reading this list of reasons Ph.D students fail. If I interpret this article as advice, it's good advice.
I just read it and thought some of it was bad advice. Not too surprising, since it's advice about how not to fail from someone whose worst failure was, apparently, taking too many classes and thus taking an extra year! horrors! I also don't appreciate hyperbole about "vows of poverty" or "biblical levels of devotion". But let's leave that aside.
Maybe Lovitts's book already makes this point, but some of the reasons you list are only serious problems if the institution is broken. #5 is usually not a big problem at CMU. #9 is almost no problem at all, and having external funding makes switching advisors even easier.
I also wonder if #8 is less of a problem, or even an advantage, for men. Having teh wife 'n' kids seems to help male tenure-track faculty.
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Date: 2010-09-14 08:25 am (UTC)I just read it and thought some of it was bad advice. Not too surprising, since it's advice about how not to fail from someone whose worst failure was, apparently, taking too many classes and thus taking an extra year! horrors! I also don't appreciate hyperbole about "vows of poverty" or "biblical levels of devotion". But let's leave that aside.
Maybe Lovitts's book already makes this point, but some of the reasons you list are only serious problems if the institution is broken. #5 is usually not a big problem at CMU. #9 is almost no problem at all, and having external funding makes switching advisors even easier.
I also wonder if #8 is less of a problem, or even an advantage, for men. Having teh wife 'n' kids seems to help male tenure-track faculty.