Successfully Defended my Dissertation Proposal!
by tdaxp ~ October 21st, 2009
My dissertation proposal was today. My advisor, an out-of-area professor, a methodologist, and another educational psychologist were in attendence. My initial presentation went 20 minutes, and after that was about an hour-and-a-half of questions.
At the end, a motion to accept my dissertation proposal, and seconded. It passed unanimously. I have successfully defended my doctoral dissertation proposal. Huzzah!
Thanks to all who have sent congratulations on twitter and facebook!
The New York Times uses top 1% of income, not wealth. From the legend:...
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Congratulations TDAXP, a PhD is a fine accomplishment. I am confident that the psychology profession (and the social sciences in general) will greatly benefit from your involvement. May the forces of the universe (that we lack understanding of) empower you, as you smash the de-constructivist strangle hold (on the social sciences) with the sword of quantitative analysis.
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Don’t have that PhD yet, but at least I can begin data collection for the dissertation now!
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:26 pm
I understand that you don’t have it yet, but unless you get addicted to Meth, or decide to join the French Foreign Legion, I’m confident that you will succeed.
I have to admit being impressed with your ability to keep this blog interesting while doing graduate school work, teaching undergrads, and maintaining a marriage. Zen-pundit somehow manages to keep up with several blogs, grad school, teaching job, marriage, several kids, and every time I check his blog he’s a part of some new “round-table” of some sort. I have no idea how you guys do it? I just started grad school this year and work around 25 hours a week and this keeps me plenty busy.
October 24th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Congratulations! You’re in the final stretch now.
October 24th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Seerov,
That’s great!
I’m not addicted to meth yet, but I have been taking sudafed for a cold that I picked up on Monday. I hear that’s a gateway drug…
What are you studying in grad school?
TMLutas,
Wahoo! Hopefully I can complete data collection soon (this coming week or next)… I am already working on the paper for an Advanced Structural Equation Models analysis of this data along with some pilot data.. Hope all goes well!
[1] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6746824/
October 24th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
“What are you studying in grad school?” (Dan-tDaxp)
Business Administration
October 25th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Seerov,
Very exciting! The most fun I had in undergraduate was a 400-level business strategy class. More power to you!
October 25th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
“More power to you!” (Dan tdaxp)
Indeed, that’s the point, power through knowledge.
I’m actually a social scientist at heart (I duel-majored in cultural anthropology/political science with lots of geography and urban planning classes on the side) as an undergrad, but decided that a terminal degree would be better idea at the Masters level. If I decided to get a PHD, it would probably be back in the social sciences (most likely geography, anthropology, or maybe even social psychology or organizational behavior).
The financial crisis had a lot to do with my decision to go to B-school. My initial plan when I got out of the military was to get a maters in a social sciences major and then pursue a government job. With the financial crisis, its very possible that in 2-3 years that the government may have to lay off or stop hiring people. So I figured I better make myself useful to the private sector as well, while also recognizing that an MBA is useful in government as well.
My goal is to still serve my country at an agency that interests me (DHS, FEMA, DoD), but also consider certain industries to be serving the country in a private sector capacity. Homeland Security is starting to place the concept of “resilience” as the cornerstone of Homeland Security strategy. John Robb’s work has greatly affected my outlook on the future and I can see a time when a “resiliency industrial security complex” is to DHS as the MIC is to DoD.
I can tell how how much I’ve gained just in the first two months of b-school just by watching CNBC, Fox Business, or Bloomburg. My understanding of the discussion of commerce is much greater compared to just last summer. Accounting has to be the most useful so far, as it (without trying to sound too cliche) truly is the “language of business.” In fact, I consider accounting to be so important that I recommend everyone with an interest in current events to take a semester of accounting (I also suggest an economics class as well). If accountants rule the world people should at least have some understanding of how they communicate. Economics on the other hand should be viewed as a “thought system” that in my case (as an undergrad), truly changed the way I view and understand the world. I ended up taking 4 economics classes as an undergrad. Last, I recommend people take a semester of logic.
October 26th, 2009 at 4:03 am
Very exciting!
I had a year of accounting in undergrad.. you are right, it is surprising how often I think back to what I have learned when I hear about business news. It’s an interesting class.
Exciting goal to serve the country! Definitely get out there. Make a name for yourself!
Numbers are the logistics of thought. If accounting is the heart of all business, statistics is the heart of all social sciences. I coasted on what I had from undergraduate for too long, but the past year or two I have focused much more on statistics and methodology. I am far better for it.
October 26th, 2009 at 7:01 am
“Numbers are the logistics of thought. If accounting is the heart of all business, statistics is the heart of all social sciences.” (tdaxp)
I agree totally. As an undergrad I took two stats classes (intro, and spatial statistics) and am currently taking a business stats class. My next stats adventure will probably be some sort of econometrics class?
“Make a name for yourself!” (tdaxp)
One career path is to become an “expert” in a field by going to confences and publishing papers (and blogging too). I’d like to go another route and work “behind the scenes” in intelligence. I can picture myself in some dark basement analyzing information and making goats pass out
I have no desire to be known to the public. There’s a saying that I like that goes like this:
“You can be King I just want to rule the world.” I don’t really want to rule the world but I think you get the point….
October 27th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Semi-related question: How much work has been done using brain scan technologies (EEG, MRI, etc) to look at which parts of the brain are used in the learning process? I have a pet theory I’d like to research on the web.
Congratulations on the extra work load!
October 27th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Michael,
According to Google Scholar, quite a bit! [1] The hip new technology is fMRI (functional MRI), which combines the precision of MRI with the real-time data of EEGs.
Seerov,
Somewhat off-topic, but I need to repost this link Eddie shared, entitled “A Colder War” [2]
[1] http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=fmri+learning&as_ylo=2007&as_vis=0
[2] http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm