My meeting with Dr. C

In my search for a new advisor, I am finding the same response from professor after professor.  Though delivered with some difference by each one, I have been left to keep searching.  So when one professor who I will call Dr. C agreed to meet with me, I was optimistic.  We found a shared free time in our schedules and arranged the meeting.

As we talked about my background and the daily routine of Dr. C’s graduate students, it became apparent that we were not a good fit.  I could sense his uncertainty as he declared that conclusion, but the uncertainty was not in the conclusion but in my response to it; he was concerned about expressing himself inappropriately.  I quickly thanked him for his forthrightness and agreed with his conclusion.  Our conversation ten became more much enjoyable.

And it was also educational.  In an effort to support my continued search for a new advisor, I asked questions about the perspective of the professor.  Dr. C began talking about that perspective.  I should have been taking notes, because his monologue really opened my mind, particularly with the ideas of creating new knowledge and the apprenticeship nature of the PhD program.  I’ll need to think about these ideas some, but I left both discouraged and encouraged at the same time.  I’m discouraged that I am learning just before the beginning of my fourth year what I should have learned my first semester here.  But I am encouraged because, knowing now what I should have learned previously, I feel more capable of achieving my objectives and making real progress in my program.

And this is where it is.  I am not going to stop until I win.  I will finish what I started, and whatever results from that will result.  I will do this!

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