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[fuzzylogician]

I've hit a crossroads in my graduate career and would appreciate some thoughts on where to go next. I give some details I think are relevant, and ask questions at the end of the post.

I am in the middle of my graduate training - just finished the 5th semester of a 10-semenster program, in one of the top programs in my field. I am doing very well, I believe. I have finished all of my classes and teaching requirements and have written and defended two qualifying papers so that all I have left is writing and defending my dissertation. I should point out that students in my program normally take at least one year longer than I did to finish these requirements - I've been told that I am "the third person in living memory" to defend both papers on time. Currently only one person in the year ahead of me has defended both his papers. I have one journal paper (first author) and a second has been submitted (single-authored) and my advisors say it has good chances of being accepted. I've also been to a respectable number of conferences (all but one of the major ones in my field) and have 3 proceedings papers and one encyclopedia entry.

Now that I'm done with all the formal requirements, I'm not sure where to go next. I am a multitasking person and like to be involved in many different projects - some, but not all, as first author. The problem is that as far as I can tell, right now there is no coherent story I can tell that will encompass them all. I do all kinds of research (theoretical, behavioral/experimental and recently also brain imaging work) in several subfields of linguistics (semantics, syntax, morphology, language acquisition). The questions I ask in these different fields do not necessarily connect, but they are all separately interesting to me. My two journal papers come from my qualifying papers. I am continuing to expand my first paper but I would not want it to be my dissertation topic. I am not sure what to do with my second paper - parts of it (particularly, the data it relies on) may be controversial, but I stand behind everything I said in it. Right now the plan is to continue working on areas related to it and see if I can use less disputed data in these continuations.

So I guess I have two related concerns:
- How important is it to have a coherent thread connecting all of one's research? should I be thinking up new projects that could somehow connect the unrelated works that I have already done? is there such a thing as being "too diverse"?
- Is it better to develop an existing project which is partly controversial (but which I stand behind and still find interesting) or explore new topics that could potentially turn into a dissertation?
Or: should I try and draft a research statement and see if there is an obvious piece that would complete the puzzle (non come to mind straight away) or is it too early and I should just do whatever grabs my attention and not worry so much?

[helpful]

What sort of field or discipline are you in?
Do you have a supervisory committee or a supervisor yet? What have they suggested you do?
Did you not have to make some sort of general research proposal or area of investigation in order to get into your doctoral program?

[fuzzylogician]

I'm in theoretical linguistics. In my program, we don't have designated advisors but rather we get to work with different faculty of our choice on different projects. I won't form a dissertation committee for probably another year or so. I mainly work with four professors on different projects and I intend to have a serious conversation with them about this issue soon. Generally, my program encourages students to pursue their interests and not to worry about marketing ourselves until the 5th year. That may work for most people -- students in my program end up doing very well, in fact -- but as I pointed out most don't have the choice that I do to work on many projects because they tend to finish their requirements very late. So whereas students usually spend only their 5th year working on their dissertation, I have two and a half years ahead of me.

I did write a SOP with proposed areas of study to enter my graduate program, but given the nature of the program it was never important to follow up on those questions. I do work on questions that are similar to those that I proposed, as well as on new areas that I wasn't exposed to during my BA and MA studies. There is a lot of freedom in my program. We are also not required to write a dissertation proposal, only write and defend a dissertation on a topic of our choice. From what I'm told, I don't need to choose a topic yet, but I like to plan ahead. That's how I got this far, and it works for me.

[helpful]

Are you saying that it is not until the 5th year that you have to decide what you are researching and writing a dissertation about and you then research and write it in one year? Wow.

Do you have the option now that you have completed the qualifying papers to do your dissertation earlier and get out of Dodge next year or the year after? Why would you wait until your 5th year to do this if you are ready to do it now?

[fuzzylogician]

Yep, that's how things are right now, and how they've been for a really long time in my program. They've been worrying about this situation and trying to change it for at least as long as I've been in the program. Again, people in my program end up being very successful, but I can't help but think it could be so much better if people got their act together sooner -- and that's what I'm trying to do.

I'm sure I could graduate in 4 years instead of 5, but I'm not sure if it makes sense to do so. I could have one extra year to write papers and develop projects and I'm not sure search committees would find me more attractive for graduating a year early as opposed to graduating "on time" and with more experience. Or am I wrong? I have funding for the full 5 years, I'm working with some of the leading figures in my field at my current institution and it's not like there are that many open jobs out there anyway. I still want to do everything that I can to help myself find the best job/postdoc I can after I graduate, so I am worrying about these things now. Maybe it's not politically correct to say that, but if I can make choices that will be more beneficial than others, I want to at least be aware of the consequences well in advance. When I tried to bring this subject up after my second defense (in October) it was dismissed as premature. My professors are very laid back and seem to think things will just fall into place without my trying too hard, but I just want to make the choices that will be most helpful later.