Getting What You Came For

The smart student's guide to earning a master's or Ph.D. degree.

Observations

• This book is wonderfully designed and laid out. Even forgetting the topic, this book is enjoyable to read based on its format alone. Elegant type, sturdy paper, nice cover, etc, and at about 400 pages, it’s a nice weight too.

• It’s aimed at people who are interested in post graduate education in order to get a master’s degree or a doctorate. While the most value will be extracted from those who are still undergraduates, the concerns of people who’ve taken a break or have worked in industry for a while are also catered for.

• The book is focused entirely on the US educational system.

• I have not summarized several chapters. Namely those on financial aid, being a minority in academia, scheduling, dealing with stress and depression, and other “soft” or changing areas. It is recommended you get a computer with at least 32MB of RAM - this shows the age of the edition.

General

• Peters notes that it took him 8 years to get his Ph.D. in “fish behavior” but that given the right preparation, outlook and level of enthusiasm, it should not take any more than 3 or 4. The book’s goal is to give you that preparation.

Graduate school is a ritual humilation in which novice academics are initiated into their respective disciplines

• Peters emphasizes that the best postgraduate students are driven, determined, and not prone to “floundering.” An emphasis throughout the book is on being pro-active, even to a fault. You need to be asking for things, meeting people, and making contacts and extending your network at all times. Especially with people who could have a big effect on your postgrad education or career.

A study by Ramiro Valdez at a northeastern school of social welfare found that, on a standardized scale where 100 equaled the amount of stress experienced by someone whose spouse had just died, doctoral students in their first year scored an average of 313 points.

• Being an undergraduate is compared to being “treated more or less as a child” whereas being a postgraduate is “like adolescence.” Rather than blindly taking classes, you need to prove yourself, be eager, yet recognize your position in the grand scheme of academia. It is important to be sociable and engage in smart politics to get ahead.

Even if you write a brilliant thesis, you will also have to play a smart political game to maximize future job or academic options.

• About 50% of doctoral students will drop out.

• Married people are less likely to drop out of Ph.D. programs.

• People in the sciences are less likely to drop out. Those in the humanities are most likely to drop out. Reasons are given in the book.

• In the 17th century, master’s degrees were merely conferred to people who kept paying school fees after completing their bachelor’s and who did not engage in any “ungentlemanly activities” for three years. It was a fund raising opportunity for schools and a way for the rich to get more prestige. Master’s degrees that had to actually be earned turned up somewhat later.

Where to Study and How to Get There

Choosing a Thesis Advisor

• An entire chapter is devoted to choosing a thesis advisor. This is heavily stressed as being a lot more important than choosing a school. A great advisor at a second rate school will result in more success for you than a lousy advisor in the Ivy League (usually). You need to find someone to whom you can be a good protégé.

• A good thesis advisor is someone whose own career is mature and assured (less likely to take credit for your work, etc) and, ideally, who is tenured (so will not disappear half way through your doctorate).

Admissions

• Large numbers of admissions are typically broken down into sets which different teams or individuals evaluation. These are whittled down from large to small numbers quite quickly, so your application needs to be ready to get top marks from almost anyone who might pick it up.

• In a doctoral program, the faculty are looking for people who will be good researchers first and foremost. Solid research skills or prerequisites are more important than where you did your undergraduate degree.

Advisers regularly say that their favorite type of student is one who comes in knowing just what thesis topic he wants to work on.

• Some departments care about the GRE a lot, many do not. In any case, it might swing it in a close race. Peters advises significant revision and dummy testing for the GRE.

• Peters advises heavily researching any schools you apply to. Some are heavy on theory, some heavy on research, and some have topic areas or certain ways of working that you need to be aware of. You can tailor your application to these differences.

• You need to start thinking about your path to post graduate school half way through your junior undergraduate year. (Or 18 months before you plan to apply.)

• Recommendations are very important. A lot of pages are devoted to this topic. Essentially, you need detailed praise from academics you have previously worked with. If you do not, you need to find a way to get this level of recommendation.

The Doctorate

• There are many types of doctorate. Most subjects are Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in whatever subject, but there are others like Doctor of Library Science, Doctor of Education, and Doctor of Arts.

• You start out and remain a “graduate student” until your Ph.D. is done, but once you have passed the level necessary to get a master’s, you may become a “doctoral student.” Once you have completed your course work, but before doing a thesis, you are a “doctoral candidate.”

There are three things that are not formally required by your department but are so important you should make them requirements for yourself. [..] Tattoo this list somewhere you won’t forget to look. (1) Publish academic papers. (2) Go to conferences. (3) Get on committees.

• Some departments will require you to teach, but try to do as little teaching as possible. It slows you down.

[The] thesis will establish your reputation as a competent researcher and also build the base for your postdoctoral research.

• The thesis defense is not to be feared. Your professor and committee should already have decided that your thesis is acceptable. It is a formality.

Politics

• Be ready to run favors, be nice to people (especially higher ups), and try to become friends with professors.

• Peters advises inviting your adviser and other graduates or technicians for dinner.

• Meet and greet professors and committee members at functions and seminars rather than just hanging with other graduates.

• Practice and maintain a “professional image.” Even if you’re academically brilliant, it can look politically bad to have a slack appearance or attitude, and some people will be ready to mark you down or spread rumors about you nonetheless.

• Be kind to support staff (e.g. secretaries). They can help you in ways you can’t imagine initially.

• Don’t be timid. Be discreet with showing off, but be ready to ask questions and push for things you want or need.

• Write a lot of letters (or e-mails nowadays, I’m assuming) to people. Build up a network. Send your papers to others in the field who could be interested. Be persistent but don’t nag people.

• Attend conferences and begin delivering papers or giving seminars as soon as is possible.

Most graduate students and indeed most professors are lousy public speakers and their presentations are boring. Make yours stand out.

Set a goal of getting on at least one committee per year.

Writing Papers

If you are a doctoral student, set yourself the goal of publishing at least two or three papers in professional journals before you graduate, and at least one if you are a master’s student.

Early publication is also a good way to minimize problems with your thesis committee. It becomes very difficult for the thesis committee to find significant fault with your research if it has alredy been judged mature and useful.

Start the publication process early; it usually takes a year or two from submission to publication.

• Peters suggests releasing multiple shorter papers than a single bigger one. He also suggests “reinterpreting” your results and rewriting parts of your paper so it can be submitted to other journals in different disciplines.

Qualifying Examinations

• Master’s exams are “likely to be relatively easy” if in a terminal program. If you’re aiming to qualify for a Ph.D. program, however, you need to do very well.

Ph.D. qualifying examinations are large and terrifying. Their purpose is to certify that students who pass are qualified to be Ph.D. candidates.

• Preparing for the qualifying examinations can easily take a year. An example is given of an English student who had to study the most important books in 4 different topic areas over a year and then had to write 4 lengthy essays and do a 2 hour oral exam.

• The written exam may take “several days.” A biology student reports having to write 15 pages in each of 5 areas - 75 in all.

• In oral exams, contradictory or unanswerable questions may be asked. Their purpose is to see if you will admit what areas you are not familiar with but, importantly, how you could begin to research such topics.

• Review exams from previous years.

• Find out who will be on your examining committee and research their interests or character of their departments.

Many students study for six to twelve months. The best defense against nervousness is to really know the material.

The Thesis

A thesis, in the US system, is a document that sets out to explore an academic subject and which contains unique research or insight into an area relating to that discipline. The thesis is a mandatory part of receiving a doctorate but may be optional (and called a dissertation) in a master’s.

Note: How to Write a PhD Thesis is a great online guide specifically about writing a Ph.D. thesis.

The Thesis Committee

The thesis committee’s formal obligations are to approve your thesis proposal and to judge the quality of your thesis and its defense.

• Your thesis committee expects you to “develop the ability to do independent work”, to “keep in contact”, to “make constant progress”, to “be honest about progress”, to “be responsive to their advice” and “remain friendly and cheerful.”

• Choose your committee very carefully. If you cannot choose your committee, investigate the faculty members assigned to you and lobby for changes, if necessary.

Ideally, you want secondary committee members who recognize that their role is to be counselors and not judges.

• Present your thesis to your committee as you go along. Don’t try and write it all in one go and then go to them. Your committee may have a very different opinion to you and could force you to make significant changes.

• Try to get your advisers to set firm deadlines with you for reading your work.

• Nip any problems with your advisers in the bud ASAP.

Thesis Topics

• Don’t think that travelling or dilly dallying will help a thesis topic “come to you.” You need to “dive into research, discuss the ideas that interest you with as many people as possible, and write about the subjects as much as you can.”

A thesis, particularly on the Ph.D. level, is expected to be an original contribution to knowledge.

• Peters notes that the “degree of originality [of your thesis] need not be earthshaking.”

It can help if you think of the thesis as the answer to a research question rather than as just a written report on research.

You begin with a major question, develop subordinate questions that help you answer it, and plan and refine along the way research to answer these questions.

• The “perfect thesis” is just a myth.

It is easy to find a topic if you search actively.

• Peters’ own thesis was on the sexual behavior of a species of swordtail fish. Other fish had been studied in a similar way before but not this species. Yet, his work was considered original nonetheless.

• Try not to be too clever. Chew off a small but original problem and leave Einstein levels of “solving the universe” till later in your career. Peters says you need a “concise, doable topic” rather than a “grand thesis.”

Interest develops from immersion and activity.

• Your adviser may suggest a topic for your thesis.

• Read other theses and articles.

• Originality is important even if not strictly necessary. It will hurt your image if your thesis is found to be a duplicate of another’s work.

• Start writing immediately.

The Thesis Proposal

Most departments require that Ph.D. students write a thesis proposal that describes in detail on what, why, how, and on what time schedule they plan to do their thesis research.

To use a house-building analogy, the proposal is a blueprint for your research.

• Start your proposal several months before it is due.

• A thesis proposal will vary in length but anything “from a few pages to thirty or more.”

Even if your committee will let you get away with a vague proposal, don’t do it.

• A proposal should have a cover page, a single “abstract” page, and a table of contents as well as appendices.

• A good structure is to have three chapters. An introduction. A literature review. A “methodology” (including the method of data analysis).

• If you are working under a traditionalist, you may need to present your hypotheses as “null hypotheses” where you state there is no correlation between what you are trying to prove.

• A large bibliography in your appendices is strongly recommended by Peters. As your thesis bibliography will need to be very large, this is great preparation.

• As you finish drafts of your proposal, get them reviewed.

• Some departments will require you to take part in a formal defense of your proposal in front of your thesis committee.

How To Write A Thesis

• Thesis styles vary significantly, especially discipline to discipline. Don’t worry about having a “standard” number of chapters.

• Theses can range from “twenty or thirty” pages in physics through to “hundreds” of pages in a subject like English.

• Read over theses in your field to get a feel for length and structure.

• Most theses have similar gross structure: front and back matter and a “body.” As Peters says, “a beginning, a muddle, and an end.”

• Front matter includes a title page, copyright, certifications by your committee, acknowledgments, table of contents, and a list of tables and figures.

First, when you pick a title for your thesis, work in as many descriptive, precise key words as possible without making it absurdly long.

• In your acknowledgments, acknowledge all politically important people who helped you in any way.

• Back matter includes the bibliography and appendices.

• The “body” of the thesis contains “two groups of chapters.” Introductory chapters set the scene and “presentation” chapters are the meat of the thesis.

• The introductory chapters should include a literature review and an overview of your methodology. These are “essentially updated versions of the first three chapters of the thesis proposal.”

• Be sure to update your literature review chapter with new references, if using the one you did for your proposal. New papers may have appeared since.

• Theses are loosely divided into “data” theses (as in science) and “thematic” thesis (as in the humanities).

• Data theses chapters will generally be divided into experiments or one experiment with methodology, results, and discussion for each.

• Thematic theses are more narrative and require building up arguments that are then discussed.

Writing up your thesis is a monstrous task, so you should expect to take somewhere between six months and a year, provided you don’t seriously procrastinate.

• Humanities theses tend to take longer to complete than science theses.

One productive scholar says that a reasonable writing rate is three pages per day, including time for research.

One excellent way to trick yourself into starting your thesis is to make course papers do double duty as thesis research. Whenever possible, choose paper topics that cover material you need to know for your thesis.

• To avoid procrastination, make small steps of progress each day rather than let it pile up. If you do get stuck, resolve to do something about it before time rushes by.

• Back up your work. Back up your work. BACK UP YOUR WORK. Students have put out multi thousand dollar rewards for getting back lost computers, disks, and such that contained the only version of all their Ph.D. work.

The Thesis Defense

• Most departments will require you to defend your thesis. Some won’t.

[T]he average defense in now more civilized, and many departments consider them to be largely ceremonial presentations of work which has already been judged sufficient to warrant the degree.

Most likely you will begin your defense by presenting a brief overview of your thesis work, which can last anywhere from a few minutes to an hour. When your presentation is completed, the committee cross-examines you for another hour or two, asking about either specific aspects of your research or more general questions about the broader implications of your research, or even asking detailed questions about your field which are not covered by your thesis.

• Peters notes that almost no-one fails their thesis defense if they have “worked closely with their committee during the development of their thesis.” If, however, you have been distant and aloof, your committee may wish to “teach you a lesson” by failing you in the defense.

• Read the latest literature in your field before the defense. Someone may try to grill you on the latest findings, especially if they relate to your thesis.

• Make a list of possible questions you might be asked and try a mock defense with a friend or advisor.

• Don’t come across as arrogant if cornered in the defense. Admit you don’t know something or give a partial answer. You can also try to work back questions to the committee to kill time or give you thinking space.

• If you have an attack of nerves, it’s better to be silent for ten seconds than babble or show fear.

• Make any suggested revisions ASAP.

Foreign Students

• About 5% of postgrad students in the US are “foreign students.”

• If you are applying to US institutions from overseas, start the process a year in advance.

• Two useful publications to check out are Graduate Study in the United States: A Guide for Prospective International Graduate Students and International Graduate Students: A Guide for Graduate Deans, Faculty and Administators.

• Beware of culture shock in the US. The book lists a number of stories about students from Latin America finding US institutions and relationships between faculties and students to be too formal and “cold.”

Career and Jobs

• A large chapter is devoted to defining what you want you career to be and how to find a job. Most of it is basic and covered by most guides to finding a job so I’m only listing the unique elements that stand out.

• There are more doctorate recipients every year than the last and fewer tenure positions. Peters advises NOT taking a Ph.D. unless it is entirely necessary for your career path. For master’s degrees, he advises investigating what the difference in salary or prestige a master’s will give you in your career is. In some industries it will have no effect at all and is likely not worth pursuing.

• Peters tells readers to seriously think about working for a year or two before going to graduate school. It was once considered unusual but is now considered a plus in most cases.

• Do a lot of research. Interview people who already have jobs in your field to find out how they got the job, what they do, etc.

• If nervous, start by interviewing people you already know or who are at companies you would never want to work for. Work your way up.

• The two best ways to hunt for a job are through interviewing people (as if those people have a requirement, they already know you) and having a “powerful cover letter” for your résumé.

• Ask people for advice. People like giving it.

• Avoid clichés in your résumé and keep it tight.

• Jobs for English Majors and Other Smart People is recommended as a good source of info on writing a cover letter.

This book on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. If I got it right, I should get a small cut if you buy a copy, so thanks in advance.

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Last updated: July 30, 2010 by Peter Cooper