吃喝攻略|博导神总结:读博失败的10个“作死”大法!切勿容易尝试( 四 )


不把委员会当回事
7Ignore the committee
有的研究生健忘了学位委员会有权取消他们的学位 。
对于学生们来说 , 在最后几年里和学位委员会的委员们保持联系非常重要 。 委员们需要知道你在研究什么 。 而且这些委员会成员可不像你导师那样对你耳提命面 , 你会很轻易健忘他告诉你的建议 。
尽管不常发生 , 但是我的确曾见过一位学位委员会的老师和答辩人由于意见不一致大吵起来 , 他们在用于评估实验的指标上有不合 。 这位老师曾在这位学生请教他的时候告诫过他指标选取有题目 , 但这位研究生忽视了他的建议 。 不外 , 这位学生仍是挺走运的——他只是被延期毕业了一个学期 。 我知道还有一位研究生 , 不是在答辩期间 , 而是在他提交论文初稿的时候就无视学位委员会老师的建议 , 结果没有获得答辩资格 。 学位委员会告诉他——整个初稿推到重来 。 于是 , 他整整花了十年才完成他的博士学业 。
Some Ph.D. students forget that a committee has to sign off on their Ph.D. It"s important for students to maintain contact with committee members in the latter years of a Ph.D. They need to know what a student is doing.It"s also easy to forget advice from a committee member since they"re not an everyday presence like an advisor.Committee members, however, rarely forget the advice they give.
It doesn"t usually happen, but I"ve seen a shouting match between a committee member and a defender where they disagreed over the metrics used for evaluation of an experiment. This committee member warned the student at his proposal about his choice of metrics.He ignored that warning.He was lucky: it added only one more semester to his Ph.D.
Another student I knew in grad school was told not to defend, based on the draft of his dissertation. He overruled his committee"s advice, and failed his defense. He was told to scrap his entire dissertation and start over. It took him over ten years to finish his Ph.D.
目标定得太低
8 Aim too low
有的研究生以最差的学生作参照 , 指望花起码的力气拿到博士学位 。 这样立场可想而知:将来他们肯定拿不到教职 。 而且 , 十有八九是毕业答辩要挂了的 。
这些人挂掉基本上都是因为不幸选题不好或者计划做得太随性 。
目标过低将导致你无法应对任何的不确定性 。 而研究恰恰是布满了不确定性的 。
Some students look at the weakest student to get a Ph.D. in their department and aim for that. This attitude guarantees that no professorship will be waiting for them. And, it all but promises failure.The weakest Ph.D. to escape was probably repeatedly unlucky with research topics, and had to settle for a contingency plan.Aiming low leaves no room for uncertainty. And, research is always uncertain.
目标定得过高
9 Aim too high
对博士研究生来说 , 拿下博士学位那就是读博期间的主要目标 , 的确如此 , 但是 , 这不是终极目标 。 恰恰相反 , 这是你学术生活生计的开端 , 是入场券 。
获得博士学位不一定要能够治愈癌症或实现冷聚变 。 相信还有少数化学家记得爱因斯坦的博士学位论文 , 爱因斯坦的博士论文就是一个原则性的计算 , 旨在估计阿伏伽德罗常数 。 并且他还弄错了 , 算成了其3倍 , 但他仍是拿到了终极的博士学位 。
博士论文对人类知识的贡献虽小但却意义重大 。 它的影响在于其是学生一生所要从事研究的目标 。 获得博士学位所产生巨大影响就犹如你第一次开枪就击中靶心那样 。 一旦你知道如何射击 , 你就可以一直射击 , 直到你击中它为止 。


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