Passions

[lrhellman]

I am currently trying to figure out what I'm passionate about so I can decide which graduate school programs to apply to. I go back and forth between different programs (operations research and mathematical finance), but I can't seem to decide. Are other people having this problem? If so, how are you honing in our your passion?

[fuzzylogician]

Well, normally you first get very passionate about something and then decide to go to graduate school to study it and not the other way around. Going to grad school without a clear vision of what you want to do will almost certainly lead to difficulty and disillusionment. It's hard enough to keep motivated even when you _do_ start out very driven.

[GutLogic]

I have to disagree slightly with the first response. You're going back and forth between 2 very specific fields, which sound like they might have some overlap between them, or at least some significant similarities (although I really don't know). I think that if you are excited about intellectual stuff, enough to want to go to grad school, you are often not passionate about a thing, but a process and way of thinking. I was in a very similar situation applying last year, and I feel like I ended up exactly where I needed to be and am very happy with my choice. However, it was a long process. I would advise trying to pick apart and analyze what about those areas excites you, what they have in common and what is fundamentally different- not about the subject matter, but about their overall outlook and research process. If you have some ideas of research that interests you that straddles the two fields, you may end up just applying to programs in both that would be most likely to allow you to pursue your interests.

For me, I applied to 4 programs in 3 different fields. But in my thinking, there was a definite continuity in what I was looking for, and what sort of research I wanted to be doing. It just happened to fall into different fields, whose approach to similar problems would be somewhat different. I ended up in the right place in part because I felt the most affinity to the holistic approach of the field I ended up entering, in part because it was the program that would give me the most freedom in pursuing the questions I wanted to, and in part because of practical considerations in terms of money, location, etc.

Hope that helps!

[Eigen]

I agree with both of the previous posters to some degree.

I don't think it's enough to just be interested in the process and way of thinking- you'll get bogged down in the minutia of a very specific area, and just a general interest in learning won't carry you through.

That said, it's not uncommon to have a specific area of interest that overlaps several fields- I could have applied to programs in several different fields, and ended up applying to programs in several different subspecialities. It comes down to deciding why those two fields interest you, and specifically what within those two fields interests you- then you can see the overlap and the commonalities that you're passionate about. Finding, as GutLogic said, the continuity in what research you want to be doing is the right way to go about it.

[lrhellman]

I agree with both of you. My problem is I have a vague idea of what I'd like to do. I'm planning to read as much as I can and talk to professors and industry professionals to educate myself on the various fields that pique my interest. However, I'm afraid that after all of that work, I still won't know what I want to do. How have you figured out what you wanted to do?

[Eigen]

I think if you really don't have much of an idea of what you want to do, it might not be a bad idea to consider doing a MS in one of the areas that interests you. They serve the purpose of letting you get a little bit more in depth and see whether it's really for you or not.

Only having a vague idea of what you want to study isn't a good way to start off a PhD- you're expected to be quite specific in your interests by that point.

Personally, I found doing research really showed me what I did and didn't like. And reading lots and lots of journal articles.

[GutLogic]

Yes, I actually agree more with what Eigen said- I think I doubled back on my own words halfway through my earlier post. Oops! Although I should note that "vague" is relative, and how vague you can be (or should be) going in depends a lot on the specific field. It's important to strike a balance between focused interest and open-mindedness that is considered appropriate for an incoming graduate student in your given area of study.

To answer your question, Irhellman, what you are doing sounds a lot like what I did. I did a lot of reading, but I also did a lot of reflecting- if I found a specific study interesting but not another, or found I wanted to know more about a particular topic, I had to keep asking myself why that was, and really try to pick it apart. On top of that, having past research & professional experiences to draw on really helped. It was frustrating not being able to leave my job and get experience more closely related to what I was considering doing, but that turned out not to be the dead end I thought it was. I did the same type of reflection on my research/professional experiences as on the reading I was doing, and really picked apart what I did and didn't like about them.

I also started looking at programs and lots and lots of faculty research pages. When I did that, it was much easier for me to see how my interests cross-cut various fields, see trends in the sort of research that caught my eye, and start to put together a more coherent story of what my interests were.

Also, casting a bit of a wide net in my reading and then narrowing it was time-consuming but ultimately worthwhile- before I stumbled on my current program, I had no idea that the sort of approach they use existed, and I hadn't been looking at departments in that field at all. I had been trying to find programs that would allow me to think about problems in a certain way, and it was surprising to find that a much more sophisticated and formalized version of my preferred approach actually existed.

I thought my topic of interest would integrate well with their approach, so I pitched the idea to them. Turned out they liked it, and there you go. So, that's my story of how I figured it out. All this took me over a year, two if you count the application process, and I was still figuring things out during that. I hope your route doesn't end up taking as long as mine, but regardless I hope that you find someplace that is a good fit, however long it takes!

[Behavioral]

http://orfe.princeton.edu

[lrhellman]

Thanks, Behavioral. I've looked through the ORFE website before. It looks like a great place for me, but I'm sure it's an incredibly difficult program to get into. Any other advice on discovering your passion?

[Behavioral]

Besides finding niche programs like Princeton's ORFE program, you're really going to have to just make a leap of faith; if you can be happy with either discipline, then apply broadly to programs in both and then choose based on fit post-hoc.

[Bimmerman]

I wish I knew what I had wanted to specialize in before I went in to grad school. Now I'm here and have external funding but have no clue what I want to do whatsoever. Everything sounds interesting, and in a field as broad as mechanical engineering, this is a problem. For now, I'm taking whatever classes I am interested in and not really concerned with how they relate to any research area; I want to be employable and learned above all else.

I really don't know how I am going to go about doing the required research for my funding and department. I'm more than a little worried about that.

I also applied wanting to do a PhD, but after working this summer and talking to industry contacts, I'm pretty certain I won't be going for one.

Edited October 20, 2011 by Bimmerman