1 of the most important decisions you will make as a graduate student is deciding on your dissertation committee. There are several factors that you really should take into consideration when requesting faculty members to sit on your dissertation committee.

Can you work properly with them? This is one of the two most important questions to ask yourself before inviting somebody to sit on your committee.  Even though you do, of course, want folks on your committee who can challenge you intellectually, you do not want hand grenade throwers.  You want a committee member who will be honest, difficult, and respectful.  You also want individuals who obey the cardinal rule of reviewing somebody else’s work: comments are to be about the writing, not the writer. If you have to choose between somebody who knows your topic incredibly nicely and who has a reputation for hostility or becoming a prima donna and a faculty member who isn’t a topic matter professional but likes you, decide on the latter.  Here’s a fast checklist of positive attributes to look for:

They like men and women.
They’re prompt.
They’re usually friendly.
They can see the other side of the coin.
They’re consistent.

Can your committee members work well with every other? This is the other most crucial question. Be very careful here. Professors, like everyone else, have agendas. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this truth. Political, ideological, and intellectual agendas can make people fascinating. However, even though both the Frankfurt School Marxist and your institution’s nearby totally free-marketplace guru are possibly fun to have coffee with, would you want them working together evaluating your dissertation? Remember that every committee member can ask for revisions. Do you want to invite radically opposed kinds of comments? Yes, the chair of your committee can go to bat for you or attempt to over-rule somebody, but everybody has to sign off on your function. How do they feel about your using a dissertation editor or dissertation editing service of some sort? Do they want you to, insist you do, or forbid you from doing so? Don’t set yourself up for needless conflicts.

Is your advisor a full professor? This may possibly seem petty to talk about. But academic departments are frequently extremely political. Usually, departments do not enable untenured assistant professors to serve as advisors. Departments do, nevertheless, enable associate professors to advise. Frequently, one will be intellectually attracted to younger, energetic faculty members. Nonetheless, although these associate professors are tenured, they do have to worry about making full professor. Therefore, if your advisor is an associate professor and other members of your committee are full professors, your advisor may possibly not feel comfortable difficult individuals who are going to vote on regardless of whether or not to promote him or her. Full professors, at least theoretically, sit at the top of the food chain and will speak their minds and defend their students.

Is the prospective committee member enthusiastic about your dissertation thought? You don’t require somebody who thinks your thought is the greatest factor considering that sliced bread, but you do want a person who  thinks that your subject matter is intellectually worthwhile.

These are some of the most critical things to look for when selecting your committee. If you follow this guidance, you will have smooth sailing.

Dissertation Advice