Getting a Smart Start on Your Thesis- Introduction
by Ronda Davé, PhD
Starting a thesis is more difficult than beginning other academic tasks because it involves far more personal and psychological adjustment. Most students expect that starting a thesis will involve unprecedented academic challenge, but they don’t expect the process to be so personally difficult.
Experts who discuss how to start a thesis describe at length the importance of selecting a good committee, finding an appropriate topic, and setting a firm work schedule; but they don’t stress the required changes in attitude that students must make. Many students never figure out what’s expected of them and find the whole process unfathomable. Other students eventually realize what personal adjustments the thesis requires, but aren’t willing to make them.
Hence, many students never get the thesis underway, even though they’re proven researchers and qualified to do a thesis by every academic standard. Half of all graduate students eventually drop out of their programs, and one third of these drop out after completing all courses and advancing to candidacy. These student candidates have passed their courses with a “B” or better, and have proven to a faculty committee that they’re experts in their fields. They’re qualified to join the ranks of other scholars by researching and writing a thesis, but instead they quit.
Experts who study graduate attrition suggest several reasons why candidates drop out at such a late stage. One reason commonly mentioned is that these students get caught in the “money trap.” At the end of coursework, most institutional financing dries up, and many students feel pressed to return to full-time employment. Students mistakenly assume they can do a thesis “on the side” as they start a new job. In truth, doing a thesis while working full time is difficult under the best of conditions and practically impossible when both are begun simultaneously.
Experts also mention that some qualified candidates quit because they can’t find a thesis topic sufficiently interesting to keep them engaged. Either the students get caught in the “magnum opus” mindset—discarding topics as trivial because they won’t lead to significant advancement in the field—or they take the opposite tack—considering only topics so minuscule, academic, and impersonal, they aren’t of real interest. Unable to find a sufficiently motivating topic, these students decide the thesis won’t be worth the cost in time, money, and energy, and so abandon the effort before they begin.
Certainly lack of money or lack of a good topic are two reasons many students quit. But probably more of these late-quitting students drop out because they’ve misunderstood what the thesis will require in terms of personal responsibility, independence, and maturity.

David Sternberg, in his classic book, How to Complete and Survive a Doctoral Dissertation, says that even bright, motivated graduate students suddenly feel like fish out of water when they begin a thesis. After floundering about feeling increasingly incompetent and uncertain, many get discouraged and quit. Sternberg suggested that students drop out after becoming ABD (“all but dissertation”) because they haven’t been socialized to the scope and meaning of a thesis. They don’t understand the magnitude of change in themselves that doing a thesis requires. When they get an inkling, they feel deceived or daunted by a task so much larger than they anticipated.

Struggling Versus Succeeding

Even if students rise to the personal challenge of adjusting their attitudes, many still fumble with the process—encountering roadblocks and setbacks—rather than moving steadily forward. If such faltering progress were true of all students, it would be considered normal for doing a thesis. But many students advance without difficulty. What distinguishes starting students who struggle from starting students who don’t?


As most graduate professors admit, the distinguishing characteristic separating successful from struggling students is not intellectual ability. In contrast to many people’s beliefs, graduate school is not an academic jungle in which, according to some Darwinian process, the brightest students prevail. Students who struggle to begin a thesis usually have as much talent and skill as students who initiate the process smoothly.
The difference seems to be, rather, that students who are “quickest off the block” know how to dive in and use the water—swimming with the current. They have what can be called “savvy”: they quickly understand and adapt to their situation. They comprehend the realities in which they find themselves and do what they need to optimize their progress. They quickly learn to work within the system and play the political game well.
 

The Challenge Equals the Opportunity

Getting started requires that students re-conceptualize the scope and meaning of doing a thesis, adjust their expectations accordingly, and learn to work the system to get support and resources they need. So starting a thesis takes more time and effort than most students anticipate. It may be this realization—that the thesis will require such an enormous initial effort, more than anyone told them, more than they ever imagined—which scares many students into becoming permanent ABDs.
The concern is that you, as a graduate student about to begin a thesis, don’t join their ranks. You need to confront the psychological challenge that naturally accompanies setting foot on the thesis path. One way is to acknowledge that although the path is steeper than you initially imagined, it also promises more growth than you assumed. If you can rise to the occasion, enduring more than you anticipated, you’ll reap unforeseen benefits, extending your abilities and exceeding yourself. None of this is comfortable. But keeping this grand opportunity in the front of your mind will give you the fortitude to start and stay with your thesis.
This issue of Thesis News addresses three skills seldom discussed by thesis experts as essential. These are the academic survival skills of working the system, playing politics, and learning to generate your own support. Knowing these skills will get you off to a smart start on your thesis.

This article copyrighted by ASGS. Please obtain permission to use or reproduce. Thank you.

Getting a Smart Start on Your Thesis is extracted from Thesis News No. 28. Other articles in this issue include:

  • Achieving Academic Adulthood
  • Thesis Support Groups
  • Organizing Support Groups
  • Thesis Street Smarts
  • Working the System
  • Political Savvy for the Thesis.

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