Angry Student, my first "real" Ph.D. student, has just completed his oral defense with flying colors: an easy pass, no thesis revisions.
Angry Student, you were the best. You were the kind of student that every professor dreams of getting the opportunity to mentor. You actually thought about things. You had ideas. You didn't need me to tell you what was interesting. You solved problems. You taught me.
I don't care if you decide to teach, do research, or work in some private company. Go out there and make a difference. Shine. May the wind always be at your back.
Friday, September 16, 2005
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9 comments:
Would it be too much to ask for a full site feed (as in, Settings --> Site Feed --> Descriptions --> Full)?
Selfish convenience, you see.
Thanks.
Congratulations on having a defense that was a pleasure (instead of that other, not-so-pleasant experience last month)!
What a relief that must be. It almost makes me feel ready for grad school. Almost.
Just out of curiosity, and in no way meaning to dispariage your career path, how did you manage to get tenure without graduating a "real" PhD student? For example, did you inheret pre-tenure PhD students in the sense that you did not shepherd them from start to finish?
Again, I'm not criticizing, I'm just trying to understand the System. Because in every system I'm aware of, graduating PhDs (or at least one) is a requirement for tenure. So if there are clever ways to do this, I need to know!
For example, I know that at UMich, (in one particular department) graduating at PhD is a requirement for the third-year review/rehire! They acknowledge that the only way to do this is to glom onto someone else's PhD student and take a primary advisory role.
Another example is a professor who was denied tenure at my school, and was then hired with tenure at a large state university. So although she graduated a PhD student at the former school, it was technically after she left. So maybe for her, the first PhD at the new school is the first she considers "real".
You're right, trystero, it seems a little unusual not to have any Ph.D. students at my age. However, my area of specialization is very sparsely populated. There are very few students coming into the program in the first place. I've had one or two "rescue" Ph.D.s, but never anyone I've shepherded from start to finish except Angry Student. Having some Ph.D.s under the belt looks good in your tenure review file, but it's not necessary. One of my colleagues (my post-doc advisor) is in the National Academy and has had only one Ph.D.
And in case this brings up other questions, no, my area is not unpopular or dying out (cf. colleague in the National Academy), but because of its peculiar scientific "home," there are very few students with Batchelors degrees in my discipline that have the qualifications to do graduate work in my area. We find few people we can admit. Most of our students come from overseas.
My area was recently the focus of a newspaper article that did a lot of hand-wringing over how there weren't enough people who do what I do and how badly we need people like me and how could we get more students interested in preparing (at the Batchelors level) to pursue graduate work in my field. How many social science majors are willing to take differential equations and linear algebra? Therein lies the problem.
I've had lots of MS students, not that that means anything.
How do you spell Ba(t)chelor?
Bachelor.
Thanks. Let me practice that.
Bachelor
Bachelor
Bachelor
Bachelor
Bachelor
Bachelor
Bach was a bachelor. Got it.
It's nice to hear that kind of good news. Congrats to Angry Student!
On a funny note, I saw an episode of The Simpsons where Homer is called "Angry Dad."
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