jminical

Thank you ALL! This was very helpful. I have a bad case of impostor syndrome and I constantly interpret criticism as evidence that I'm truly an impostor and that I shouldn't be in grad school. I let the feedback sit for a few days then came back to it, which helped. Thanks again

So, I just sent my first substantial piece of "solo" writing to my adviser last week (my master's thesis, actually), and she just returned her revisions. In her email she basically said "I think you're a good writer, however, I have a ton of edits for you and there is a long way to go with this draft." I opened the document and there were comments EVERYWHERE.... mostly very blunt, or "this doesn't make sense" or "what?" and "this is fluff." It all looks very overwhelming, but probably 75% doable on my own without meeting with her/clarifying, but mostly I am struggling with not knowing to what extent this is "normal" and if it is a big fat red flag that I am not cut out for this, because she gave me so many revisions to do. I feel like a complete failure, to be honest, and am dreading meeting with her on Monday because I'm afraid she's going to give me a "talking to" and at worst tell me she thinks I should reconsider the PhD, and at best tell me that she's disappointed in the quality of the draft I sent her Any advice?