In some cases, yes, but the requirements vary by program. In the program I did, we were required to produce one publishable article (actually publishing it was optional - it just had to be deemed fit for publication). Many do end up publishing, but there were no specific requirements to do so.
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My program was also like that. One project manuscript had to be of publishable quality to qualify for doctoral candidacy. The dissertation is implied that it needs to be of publishable quality as well.
Considering your struggles, you did good, and you’re in a PhD program. That’s more education than most of us. Be happy where you’re at. There’s always a “would’ve,” “could’ve,” and “should’ve.” Happiness in life comes from learning to be happy with our current reality.
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I think I should give some information now. I made a now deleted thread where I do mention how my graduate career as a whole has been completely and totally botched in this case.
I made a bullet point list of how that’s happened for reasons outside of my control but these are some within my control and left opportunities on the table in some cases that resulted in me doing the bare minimum (other than this academic year).
Master’s:
1.) All GAships had 10 hours worth of funding year. I was the only one in my cohort who didn’t take another 10 hour assistantship in their second year. The majority took a 1 credit hour course that was required by North Carolina law to even become a TA in the first place and I was the only one who did not do it because I was afraid of receiving a low grade despite the low stakes and the fact my program allowed up to 3 C level grades (more on that later). My fear eventually ended up becoming true because I got a B+ and a B in both Spring seminars of my program. Supposed to be an “easy A” class but I got Cs on my presentations both times for totally different reasons. I graduated with a 3.48 Master’s GPA that I had to explain when I applied to programs (see point 2 for why).
2.) I didn’t do any additional research projects other than a pilot study for thesis 2018-2019 (first year MA for me), which I defended in summer 2020 since COVID meant I couldn’t run my original Master’s thesis at all. This happened since I waited on others to give me direction and had no idea the norm in graduate school was to go in your own direction before the advisor gives input. It didn’t help that my advisor never read the yearly progress reports and didn’t contextualize the “red flags” throughout the Master’s program and what was going to stand out on my Ph.D applications.
Ph.D:
3.) Additional stats classes offered at the Ph.D level that I didn’t take and instead opted to repeat 9 credit hours of subject courses from my Master’s that counted as electived for my Ph.D program since my MA was accepted in full (one was suggested during an interview to “do anyway” since the professor was really good. I also repeated their Stats and Research Methods courses to earn an A- and an A respectively since my grades at the MA level for those classes were B and C+ respectively. I had a C+ due to the finals grades worth half of my total grade taken with an abcessed tooth. I should’ve taken an incomplete in hindsight with my doctor’s note while I recovered).
4.) My teaching scores have been consistently low (other than one semester where I taught online and improved after that) and I jumped into a full time visiting instructor position recently where most categories I scored 3/5 or above. Overall effectiveness ratings were 2.8 or 2.9 out of 5 though.
Both:
5.) Kind of tying into all of the above, I think most of my struggles at the graduate level and courses where I did poorly during my undergraduate (other than PSY major GPA, which was a 3.5) was due to my difficulty adapting to the content. I was just good at Psychology as a subject but I wasn’t when it came to everything else that tanked my grades (foreign language, math). Thus, Psychology at the undergraduate level was not that demanding for me other than Cognitive Neuroscience where I got a C (class average was a D though). I consistently had a tendency in those classes where I had difficulty to adapt save for the last few weeks. Those Cs would also be a thing if the grades were a 69.6 rounded up, exactly 70%, or low 70s (my undergrad didn’t do plusses or minuses so Cs were 70-79 percent and so on).
Ok. You’ve had challenges.
Move forward. If you got an A- and an A in a grad level stats and Research Methods course, you are MORE than qualified to work in corporate market research, data analysis type roles, or to teach stats at a CC or private HS.
You can either live in the land of “coulda shoulda woulda” or walk proudly at graduation and move on with your life!
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You keep writing of the past. You can’t change the past. What’s done is done.
You need to look ahead.
There’s not a do over avail. There is a do differently going forward.
Seems like teaching isn’t for you.
Get the degree
Get healthy
Get a job !!
It’ll all be great !!
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I sympathize. I understand your explanations and I’m sorry you went through all that.
I’ll again be blunt in the attempt to give you valuable perspective. Your future employers don’t care about any of this. Can and will you do the job well? Will you be a good colleague? That is all they care about.
You are ruminating and it’s not serving you well. I have found therapy to be invaluable for getting over similar barriers. You will cripple yourself and stagnate if you keep obsessing over these things. Once you stagnate, it’s hard to dig yourself out. You have the chance to nail something down before you graduate, and it will help so much if you strike while the iron is hot.
You have to move on and focus on the next steps. You are already taking some of them: you’re being creative and resourceful with your job search. Keep doing that. Shake the dust off your sandals and charge ahead.
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I’d reply to everyone if I could but I’ll vent one more regret. Biggest regret was not accepting my note taking and cuing accommodations for my IEP and mentioning they should omit them entirely before colleges and universities saw them. I self-sabotaged by seeing them as a “handout” and internalized ableism. Granted, by the time I did my undergrad, most were uploading notes online and those were there when I needed them and I could get notes from classmates. I also have dysgraphia, but I can type just fine. As for cuing sheets, I don’t know as I would write cues for myself before exams anyway.
I had a life coach throughout my undergrad that my parents hired, which I credit as the only reason I got through undergrad. I will admit I have stagnated already and I am having a hard time getting out right now.
I’m serious hoping vocational rehabilitation and whatnot will be helpful.
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not necessarily. Getting a slot in a Lab and research opportunities at an R1 as an undergrad is highly competitive, based on GPA, and what you can offer them. They want you to hit the ground running and contribute on Day 1. They would not have waited until your math skills got up to speed. Sure, even if you coudl have continued at the lab that you were in during HS, no way you are getting any responsible work with low quant skills
Highly unlikely. (Many schools prefer that you go somewhere else for grad school, unless you are a star in undergrad.). Even if teh PI in your HS lab loved you, it would not matter if it was not their year to bring on a PhD student.
I hope that your current program is fully-funded.
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For what?
I see your point regarding responsible work and my low quant skills (at the time anyway). I also would have been allowed to continue as well but my responsibilities would have likely been low (as you said) with just debrief participants, running them, and attending meetings.
Just to clarify as well, I don’t mean straight to Ph.D at OSU. Just straight to any Ph.D program from undergrad in general.
As for my current program, it is fully funded and has been for the past 3 years (all I needed to pay off my program at this point). I am also a visiting full time instructor at a SLAC right now near where I’m doing my Ph.D.
I’m having trouble understanding your problem. This all sounds good to me.
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Vocational rehabilitation will likely be helpful with me finding a job in this case is what I mean.
My current situation is good right now but I’m going to have a hard time selling myself post graduation with what I have at the moment since I’ve done the bare minimum at every point my education. I almost wish I didn’t go to graduate school sometimes with how much stress I’ve undergone to the point my thyroid’s a concern.
To summarize:
-5.5 years (6 if you include this semester) of lab experience
-Master’s thesis, Quals project
-1.5 years of teaching experience (with low ratings)
-Eye tracking hardware and software experience
I think I mentioned it before but I was only allowed to work on my qualifier project and nothing else my second year in the program and that set me back big time as far as developing new skills and whatnot goes. I don’t what to do to be sellable at this point and its not even looking like I’m going to qualify for a lot of post Ph.D jobs based on what they want from their candidates. Its reached the point where I’m just aiming for a job with clearly defined structures and outcomes. This has been a struggle for me.
Not sure I understand your areas of expertise but the corporate world will beckon - if you can deliver product (being whatever you are hired to do) and attitude wise.
Vocational Rehabilitation in my state is set up to help injured railroad workers or young people with disabilities retrain for careers in health care or food service. I don’t know what they would do with a PhD who has had lab experience!
I would encourage you to reach out to career services at your current university and get their input on what your options are. If you pivot out of academia nobody is going to care about the bumps in the road you’ve experienced.
If your career services team offers video interviews with critiques-- that would really benefit you. They can help you frame your skills and competencies so that you aren’t emphasizing the wrong things, and they can help you sell yourself…
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My expertise at the Master’s level was sustained attention and response inhibition in adults with ADHD traits. At the Ph.D level, I pivoted over to silent reading and, currently, text-to-speech and reading comprehension.
I can do things but I sadly developed borderline cognitive functioning so everything takes me forever and I get easily fatigued.
For a medical reason? If so, how are you doing the things you are doing. And if you have had a medical issue, have you dealt with resolving this?
This might be something voc rehab could help you with…but you need to reach out to them asap. Fact is, they might not find your issue in their domain. No way to know before their intake.
I was going to reply to Blossom but since I saw yours first, I may as well reply to you.
Regarding vocational rehabilitation, I’ve been in the state of Michigan’s system for a couple of months now and my earliest contact with a counselor was back in August. My counselor told me that my intake and screening were successful and I’m fully approved (with a letter from the state of Michigan approving it) so no worries there. The way vocational rehabilitation works here is that I pick two jobs I want and they actively search for employers where I’d be a match. I chose social scientist and market research. After I start working, they’ll check with me to make sure my job is going well. Most importantly, they even go out of the state of Michigan to help find jobs.
As for career services in my program, I’ve used them and I’m disappointed big time. They only helped me search for key words but that was the extent of things. Nothing I haven’t done before.
Regarding how I’m doing the things I’m doing, I’ve been teaching using others’ materials when I can and am using them within copyright and fair use restrictions. I have to create my own slides for a class that was taken “off the docket” for the first time in 6 years but that’s it. I sadly do the slides for as little as an hour and I’m “gassed out” after that extremely quick since it is extremely cognitive demanding to do so. I’m autistic so I’m convinced my RBANS score that assessed my cognitive functioning reflects that. That’s a major problem since getting autistic burnout means I’ve been extended beyond my capabilities quite often while achieving so little (e.g., no publications).
As for the responsibilities in my Ph.D program, my advisor has wanted me to work on additional projects and publications with him but I haven’t done that even when I wasn’t working this past summer. This was partially due to how much worse my health was at the time (my thoughts jumbled around so much that I couldn’t drive for a week at one point). I was also taken in my by my parents and applied for work going into next academic year, which is how I got my current position at this SLAC.
ETA: If I’m being honest, I do think there’s a lot of things years in the making that came back to haunt me skills wise. Only reason I got through undergrad was because my parents hired a life coach who I spoke with on a weekly basis. During the gap year and my Master’s program, I didn’t need that thankfully but I think not fostering that independence early on was harmful nonetheless. My parents also rehired someone who helps review resumes, cover letters, etc. with me during my Master’s and who I got in touch with again to help me with this job search process.
I hope you have had a complete physical as well. This is very important.
Good that you are connected with VR. Please don’t assume they will contact you. Reach out to them.