PhD

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
thom

thom

____
Location
The Borough
srw said:
I have lost nothing in later life by failing my DPhil. And I do actually mean 'failing'. It was judged that I hadn't successfully made an original contribution to knowledge - probably because I didn't prove my theorem. I haven't been in touch with the subject since to find out if anyone else did.

Success seems to be down to having good, active, supportive supervision, an enormously dogged persistence and capacity for continuous hard work without results, and a tolerance for stultifyingly large amounts of serious tedium. None of which I had.

It's an odd system that gets people to specialise on minutiae and then expects them both to be highly creative and to inspire and mould immature minds.
Click to expand...
To put a student through a viva that fails is def a long term failure of the institution and supervisor, presumably Oxford in this case. The variation in the competence of supervisors is staggering.
It is possible to have too much supervision though - 2 students of my supervisor ended up with mental health issues that the local GPs dealt with.
 
dellzeqq

dellzeqq

pre-talced and mighty
Location
SW2
ASC1951 said:
Yebbut. Thom uses DudeSpeak, so either he can't count beyond four or he's American.
Click to expand...
I'm afraid anybody who has witnessed Thom sort out the trainfares will appreciate that he is pretty spiffy with numbers. What with him, srw and rvw (terrifying once she gets going) in the gang I keep pretty darn schtum about working out 3 to the power 13 in my head for fun............this is, after all, the only cycling club that insists on TECs having three degrees.

No girls, sorry, no puncture repair kit, no ride

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWmFyNFRJ2Y&feature=player_embedded
 
srw

srw

It's a bit more complicated than that...
thom said:
To put a student through a viva that fails is def a long term failure of the institution and supervisor, presumably Oxford in this case. The variation in the competence of supervisors is staggering.
Click to expand...
I was allowed to get to two years after starting work full-time before submitting my thesis. During that time I was also studying for professional exams. You can imagine that the thesis was not my first priority.

Since then a novel has appeared with my research group as its foundation - the author must have been part of the group only just after I left. My supervisor, who was also the head of the research group, has his name given to a very minor and ineffectual character. I can only assume that it was a deliberate choice.
 
thom

thom

____
Location
The Borough
ASC1951 said:
In that case I assume it's the Merkan in him, which is ok. I would still sit on my arse if I went over there to do it.
Click to expand...
Despite the avatar, there's nothing genetically or specifically culturally from the US in me.
Although, it's true I am a technically a wrangler...
 
A

ASC1951

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
thom said:
Despite the avatar, there's nothing genetically or specifically culturally from the US in me.
Click to expand...
Right, I take it back. Be told. It's maths!
 
thom

thom

____
Location
The Borough
srw said:
I was allowed to get to two years after starting work full-time before submitting my thesis. During that time I was also studying for professional exams. You can imagine that the thesis was not my first priority.

Since then a novel has appeared with my research group as its foundation - the author must have been part of the group only just after I left. My supervisor, who was also the head of the research group, has his name given to a very minor and ineffectual character. I can only assume that it was a deliberate choice.
Click to expand...
Seems like you passed the cheesy "PhD of life" then - independence of thought as manifest through the rejection of a futile endeavour.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom