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students fail
2013/12/16 10:18 PM
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2013/12/16 10:18 PM
area, read a lot of papers and try small, exploratory research projects. Spending too much time on coursework distracts from these objectives.
Expect perfection
Perfectionism is a tragic affliction in academia, since it tends to hit the brightest the hardest. Perfection cannot be attained. It is approached in the limit. Students that polish a research paper well past the point of diminishing returns, expecting to hit perfection, will never stop polishing. Students that can't begin to write until they have the perfect structure of the paper mapped out will never get started.
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For students with problems starting on a paper or dissertation, my advice is that writing a paper should be an iterative process: start with an outline and some rough notes; take a pass over the paper and improve it a little; rinse; repeat. When the paper changes little with each pass, it's at diminishing returns. One or two more passes over the paper are all it needs at that point. "Good enough" is better than "perfect."
Procrastinate
Chronic perfectionists also tend to be procrastinators. So do eternal students with a drive to learn instead of research. Ph.D. school seems to be a magnet for every kind of procrastinator. Unfortunately, it is also a sieve that weeds out the unproductive. Procrastinators should check out my tips for boosting productivity.
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Ph.D. school is neither school nor work. Ph.D. school is a monastic experience. And, a jealous hobby. Solving problems and writing up papers well enough to pass peer review demands contemplative labor on days, nights and weekends. Reading through all of the related work takes biblical levels of devotion. Ph.D. school even comes with built-in vows of poverty and obedience. The end brings an ecclesiastical robe and a clerical hood. Students that treat Ph.D. school like a 9-5 endeavor are the ones that take 7+ years to finish, or end up ABD.
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And, it all but promises failure. The weakest Ph.D. to escape was probably repeatedly unlucky with research topics, and had to settle for a contingency plan. Aiming low leaves no room for uncertainty. And, research is always uncertain.
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Most schools require coursework, qualifiers, thesis proposal, thesis defense and dissertation. These are the requirements on paper. In practice, the real milestones are three good publications connected by a (perhaps loosely) unified theme. Coursework and qualifiers are meant to undo admissions mistakes. A student that has published by the time she takes her qualifiers is not a mistake. Once a student has two good publications, if she convinces her committee that she can extrapolate a third, she has a thesis proposal. Once a student has three publications, she has defended, with reasonable confidence, that she can repeatedly conduct research of sufficient quality to meet the standards of peer review. If she draws a unifying theme, she has a thesis, and if she staples her publications together, she has a dissertation. I fantasize about buying an industrial-grade stapler capable of punching through three journal papers and calling it The Dissertator. Of course, three publications is nowhere near enough to get a professorship-even at a crappy school. But, it's about enough to get a Ph.D.
Related posts
Recommended reading for grad students. The illustrated guide to a Ph.D. How to get into grad school. Advice for thesis proposals. Productivity tips for academics. Academic job hunt advice. Successful Ph.D. students: Perseverance, tenacity and cogency. The CRAPL: An open source license for academics. [article index] [email me] [@mattmight] [+mattmight] [rss]
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