Master's students moving onto PhD (or undergrads with research experience)

[avee]

I am considering whether I want to continue with my thesis topic for my dissertation. I am wondering if others are considering using their master's thesis work toward their dissertation. If you are coming fresh from your bachelor's and conducted a senior thesis, are you thinking about pursuing this topic for your dissertation? Thoughts?

For myself, I am interested really in two areas within the sociology of reproduction: cesarean sections (I looked at women who choose CS delivery without medical reason for my master's) and selection criteria for surrogate mothers in the U.S. I have much I want to expand upon with CS deliveries, and of course I still hold so much interest in U.S. commercial surrogacy.

We'll likely change and get influenced during the first few years of our PhD, but I am just wondering whether anyone has thought about keeping their current topics.

[realmadrid7]

I wrote a (economics) senior thesis that I was quite invested in and I'm definitely considering modifying it and continuing to develop it in my PhD program (maybe not necessarily as a dissertation but at least as a qualifying paper), particularly because my topic (about favelas in Rio de Janeiro) deals with very recent data that will get updated in the next couple of years.

[avee]

I think I am going to try. I have new insights into tying medical sociology with demography for my topic. There is just so much to explore and being that I'm a good fit for my program, I am sure I will be able to. Hope it works out for you too!

[AaronM]

(Undergrad with research experience) My professors have told me to try not to go into a PhD program with a dissertation planned. From what I've heard that it is very common to change topic areas when seeing the research other professors in the department do. For example my advisor went into grad school hell bent on studying criminology and now he studies early childhood development. I know your not going in saying "this is my dissertation!" but I thought I would just relay some things I've heard in my department

[msafiri]

I decided not to continue my MA topic for my dissertation for a variety of reasons. And yet, I find myself returning to some of the literature and theory (and papers I wrote) from my MA as I've ended up doing sort of related work unexpectedly. Anyway, I had no clear idea of what my dissertation would be on when I started my PhD but I figured out the general idea of it in the first couple of semesters.

[gopromoving]

Over the years American Studies graduate students have come from an extraordinarily wide range of backgrounds, with an equally diverse body of interests. At any given time a seminar in the department might find students from three continents

[RefurbedScientist]

I am considering whether I want to continue with my thesis topic for my dissertation. I am wondering if others are considering using their master's thesis work toward their dissertation. If you are coming fresh from your bachelor's and conducted a senior thesis, are you thinking about pursuing this topic for your dissertation? Thoughts?

For myself, I am interested really in two areas within the sociology of reproduction: cesarean sections (I looked at women who choose CS delivery without medical reason for my master's) and selection criteria for surrogate mothers in the U.S. I have much I want to expand upon with CS deliveries, and of course I still hold so much interest in U.S. commercial surrogacy.

We'll likely change and get influenced during the first few years of our PhD, but I am just wondering whether anyone has thought about keeping their current topics.

I haven't got a masters but did the undergrad thesis. I'm not planning on continuing that exact project, per se, but the research questions that motivated that project still interest me and will likely be part of future work. I don't think there is any danger in going into a doctoral program with an idea in mind for a dissertation, so long as you keep an open mind toward theories and methods that challenge your presumptions. Although I haven't done a masters, I have been working as an RA in a research center and I consider this similar to the MA insofar as I spend most of my time reading articles. The exposure to lots of different kinds of research has not changed my research interests, but it has opened up my methodological preferences. I think that's key. If you go into grad school saying, "I only want to do ethnography," then you might miss out on whole perspectives on your substantive topic that might be afforded by some other method. My undergrad thesis was an ethnography, and now I'm into social network analysis, but I still have the same research questions.