Mean committee members

[globy321]

Hi everyone. I am doing a MSc and I have one mean committee member that really doesn't seem to care much and asks the toughest questions ever. Has anyone had any experience with those kind of committee members and how did you deal with them??

[neuronix]

schedule an appointment with him/her.

 

ask them questions and make them feel important.

 

if they think you need them, they will be nicer.

[globy321]

schedule an appointment with him/her.

 

ask them questions and make them feel important.

 

if they think you need them, they will be nicer.

 

Has this worked for you?

[LostLamb]

You will prefer to have tough committee members than to have tough thesis examiners.

 

A tough committee member will make sure that you know what you are doing with your project and this will help you to succeed. If nobody asks the hard questions during the research part, you will be in big trouble when they ask them at your defense.

[globy321]

You will prefer to have tough committee members than to have tough thesis examiners.

 

A tough committee member will make sure that you know what you are doing with your project and this will help you to succeed. If nobody asks the hard questions during the research part, you will be in big trouble when they ask them at your defense.

 

What happens if you cannot answer a question on thesis defense? Can they fail you? Has there been instances where a student has not been awarded a MSc degree on thesis defense?

[rmorelan]

What happens if you cannot answer a question on thesis defense? Can they fail you? Has there been instances where a student has not been awarded a MSc degree on thesis defense?

 

very, very, very rare

 

worst I have seen is a student give a huge amount of revisions etc, and since the committee members read the thesis prior to the defence usually things are caught before the that stage

[Genemo]

What happens if you cannot answer a question on thesis defense? Can they fail you? Has there been instances where a student has not been awarded a MSc degree on thesis defense?

 

I dont think they can fail you but they can give you a not-as-good mark for your 12 credits thesis. You'll hate it if you need the GPA of graduate study.

[LostLamb]

It isn't usually the fact that you can't answer the questions at the defense that will cause you to 'fail'...but severe deficiencies in the project that have been overlooked by a less than careful grad student or a lazy committee.

 

Yes, the thesis examiners do read the the thesis prior to defense, but sometimes they allow you to go ahead even though upon reading they know that there will be problems. I know of people who have had to re-defend twice...they were *that* close to getting kicked out. Not good.