Username: jms     Send personal mail

Subject area: Social Sciences

Stage of research: Proposals & Dissertation

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• Questions: (4)

  How many hours a week should I be working? Is it reasonable to expect to have my weekends free most of the time?

  How much should I expect / ask my adviser to be involved in my job-search process?

  How does authorship work? When should I expect to be primary author on a paper, and how should I expect the work to be divided up on papers where I'm either a primary author or a non-primary author?

  If I have decided that a project that I've been working on is not something that I want to turn into a dissertation, how do I tell the adviser I've been working with?

• Answers: (2)

  Is there a right and wrong way to make it through a doctoral program? How do you DO this? Please share lessons learned.

  Everyone seems to find a different path through the program. The biggest "right" versus "wrong" way seems to be finding an advisor whom you can work well with - both in terms of working style, and similarity of research interests.

  How do you get the most out of an independent study course?

  The most important thing seems to be in picking the topic and instructor. Find someone you will be able to talk to comfortably. Some professors will have a very strong hand in guiding the topic of your independent study, and some will sit back and let you choose and control the direction. Each style works for some people - find an instructor who will give you the amount of guidance or independence that you'll work best with. Talk to other students beforehand, find out what you can about the professor you're considering. Use independent study courses as a way to feel out potential research topics. A reading course is a great test-run for someone you think you'd like to do research under.