PhD study starts on MONDAY

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Leslie, Jan 3, 2002.

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  1. Leslie

    Leslie New Member

    Hi all -- after over 6 months of deliberation, I decided on Capella for my phd in education. Residencies are only 2 hours from where I live. The first courses begin on Monday.

    Is this trepidation as the starting date approaches normal???

    Leslie
    [aka Sunnie]
     
  2. Hille

    Hille Active Member

    Good luck with your new academic voyage. Have a peaceful 2002. Hille

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  3. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Leslie asks, "Is this trepidation as the starting date approaches normal???"

    Yes.

    This might be a time to mention that Bruce Francis, Chancellor of Capella, has written two quite helpful books, not just for Capella students but any doctoral students. One is The Proposal Cookbook: a step by step guide to proposal design and writing; the other is The Dissertation Cookbook: from soup to nuts, a practical guide to start and complete your dissertation (Kendall Hunt Publishing).

    And sometime before you're done -- but not right now, please, or you might go back to bed on Monday -- you'll want to have a look at George Rippey Stewart's classic, "Doctors Orals."

    Oh, and "Winning the Ph.D. Game," a wonderful but out of print book by Moore, which starts out by reminding us that when Theodore Stryleski bludgeoned his doctoral advisor to death at Stanford, he had been a doctoral candidate for 17 years. The author suggests he never would have been found guilty by a jury of his peers.
     
  4. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Congratulations, and best of luck!


    Bruce
     
  5. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    There is a bit on Streleski (how it's spelled in the article) in the Rensselaer Graduate Newsletter titled "Deadly Scholarship", which outlines several other murders of faculty by frustrated graduate students. Streleski served 8 years for the murder.
    http://www.rpi.edu/dept/union/graduate/public_html/newsletter/september00/september00.pdf


    Bruce
     
  6. blahetka

    blahetka New Member

    Congratulations and good luck!

    Yes, the trepidation is normal. I started mine early- filling out the application for admissions.



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  7. From what I recall, the professor he killed with a hammer was not actually his primary advisor but someone else on his committee. When asked why he had picked this particular person (Prof. Karel de Leeuw), Streleski said that de Leeuw had once made some remark about his (Streleski’s) shoes. The fraternity boys at Stanford used to hold an annual “Ted Streleski Get Hammered party,” which was incredibly insensitive since de Leeuw’s wife still lived in a house on campus not far from the frat houses.

    Streleski served only 8 years because he successfully used the “diminished capacity” defense (the same one that Dan White, murderer of SF Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk, used – the famous “Twinkie” defense). He was actually up for probation earlier, but when asked whether he would agree not to go to the Stanford campus and not to harrass any of his other former professors, he refused to say this and said instead: “I may be a murderer, but I’m not a dirty lying dog.” The last I heard, I think he was living on a houseboat in the Alameda estuary.

    John mentions that Streleski was a doctoral candidate for 17 years. He started at Stanford with an MS, so he was actually a full-time graduate student for longer than that. The Streleski case cast a brief light on the abuse of graduate students (and post-docs, or “perma-docs”) at the major research universities. The students are used as poorly paid indentured servants, taking care of teaching responsibilities (all those thousands of undergraduates needing Calculus I, II, and III) and pushing forward the research programs. A friend of mine started his PhD at Stanford in 1976 and finished in late 1989 or early 1990, working on it full-time throughout this period (no other job, no kids, etc). So he saw Ford, Carter, Reagan, Reagan, and Bush as President while he did his time. And he was a brilliant and hard-working man. Though rather broken by the end of it all.

    John also mentions a “jury of his peers”, which made me think about who Ted Streleski’s peers might be. One that comes to mind is the similarly named Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber). During the time that Ted Streleski was a math PhD student at Stanford, Ted Kaczynski was an assistant professor of math at that school across the Bay. So it’s quite likely that they would have met.
     
  8. Nicole-HUX

    Nicole-HUX New Member

    Alas, but a search on Amazon turns up neither of these books. A search of the KH catalog turns up The Dissertation and Research Cookbook: From Soup to Nuts a Practical Guide to Start and Complete Your Dissertation{/I] by Marilyn K. Simon and J. Bruce Francis. This would appear to be a second or revised edition of The Dissertation Cookbook.

    Is The Proposal Cookbook perhaps something that was done specifically to distribute to Cappella students? A search of www.abe.com doesn't turn up this title either. One of the areas our Humanities External M.A. students could use assistance with is the creation of their thesis proposals prior to submission of contracts. I was hoping this book might be something we could recommend to them to assist in the beginning thesis process.

    Any other suggestions?



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    Nicole Ballard
    HUX Phase III Advisor
    Thesis/Graduation requirements
    California State University, Dominguez Hills
     
  9. Leslie

    Leslie New Member

    Well gee thanks y'all -- so much for easing the trepidation LOL

    On a more serious note, of course I've heard the horror stories too, some quite recent and involving people I know personally (thankfully no murders though -just comtemplation of such). I ran across this website not too long ago and thought you might be interested in taking a look. Apparently change is in the air - at least in some places.

    Re-Envisioning the PhD http://www.grad.washington.edu/envision/practices/index.html

    Happy New Year
    Leslie *three days and counting down*
     

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