This maybe my last semester of grad school.

[WarAGle]

Long story short I started last semester. I've never written a Thesis proposal before. My advisor wanted it done before Christmas so in less than 3 months. Obviously that didn't happen. I would send her drafts to see if I was on the right track, and never got a response. These days I'm still struggling with it, and every time I talk to her she changes her mind. For example in my last draft under my methods she wrote "what about flow analysis". This morning I told her I have a paper on the way about modeling variable flow in tail waters, and she bitched and yelled at me for that. All she does is bitch and yell at me without helping me, or she postpones our "meetings" so she can bitch and yell at me later. I have been given a referendum to get this approved before May 3rd or I'm out. Ftr I'm trying to get a MS degree. Will any of this hinder me when it comes to interviewing if I don't make it?

Edited February 23, 2013 by WarAGle

[Dal PhDer]

Hi there,

 

I'm sorry to hear about your issues. It's never a good feeling to be put in a situation where you feel like you have no support. However, maybe take a step back, even take a week off, and really think about your situation and what you want to do.

 

Here's a few suggestions:

 

If you want to continue on think about if you're with the right supervisor. I would talk to other students and hear about their projects and advisors, and where they are in your degree. Maybe talk to the graduate coordinator about some of the things you are feeling. I would also check to see if your department has guidelines about advisor/student relationships - this might help you put into context your advisor's actions.

 

It's not uncommon for a student to finish their proposal in a semester. The contents of a proposal in my discipline consists of a 5-10 page lit review/rational, a clear research question and hypothesis (.5 -1 page), 5-10 pages of methods, and 1-2 pages on expected outcomes/conclusions. It's the length of a term paper. The most difficult part of the entire process is the research question - do you have one? You, the student, will have to come up with it in most cases, but your supervisor can help you along. 

 

When you meet with your professor, here are a few tips:

-Always send them an agenda a day or two in advance about what YOU want covered, and make sure to bring it to the meeting

-Record ALL meetings notes, and send it to them within a day of your meeting

-Have a question or piece of work ready for you and them to go through- they will not be there to do the work for you or really point you in the direction, you will have to go out, write and put something together, and then your advisor will go through it and add suggestions.

 

If you are finding that your supervisor flipflops, the meeting notes will help you with that...as you can refer back to them.

 

I want to pose the biggest questions of all: what are the reasons why this might be your last semester? Are you not able to get the work done? Do you not want to continue?

 

As for it hindering your future process...I don't know your field...but if you phrase it in the right way, it shouldn't. Grad school might not be the direction you want to go in...and there's nothing wrong with that...BUT...you want to make sure you leave on a good note, so that you can get recommendations later...so I would try not to burn any bridges!
 

Hopefully things work out for you!

[WarAGle]

It maybe my last semester, because she is going to pull my assistantship. The only help she gave me was a basic outline with an introduction, lit review research question, hypothesis, expected results etc. no length what so ever. She accused me of using "secondary sources" recently and called me lazy. This wasn't true. All the papers I cited were original papers. I have a feeling I've ruined my life by making this decision because I don't think she would write me a good letter.