Gratton on advisors

Here you can find Peter’s own ULTRA-CLEAN DISSERTATION ADVENTURE STORY (also at DePaul, like me, though after my time).

I didn’t have it quite that easy. Like my friend quoted last night, I was more than a bit disturbed by the various subtleties of interpersonal dynamics that can unfold in a graduate program. But I think Gratton’s model, not mine, is the one you should try to emulate. (Then again, the reason you’re reading my advice posts is probably because it’s not as easy a stage for you as it was for Gratton, who was always a marvel of precocious organizational skills and easy rapport with his professors.)

Also, I think my friend is similar to me in that she actually will finish, she’s just disturbed by a number of the horrible sideshows that are occurring en route to the finish line.

But then there’s the kind of student to which Peter obliquely refers: the alibi builders. You can tell after a few years that they have no intention of ever finishing. It becomes “I had a fight with my professor” this, and “my committee is giving me problems” that.

This type and the Gratton type are not the only two types. Most people fall in the middle, as I did myself. But if you act as if it’s just a driver’s license (Peter really believed it, but I eventually had to pretend it to myself) you’re liable to feel much healthier.