Thesis roller coaster
My blogging friend, Ian, had another post about the ALM program this week, talking about the low graduation rate. Bad timing. I am in the midst of the proposal process: doing lit reviews, creating three biblios (’works cited’, ‘works consulted’ — don’t forget the annotations!, ‘works to be consulted’), and have been under the weather all week with the cold going around. Making progress but still a frustrating experience (more about this later).
The bad news: I’m not going to make my self-imposed deadline of getting the proposal in before Harvard’s spring vacation week. That was my goal because after that, for the month of April, the social sciences thesis advisor, Dr. O, is unavailable as he’s reading the completed theses that are submitted for June graduation. He couldn’t look at proposals before early May.
The good news: doesn’t matter. Even if I got the proposal in over the summer, I’m still ahead of schedule for a June ‘09 graduation.
My current beef — in this program, you have to have most of the research work DONE (75%) and the biblio has to be ‘complete’ (no key works overlooked) when you submit the proposal. Then you get a thesis director and the clock starts — you have 9 months to finish it. Ok. That’s just crazy-making. So when you submit the proposal, you’ve done much of the thesis. My question — why do you need 9 months to ‘complete the thesis’ if you only have 25% left to do? (All this is from the “Research Proposal” section of the ALM manual). Or…just as crazy-making, your director wants you to go in a different direction, so all that work you did goes out the window!
It’s important to meet with Don during the work-up of the proposal, as he strongly urges everyone to do, but even then, it’s a long solo slog. Which brings me to the ‘frustrating’ story. While you’re pushing through a pile of material, you have to go into the weeds, over and over, to chase down important quotes and footnotes to verify accuracy and find more material. However long you think it will take you, double it…triple it.
So you can see how the graduation rate is low. Even if you get through most of the courses, the thesis experience is a winnowing process. Hurdles abound — not enough time, not much support, the fog of researching, spending time with family/friends (even doing laundry) is much more appealing, etc., etc.
Ok. Enough ranting. Back to the research pile.
