This dissertation process is not a campfire, it’s a 6 burner stove

This afternoon at Carnegie Mellon University, Dissertation Coach Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale discussed the “10 Mistakes the Graduate Students Should Avoid” at the PROMISE AGEP/QoLT Center’s Dissertation House workshop. She discussed this post’s title (attributed to science.org), as she told students that they need to learn how to multitask.  Too often, students work on one thing and get stuck on that one thing (e.g. paragraph for a paper, method for an experiment, piece of code) and they are unable to work on anything else until they are satisfied with the outcome.  It is important to be focused, but there are often many things to do … or rather many things that must be done simultaneously.  Advanced graduate students have to write, look for employment, run experiments, complete literature reviews, satisfy grant agencies that fund the advisor’s research, and several also teach.  It is imperative to learn how to work on things in chunks.  Keep those fires burning!

Join us tomorrow, Wednesday, March 28, 2012 for “Understanding your advisor and your committee” from 1:00 – 2:00 PM in Gates-Hillman 4405 on Carnegie Mellon’s campus in Pittsburgh.  All graduate students are invited (e.g., Pitt, CMU, students visiting for the NSBE conference, any discipline, any level, all backgrounds, part-time or full-time.) Light refreshments will be served.

Congratulations to the students who are participating in the Dissertation House and the associated activities at Carnegie Mellon.

Related articles

• Are you in Pittsburgh? Come to our Dissertation House Seminars @CarnegieMellon 3/27 & 3/28 (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)
• Next full-scale Dissertation House at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, March 26-28, 2012 (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)

The Quality of Life Technology (QoLT) Center at Carnegie Mellon & the University of Pittsburgh, and PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) are sponsored by the National Science Foundation.   Follow QoLT and PROMISE on Twitter: @QoLTCenter, @PROMISE_AGEP.

Filed under: Dissertation Completion, Dissertation House, PROMISE: Maryland's AGEP, UMBC Tagged: Carnegie Mellon University, DH, Dissertation, Dissertation House, Graduate School, National Science Foundation, National Society of Black Engineers, PROMISE AGEP, PROMISE: Maryand's AGEP, QoLT, Quality of Life Technology Center, Renetta Tull, University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Pittsburgh, Wendy Carter-Veale

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