andrew99

"I finished my thesis this semester. One committee member made the remark that I had at least two and maybe three publishable papers in the 85 pages and that I should focus on starting to get something published from it, as I begin a Ph.D. program in literature. Just add that to all of the other things I have to do this summer, including moving. Most of the English dissertations I have looked at are in the 300 +/- page range. I know nothing about other disciplines." And, of course, 85 pages for a master's thesis is perfectly respectable, and getting 3 papers out of it would be a testament for the clarity and brevity of your writing. Also not my field so I probably shouldn't say anything, but I wouldn't stress over getting those papers finished right now. Sounds like they are something you can work on over the next year.

"As has already been said, length is going to vary a lot by discipline. My guess, @andrew99 is that you were looking at dissertations from a number of different disciplines, even though the same methods were used." I was really trying to be very specific, because it would be completely unfair to judge every field under the same rubric. That's why I qualified it by referring to narrative works based on qualitative research. I do think, despite apparently universal disagreement above, that there should be a certain minimum level for a qualitative dissertation (outside some esoteric philosophy of logic kind of thing), and I don't think 70 pages should cut it. "Last but not least, I just want to reiterate the point that length is not an indicator of quality. I think of it as similar to academic works. I've read some amazing original academic books that are only about 150 pages and some boring ones with minimal contributions that are 300 pages. Dissertations are similar. Perhaps if you really want to look for a correlation between length and quality, you'll do a study using a specific methodology to evaluate each dissertation." I think once you get over a certain page length then yes, quality bears little resemblance to length. My argument is that as a gatekeeping device, even as a career qualification device, the dissertation is supposed to take a fair amount of effort. And if you're doing, say, a paper on the history of World War 2 in western Africa (to completely make up a random topic) and turn in something the length of a long-form magazine article, then you have not made the effort that should be required. Some of the arguments above are "well, that's the Committee's job" which really doesn't conflict with anything I've said, unless people are arguing that Committee members are somehow above criticism. I mean, my advisor is very much in the "the best dissertation is a done dissertation," and wants his students out, but even he would not let me turn in a 70-page dissertation unless it was quantitatively dense. Anyway maybe I'm biased because I am a lot older than most other PhD students, but I've found over the years (and it took a long time to do it!) that doing things well rather than just doing the minimum to get by really does have impacts beyond whatever individual thing you're working on.

I prefer to write in a deadline-induced panic.

If you think of it just as a career qualification, I think that's not giving it the effort it deserves. I assume if someone turned in a 5-page history dissertation you would consider it a cop-out, right? It's not going to remain a career qualifier if anybody can get it by turning in what is essentially a term paper.

I think there is SOME relevance to quality, though obviously you can have terrible long dissertations, and really good short ones. While we focus on publications, the whole philosophy behind the dissertation is that it's supposed to add something substantial to the field. A dissertation that tries to do it in all of 80 pages, including reviewing the field's literature, is not going to be adding as much as it should I think.

Currently writing my PhD dissertation, and as a way to reduce anxiety every once in a while I will spend time on ProQuest looking at what other dissertations in either my field or using my methods (qualitative/historical narrative/social theory) look like, or things with little or no charts or quantitative data, so it's all just writing and analysis. What's really shocking is how variable qualitative dissertations are in terms of length and effort. I have found dissertations from well-respected universities that are shorter and have less references than some papers I've written for classes (again, all narrative form), sometimes under 100 pages of double-spaced writing. On the other hand, I've found papers taking the same approach that are more than 800 pages and much denser in terms of citations. It must be infuriating to people who spend years researching and writing 800 pages of meticulous, heavily-referenced text that someone who banged out a couple of short "essays" is getting the same kind of degree they are. Personally, I only find it mildly annoying, but mine is closer to the 100 pager than the 800 pager. Still, it does seem to depreciate the doctorate a bit.

Human rights law is definitely a tough field to break into, so good luck. Hopefully the Oxford degree would set you apart. I'm going for an environmental policy PhD, already did a post-JD masters in the subject. Unfortunately I still have no professional experience in the field so hoping research experience and contacts I make will help me with that.

Yep, sucks. What kind of program? I have a law degree under my belt too, but like 90% of lawyers trying to switch fields to something less soul-destroying.

Anyone at your undergrad institution you can ask advice of? If there's a graduate program director at your old schoo it might be a good idea to ask them how to handle that situation (provided you didn't actually apply to that program). I did my undergrad at Hunter and loved it, but when it comes to professional degrees like the MPH, the best thing to do is talk to practitioners and find out how it's regarded.

Not me and they're one of my top 2 choices. I just found out my third recommendation never got there; the admissions office says that's no problem since they only need two and that the admissions committee got the app but a little worried since when I log into my application it doesn't say status pending or sent to the committee or anything. Has anyone been contacted in any way by CUNY, like for an interview or something?