Doing a PhD

[Walsingham]

Hi all, thought I'd tap your expertise again.

 

Can anyone give an example of a good PhD proposal? I need to get a feel for them so I can write my own.

[213374U]

I thought you ALREADY were a PhD.

 

I feel cheated. ;C

[Walsingham]

I can understand your mistake. I have all the insufferable smugness of a PhD.

[Gorgon]

A PHD is creating something new, adding to the body of knowledge in your field, so it's nolonger enough to cross all the 't's and dot all the 'i's you need to create a good paper. You have to look for virgin ground which, depending on your field, could be quite hard.

[Walsingham]

I've got no issues with the topic, since I was invited to apply based on it - I've worked with the university before. But I don't know how to write this kind of high level academic shahoozle.

[Moose]

If it's scientific then it'll be something ultra specialised, ultra niche and impossible to explain to anyone but a small selection of colleagues. A bit like MMOs in the early days.

[Walsingham]

You bastards! All i want is an example of one you've seen recently which you thought was good! *sobs*

[Gorth]

Ask Taks to show you his, then you can show him yours afterwards?

[Enoch]

My doctorate is of the "Juris" variety, so I don't have much experience with dissertations.

 

Colleges usually have faculty publications listed on each professor's profile on the school website, and the first major publication a prof has is usually their dissertation. If I wanted to see some dissertations in the field I'm looking at, I'd go to that department's website at the school I'm thinking about, and see what their professors wrote. Once you have the titles, check SSRN or some other website for the text-- this may only work with the younger professors, but it should net you a few. Alternately, college libraries will often hold copies of dissertations done by that school's doctoral students.

 

Also:

 

(Source)

[Walsingham]

At last a sensible suggestion. Thanks.

[Meshugger]

I only have a Master's degree in Science and Bachelor's degree in Engineering, but while doing my Master's thesis, i did a lot of work with those that did their PhDs.

 

Both levels require that the thesis itself should add something new to the field, but the PhD is usually more abstract and more of an idea than actual direct work. For example, my professor wanted to create a new streambased language and compiler, which would be directly designed for a multi-processor environment. One PhD student researched on designing the structure, meaning on defining the Parser, the Front-end and Back-end of the language. Another one did some research on possible implementation(s) of this solution. My part was to implement libraries for a certain processor-type on the Back-end of the language.

 

So, the roles were:

 

Professor: Inital idea, the guy pulling the chains and direct the project.

PhD-students: Design and research of the idea, discovery of new way and ideas that can be implemented.

Master's Degree-students: Design and implement new solutions within the areas researched by the PhDs

Bachelor's Degree-students: Same as Master's, but whithin a much smaller scope. For example, design the communication interface for the libraries that the Master's degree-student is researching.

 

Just trying to explain the levels of responsibility and how broad a PhD dissertion can be. This was in Science though. I have no idea on how the process is in "softer" subjects.

Edited March 17, 2010 by Meshugger

[Humodour]

A dissertation is roughly equal to hang man. In my humbe opini mon..

[Walsingham]

I did my undergrad dissertation in eight days, including experimental data collection. Quite proud of that, even though I shouldn't be.

[I want teh kotor 3]

What are you getting it in?

[Walsingham]

What are you getting it in?

 

Hope and Glory.

[Enoch]

Sample PhD proposition* (.pdf)

 

 

 

 

 

* Not Really.

[Walsingham]

Great PhD idea. I love how it actually raises real issues.