If there was one dominant theme of our recent panel discussion on surviving the dissertation — which featured Professor Sidney Verba and advanced graduate students and recent PhDs — it was that the dissertation is a balancing act. In fact, it is several balancing acts, all happening at the same time. Every speaker emphasized that there were opposing forces pulling in opposite directions, and that none could be ignored.
On the broadest level, there is a need to learn how to maintain a balance between your personal life and professional. The panelists — who included Galena Hashhozheva (PhD in English), Samuel Goldman (PhD in Government), Jamie Jones (History of American Civilization), and Jeffrey Denis (Sociology) — agreed that work on the dissertation suffers if there is no other outlet, whether that is family, a serious hobby or sport, or just plain hanging out.
In choosing a dissertation topic, there is a need for balance between listening to your heart and listening to your head. All agreed that you must choose a topic that you really care about, or even love, since you will be staying with that topic for a very long time. On the other hand, it’s important to factor in such practical considerations as whether fieldwork will create hardships for you or your family, whether there are other types of costs connected with the dissertation, and the state of the job market in a given field. The job market is perhaps the trickiest part, since the market tends to be slow in many fields, but also shows fluctuation by field from one year to the next.
In choosing an advisor, it helps to realize that a single faculty member may not be able to fulfill all of your needs, whether intellectual or support needs, but that working with a committee may help to address them more fully. There was a strong recommendation, in this case, to keep in touch with all committee members, even if you have a principal advisor. A speaker mentioned that one faculty member felt he was being overlooked or slighted because the student spent more time with another committee member.
In deciding how often you should check in with your advisor, you need to pay attention to your own inclinations as well as your advisor’s. Professor Verba noted that it is unlikely that any advisor, no matter how caring, is going to think about your dissertation as often as you do. So take the initiative in setting up advisory appointments.
In establishing work habits, all agreed that it is crucial to do at least some work, no matter how little, on a daily basis. There will be some days when you are on a high and get a lot done, and others, where it will be a stretch to write even half a page. The speakers agreed that you should not beat up on yourself for the bad days, but definitely should rejoice for the good days.
The final piece of advice was to seek a balance between feeling that your dissertation must become the definitive work on your topic versus settling for too little in terms of quality. It is important to do a good job, especially in a tough job market, but it is equally important to avoid being a perfectionist.
