tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10338182.post3835383535093488583..comments2007-08-08T02:42:38.052+08:00Alton Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07152271731942218793noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10338182.post-75922031101361801292007-08-08T02:42:00.000+08:002007-08-08T02:42:00.000+08:00Your emphasis on knowing the personalities in the environment is very well taken. I have known a number of graduate students in highly toxic departments who lost their advisers in mid-program due to career moves or unforseen health issues. In each case these students then became lighting rods for the hostilities that existed in their departments. They watched their time of completion double: they were invariably sent back to square one on the work they had done so far, and then one research proposal after another would be shot down. They were students. They had no political power and no protection. <BR/><BR/>I hope you will post updates. It would be interesting to know, when all this is over, what steps you think your university could have taken to improve the experience.Alton Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07152271731942218793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10338182.post-32857192410344416882007-07-21T23:36:00.000+08:002007-07-21T23:36:00.000+08:00I could not agree more! I was an excellent undergraduate student at a top 25 university and in fact received excellent mentorship from two faculty members in my department.<BR/><BR/>When I entered graduate school, I thought being an excellent student was basically the ticket to getting Ph.D. Sorry, that was a totally false impression. For the first four years of my graduate school, I had an absent mentor who didn't know how to mentor and didn't know how to giude me through the hoops and potholes to becoming a professional scholar. For the first four years working towards PhD candidacy, I basically did 90% of it on my own. After qualifying, I was so exhausted, disillusioned and disheartened I took a hiatus from the programme for four years. I finally decided to go off and do my research and now have returned.<BR/><BR/>My mentor is no longer the same one. And this new one is very wonderful for me. But, alas, my foundations are weak because of, well, previously shoddy preparation.<BR/><BR/>Being an excellent student is probably only 20~30% of the equation to getting a PhD. Most of it is the OTHER stuff--politics, knowing how to network, knowing how to find one's place in the scholarship, et cetera, et cetera.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com