marietta88888's profile at Help.com

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• hi, posted (1 year, 12 months) ago
  I have a strange problem. I am a masters student in electgrical engg in a 40-50 rank univ in US. I …

• depressed, bad adviser, phd, research, non-thesis, top 20 schools posted (1 year, 12 months) ago
  i am doing masters in EE in a 30-60 ranked univ. i want to do MS thesis, do some research an apply…

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• depressed, bad adviser, phd, research, non-thesis, top 20 schools
  

  I approached him expressing my interest in the field of research around 8 months ago. At that time, he told, he can take me in his lab, only on the condition that, “Either do a non-thesis or do PhD”. He said, he does not have time to read two theses and wants only one thesis. i.e I should do PhD.
  
  At that time, he did not ask about committing for a PhD and I also had no reason to tell him about my plans. After 3 months, I started working in the lab, he called me once and asked if I can continue for PhD here and asked me about my plans. Soon after that, I told him my plans: “I have no problems in doing my PhD here. In fact that is better if I could finish faster. But, I have some dream schools like (I told about 3-4 dream schools). And I would definitely want to apply there. I will go to other school only if it is substantially better than this one”
  
  Even now, I want to apply to only top 10-15 schools. There is a reason why I want to go to a top 10-15 schools. I want to be in academia as faculty. Hence, I think, I need to do PhD from a very reputed school in order to get a faculty position.
  
  At the time of accepting to work in his lab, I thought, “Even if I do non-thesis, I can still do research in lab, get 1-2 papers published, by the time of applying. So, it should not really matter whether I do thesis or not”. But once I started working under him, till now, I have only got junk work. Nothing that can be qualified as research. Now, I have a fear that, I may not be able to publish anything by the time I apply(Nov 08), because, he really does not want me to do research. When ever I go to talk to him, he tells, he does not have time.
  
  At the beginning of this semester, I asked him for research credits, he said “since you are a non-thesis student, there is no point in taking research credits”.
  
  Taking all these into account, I am really worried, because I feel, I don’t even have a “Fair” chance to apply for better schools. Because, when the admission committee looks at my application, they first see that I am a non-thesis student. And the recommendation form my adviser would accentuate that I am a non-thesis student.
  
  How do i have a fair chance??
  Now I have the following questions:
  1. How important is thesis in getting into top 15 schools.
  2. I am very much interested in maths too, so will it help me if i get another degree in applied maths??
  
  thanks for all the responses. your help makes me feel better.
  - written 1 year, 11 months ago

• depressed, bad adviser, phd, research, non-thesis, top 20 schools
  

  thanks a lot. That would unnecessarily complicate things. its the advisor who can really make or break a grad student’s career. so, i dont want to take that risk…
  - written 1 year, 12 months ago

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