Financial difficulties for thesis progress, a survival guide for PhD students

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Ever since there is a seed of passion to pursue a doctoral degree is born, there are a range of difficulties that one is likely to face. As a doctoral student myself, I found that cracking the entrance examination and facing the teaching fraternity in proving my research interest area was rather boyish. The real challenges for my doctoral thesis was time and money. Though the doctoral studies like the graduates ones are themselves are too pricey, I have seen my batch mates opting out and looking for jobs instead of pursuing this final degree. The education system has been outpacing the living costs is a barrier for many as I can say my friends who opted out would have made a finer professor than myself. I came across discussion boards and found www.stunited.org which have one particular only for PhDs which caught my attention.

Over there, the mates which I met in the discussion board was discussing about specific issues that related to the cost factor in a doctoral thesis. There are many challenges like request for extension of the thesis submission date that is quite normal amongst students. The evaluation of student progress in the university desired format also is linked to the financial aid. This is infact regulated by the federal regulations which requires evaluation of student in terms of progress made. However, there can be situations where the collection of primary data from the field work in order to meet the proposed sample size can overshoot the budget. Financial planning for the research requires an estimation as the planned approach that will help to understand and plan for the sample size achievability factor in the given time frame.

Top Questions asked in Personal Interview round of MBA admissions

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Top Questions asked in Personal Interview round of MBA admissions

Apart from above, other top questions asked in Personal Interview round of MBA admissions are given below. All of them are the top Questions to prepare for Personal Interview.

 

  1. Tell us about your Strengths and Weakness

 

  1. What do you think is your best achievement

 

  1. Where do you see yourself in next five years

 

  1. Tell us about your career goals

 

  1. Why do you want to specialize in marketing/ finance/HR?

 

  1. Tell us about your hobbies and interests

 

  1. Who is your role model?

 

  1. To whom you would give credit for your success and why?

 

  1. Is there anyone who inspires you? Share reasons..

 

  1. How would you differentiate between a good manager and a good leader?

 

  1. Which is your biggest challenge so far?

 

  1. How do you think you will you contribute to the batch and the institute if we select you?

 

  1. What expectation do you have with this MBA programme?

 

  1. What does Criticism mean to you? How do you deal with it

 

  1. Have you ever demonstrated leadership? Share the situation…

 

  1. Which other MBA colleges have shortlisted you for final selection? Which one do you propose to choose and why

SAMPLE Template of FINAL PROJECT REPORT

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Cover Page

    Acknowledgement

    Certificate of the Project guide/Centre Manager

    Certificate of the Company/Organisation

    Synopsis of the Project

    Main Report:

        Objective & Scope of the Project.

        Theoretical Background.

        Definition of Problem.

        System Analysis & Design vis-a-vis User Requirements.

        System Planning (PERT Chart).

        Methodology adopted, System Implementation & Details of Hardware & Software used.

        System Maintenance & Evaluation.

        Cost and benefit Analysis.

        Detailed Life Cycle of the Project:

            ERD, DFD

            Input and Output Screen Design

            Process involved

            Methodology used for testing

            Test Report, Printout of the Reports, Printout of the Code Sheet

            User/Operational Manual – including security aspects, access rights, back up, controls, etc.

 

Annexures:

 

    Brief background of the organisation where the student has developed the project.

    Data Dictionary

 

    This should give a catalogue of the data elements used in the system/sub system developed. The following are the details required. Write NA if NOT applicable :

    Data Name

    Aliases, if any

    Length (Size)

    Type, Numeric, Alpha, Binary etc.

    List of abbreviations, Figures, Tables

    Reference

 

    – Bibliography

    – Website

    Soft copy of the project on CD or Floppy.

 

 

Project over, modify your resume through us: (www.resumechangers.com)

Guidelines while presenting your Project

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These are a set of guidelines that would help you when you present your project to everyone:

Talk to the audience. Avoid talking to the floor, to the wall or to the projector screen. Try to keep contact with your audience. Seek eye contact with your supervisor, examiner or even your friends who are listening. But also do so without staring at anyone.

During the talk you will of course have to face the projector screen sometimes, for example to point out details shown on the slides.. Show the slides properly. Avoid showing a slide for just a second or two before going on to the next one. In most cases, there is no way that anybody in the audience will grasp the information on your slide within seconds. It is easy to overestimate the speed at which people can grasp the information. You may have spent a long time writing, revising and thinking about the contents of a particular slide, and therefore the information on it may seem obvious to you. The audience, on the other hand, is seeing it for the first time, and they need some time to read and interpret it.

Explain things. For each slide you have to explain clearly to the audience what it shows. If, for example, the slide contains a line graph, you have to tell the audience what the x and y-axes represent (always include legends for all figures and graphs on your slides). Otherwise, the graph is meaningless to look at. Do not expect the audience to find out things for themselves by reading the slide.

Keep an eye on the time. Use your allocated time well. If you have, for example, 20 min for your talk, then practice the talk so that you know how long each part takes. Also leave a margin, so that you don’t find yourself running out of time and having to skip some parts. If you do run out of time when presenting, you may have to jump directly to the slide that conclude your talk when there is a minute or so left of the allotted time. Monitor the tempo. Do not talk too fast, or too slowly. Perhaps you can ask your supervisor beforehand to give you signals as to whether you are talking too fast or too slowly. You can vary the tempo and your voice during the talk in order to emphasise certain things in the presentation.

Avoid reading word by word from the slide. This should be done only occasionally, when the slide contains, for example, a very important definition, or a quote that is fundamental for your work and very important to communicate exactly to the audience. Otherwise, you should not treat the slides as part of your manuscript. Normally, your slide should contain short phrases, whereas your talk should be more explanatory.

Use a glass of water. If you get uncertain or nervous during your talk, it can be a good idea to have some form of distraction. The act of reaching for a glass of water, for example, serves as a useful mini break. The audience might think that you are just sipping water for a couple of seconds, but during these few, but valuable seconds, you have time to calm down, soothe the dry throat, and even think 12 Presenting and Defending your Work Orally through, for example, how to introduce the next slide or give a good answer to a question from the audience.

Do not block the view. Find a convenient place were you can stand, so that you do not block the projected slides. This issue of not blocking the view is also of importance if you are using transparencies and an overhead projector. When pointing to figures etc., it is generally better to point to the projection screen rather than to the transparency on the projector. . Use a pointing device. Think beforehand about how you will point to things on your slides if you need to. This is particularly important if you are using transparencies, where pointing at the slide itself would force you to look right into the light of the projector, so that when you look back up again you can only see black spots. A better method is to use a laser pointer or a stick. If you use a laser pointer, the time to find out how it works is before the talk, rather than during it. If you use a stick, try to avoid showing your nervousness by swinging it back and forth or otherwise jiggling it. Unless you use it very often, put it down on the desk when you do not need it.

No matter how well you have prepared beforehand, do not be surprised if you feel a bit nervous at the beginning of the presentation. This is normal, and happens to almost everybody, no matter how many times they have given presentations before. If the nervousness is so bad that it really troubles you, it may help to remember the examiner and the rest of the audience are interested in your project, and not in whether you are nervous or not. If the content of your talk is of high quality, then a trembling voice or shaky fingers are of no consequence, and may not even be noticed by anyone.

Problems faced in your final year project and ways to avoid them

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Your academic project would be a demanding, but an exciting learning experience. However, it is not without problems which, if not identified and addressed, could seriously effect the final result and ultimately reduce your marks. Here we mentioned some of these problems and how to avoid them.

The “Overachiever” Problem:

 

A common problem is selecting a topic that is far too ambitious for the allotted time.   Remember that you have only a few weeks to finish the design, development and testing of your project. Be careful not to select a topic that is unrealistically large.  This can lead to frustration as well as errors caused by “cutting corners” and hurrying through the implementation.  Discuss with your supervisor the scale of what you are planning.  If he or she thinks it may be too large, consider implementing the project in stages, each complete in itself.  When stage I is working move on to stage II.  If you do not finish stage II, however, you still have a functioning system.

The “Do It Tomorrow” Problem:

 

The project weeks alloted for completion sounds like a long time, but it goes by quickly.  You need an implementation schedule that allocates reasonable amounts of work throughout the entire semester. Then you must stick to that schedule.  Don’t be tempted to postpone work on the project because your due date seems so far off.  All that happens is that during the final few weeks you rush madly to get something working, and project implemented in a rush rarely works correctly!

The “Sleeping Member” Problem:

 

In the ideal world, all team members have equal ability, equal interest in the problem, and work equally hard.  In the real world that may not happen.  You may have one (or more) team members who do not carry their share of the workload, not because of a lack of ability, but rather lack of interest or motivation.  This is a serious problem because, although part of your marks is based on each individual’s effort, another part is based on successfully finishing the project.  A non-contributing team member can slow down or prevent completion of the work.  If you have a teammate who is not doing his or her share of the work, talk to them and stress the importance of everyone doing their job.  If this does not solve the problem then talk to your supervisor.  Don’t let the failure of others prevent you from completing the work and receiving good marks.

The “Poop Out At the End” Problem:

You have worked hard for many weeks to complete the project. You have spent many late nights and chased down hundreds of bugs, but it is now working, so are you done?  Absolutely not!  The project evaluation is not based only on the programs you develop but also on your written reports and oral presentations.  Even though you may be “burned out” from implementation, remember there is still work to do. Don’t produce a poorly witten paper or give a poorly organized presentation.  That will negate much of your good work. Put in the time needed to prepare both a well written, high-quality final report and a well organized, polished presentation. A good job on these last steps will insure that you receive the marks that fairly represents the work you have done.