Eccentricity

Ok. Do you think contacting each program is advisable in this instance? For example, I am applying to Notre Dame, and they prefer the more well-known person. But another school prefers the lesser well-known....

So, I am applying for PhD programs. I'm currently doing my masters. It's all going well, except that I am stuck with not knowing who best to recommend me for these programs. I currently have my supervisor, another professor whom I've worked with extensively, and the choice between my undergraduate supervisor and another, more well-known (i.e., kind of like academic celebrity status) professor, whom I've only worked with for a short amount of time. The well-known person is happy to recommend me but says that I should choose my undergraduate supervisor to recommend me because he knows my work well. But I had at least one school say, no, they would like a recommendation from the more well-known person. I really don't know what to do. I guess it's a good situation, but now I'm frozen and struggling to decide what is best. For US institutions (I'm applying in three different countries), does the name and status of the recommender matter more, or the amount of time spent working with me? I'm in a humanities field, by the way.

So, we are assigned a supervisor in general, but then can change supervisors when we have thesis topics solidified. The plan was to ask the university to assign him to me (with his agreement of course), for next year. He's not my supervisor right now but I was going to try and make that switch this term, as he's the only person in the faculty who makes sense for this research.

I've never wanted someone not to succeed. I never imagined I would be in that position. The thing is, profs on sabbatical here are required to continue supervising graduate students (I just looked up the university regulations). The reason for this person's sabbatical are research-oriented, in which case I would frame the possibility of my helping the research as part of the thesis...that's how desperate I am. I don't know though, if "graduate" in this instance means "PhD only" or "PhD and Masters."

What would be ideal is if during the year of their sabbatical that they would just do the supervision. There is one other person who could joint supervise me and take the major bureaucratic load off of this professor. I'm hoping that I could get a thesis proposal worked up so that that's a convincing option. I am not even REQUIRED to have a thesis proposal at the masters stage...I don't even know how to begin right now. But I'm worried that I look like someone who demands too much effort. This is bad. The FINAL issue is this. The person might not be able to take sabbatical next year. If they take it the year after that, then the problem would be me being accepted to do the PhD under them. They might simply not accept me because they have to provide supervision to PhD students even when on sabbatical and so wouldn't want to take that obligation on.

So, I am on the first year of my masters, and doing well, except for a hurdle which has been thrown my way. The person whom I came here to work with, who I plan on working with in the PhD, is trying to go on sabbatical and has said that if he does so, then there's no chance that he would supervise me for the Masters thesis. There are MULTIPLE huge problems: 1. My research is extremely specialised and sequential...i.e., I need to continue down this research and instruction path in order to continue forward in this field. It's not the kind of field where you can easily flick between subjects and still remain within the same area. There are few people able to supervise this research, and the only person at this institution is this professor. 2. Because of some neuropsychological conditions I have, the research path that I am going down is the only path that makes sense for me, and it's the one thing that I am overly-talented at...one reason I am here...the one thing I do very well and am unwaveringly committed to doing. 3. This professor and I have one of those remarkable working relationships which you rarely find anywhere. This person would be the EXACT individual to work with, because we get along so well. Given the neurological conditions that I have, well, so few people understand them and can work with me and with them. This person can. With the right supervisor, my condition makes me extremely good at what I do. With the wrong professor, it's a huge disability, and I don't mean that lightly. I am at an impasse, and am absolutely terrified.

So, I am from the States but am getting my Masters at Oxford, and plan to stay in the UK for my PhD... From my personal experience, what your rec letter writers told you is a myth. Especially at Oxbridge, there is what is called the "halo effect" and from the moment I was admitted into Oxford, I noticed it. People take you much more seriously, whether or not it is warranted. I'm not saying you're guaranteed a job, but there are lots of partnerships between higher-level institutions in the US and Oxford. Besides, as far as getting a job in academia goes, it's who you know, not where you went, that is of utmost importance. Trust me -- I've witnessed it over and over in the past few months. Academics will introduce you to other academics and you are more easily able to build a reputation. I'd warrant, because of the nexus of communication and scholarship here, networking opportunities are much better, and often its a recommendation from a top person in your field that can land you a job more easily than a solid GPA at a different tier of institution and letters from more obscure academics can. What they are worried about (your rec writers) is that you won't have teaching experience and/or grades to show. At this stage of modernity, most US universities know how Oxford works, and as far as teaching experience, I don't know one PhD student here who doesn't teach and who hasn't organized high-level conferences in various countries, much less the UK. Trust me, you wouldn't want to work for an institution that doesn't know these basic things anyway. The only difficulty that a person I know has encountered was that a university wouldn't accept her for her PhD because she didn't have "credit hours." She ended up not wanting to go to that university anyway...they didn't have decent connections with the rest of academia. My takeaway with that is that going to a highly centralized place like Oxbridge (or Ivy Leagues) puts you right in the middle of opportunities you wouldn't necessarily have elsewhere. After all, a degree is what you DO with it...

I'm from the US. I've been to Israel, and I'm studying in the UK. I need to travel more...

So, I'm on my first year of a two-year MPhil (master of philosophy instead of master of arts), and I'm keen on starting at least cursory preparations for my thesis. I am starting early because I know that I can't work quickly. I can't work well under intense pressure. I am slow and methodical. The problem is, at least, with my experience in grad school, one is thrown into the sea of postgraduate studies as if one already knows how to swim. I know how to swim enough to get across the hypothetical lake. I would just like to swim WELL, not inefficiently. Of course I've done a thesis before, for my undergrad degree. Yes, it was original work. But for this degree, the amount of data to synthesize, the amount of documents to translate, and the fact that I want it to be high quality is making my head spin. How to approach this efficiently? How does one choose a solid topic to begin researching? How to organize data from the very beginning? It is in a humanities subject. I don't want to approach this in the haphazard fashion that I did in undergrad. Any practical advice would be really appreciated. Are there methods that worked for you at the very, very beginning? Are there pitfalls I should look for? And I mean as practical as what kind of annotating system/data capturing worked, up to how did you go about each stage of the research? I would rather not attempt to reinvent the research wheel by attempting to develop my own system from complete scratch. I'm looking for ideas. Finally, besides length (mine is to be 25,000 words), what's the REAL difference between a Masters thesis as opposed to a PhD thesis? I emailed my supervisor this query, and his main response was to say that the length was different. But...as far as originality and the degree to which one advances one's field in the master's thesis...I've got no clue about that.