Surviving Grad School - The Thesis

This is the final piece of graduate school. By this time, you should have a few papers of first or second authorship under your belt. You should have presented your research in a professional environment. You have worked really hard to expand the knowledge of the human race. It’s time to write it all up and create your thesis.

A thesis is a book containing all the work you've done in your graduate career. It contains chapters that pertain to the experiments you did and the results you obtained. Basically, it’s like 6 Cell papers all wrapped up into one bound volume. Each university will have their own rules about thesis writing, so I will share my knowledge and depend on others to add to it in the comments!

At UMass, it’s your thesis committee (yes them again) who will decide when you are ready to write. Sometime in your 6th or 7th year, you will get the coveted check mark next to the box “Permission to Write” on your committee form. There will be much rejoicing, and then the pain begins. Once that box is checked, you have four months to write, edit, and defend your thesis. You’ll start with a clear plan of attack. You’ll put together the easy chapters first. Basically, you can modify the papers you have written to become chapters. If you have unpublished data, that can become a chapter as well. You will need an introduction, discussion, and future direction section. Then you need to add in all the references. At this point, you’ll probably be sick of everything you've ever done. Then you’ll need to edit and review the thesis before handing it to your PI for review and editing. Your PI will suggest numerous changes. You will edit again, hate your life, and finally hand it off to your dissertation committee for their input.

“Dissertation committee?” the astute among you ask.  So far, there’s been the Qualifying Committee, the Thesis Committee, and now the Dissertation Committee. At my school these are all unique! One of the main differences in the Dissertation Committee is the requirement for an outside member. This person is basically a PI at another institution that will read your thesis and come to your defense and offer an outside opinion. The point is, be aware that there can be a lot of requirements, and you need to be proactive in figuring out what they are.

Most schools hold public thesis defenses. This means that anyone is allowed to come to the defense! In reality, your lab members and grad school friends will attend, along with a few professors and the members of your Dissertation Committee. Usually the defendee invites their family members to the defense as well. At UMass, we have the public defense as a presentation of the thesis research in the form of a scientific talk. Then the friends and family leave and the defendee meets behind closed doors with their Dissertation Committee. This is the time when the committee comments on the written thesis, stating their concerns and comments. After an hour or so, the candidate emerges from the room a (hopefully) freshly minted PhD! Let the partying begin.

Now you are officially DOCTOR. But what to do now? Where can you go in the world? Coming up I will address perhaps the most pressing question: What can you do with a PhD in biology?