, thesis proposal and thesis defense--the trickiest is the thesis proposal. Qualifying exams are just exams. Students can beat them using the same tactics they used for exams as undergrads. A proper thesis defense should be a rigorous formality. No advisor should ever let her student stand for a defense unless the advisor is convinced the student will pass. Thesis proposals, on the other hand, rarely pass without an objection requiring a modification to the proposal. Students tend to invert the importance of the proposal and the defense: they see the proposal as the formality and the defense as the challenge. Faculty, however, treat proposals like contracts. When faculty sign off on a proposal, we are giving up some of our rights to object later on. We are agreeing that if a student does X, Y and Z, as outlined in the proposal, then we shall grant a Ph.D. We are never going to yield such rights passively. All good thesi

A Ph.D. thesis proposal is a contract A thesis proposal is a contract [ article index ] [ ] [ @mattmight ] [ rss ] Of the three official milestones 1 in Ph.D. school--qualifying exams, thesis proposal and thesis defense--the trickiest is the thesis proposal. Qualifying exams are just exams. Students can beat them using the same tactics they used for exams as undergrads. A proper thesis defense should be a rigorous formality. No advisor should ever let her student stand for a defense unless the advisor is convinced the student will pass. Thesis proposals, on the other hand, rarely pass without

Explore this link on the map →

related reading