How do I choose a topic?

Hey Guys,

Once again, I have been on a long hiatus from this blog. Within that hiatus, though, I've gotten a lot done. I have written and finished my proposal, come up with a tentative outline for my thesis, and set benchmarks for submitting different parts of my thesis to my advisor. Besides that I'm still researching, still checking tons of books out of the library, and still keeping on top of current events.

One challenge I have faced until now is balancing when to work on my thesis with when to work on my other stuff. My advisor is great, but he's the type of person who says he wants to see something "soon" without giving me a specific deadline. I'm ok with this, but at the same time I feel like if I don't set my own deadlines, I will procrastinate until the last minute. If I have a concrete deadline, I'm more likely to work on my assignment for a week until it's due, but if I don't have any concrete deadlines, I'll tend to put something off. Furthermore, I also have a busy semester with lots of upper-level classes, not to mention the LSATs, which are coming up soon. The most important thing to remember as a senior is how to balance doing your thesis with other stuff such as exams, applications, etc.

One thing I noticed is that I never put up the story of how I came to choose my advisor/topic. I got a text message from a friend who was trying to pick a thesis topic, so I started searching my blog for a relevant post only to realize that there were none. So, for all of you people out there who don't know how to settle on a topic, this one's for you:

The first thing I did when deciding on a topic was thinking back to every single class that I took for my major. I tried to remember what I learned in each class, how much I liked the teacher, and how interested I was in the material from that class. In my case, I really enjoyed the classes I took with Professor Lehne, not only because of his chill enthusiasm for what he teaches, but also because the stuff he taught was highly appealing to me. The two classes I took with him were Government and Business, and the Senior Seminar in Public Policy. I was fascinated by the relationship between government and businesses, but more from the political perspective than from the economic perspective. That's how I decided upon Corporate Governance as my topic. Below, I have compiled a list of questions to think about when picking your topic:

1. Who is your favorite professor? Why?
2. What was your favorite class? Why?
3. Which topics do you love to talk about?
4. Are there any big questions in your field that you would like to know more about?
5. Do you see any problems in your field that you think you can fix? If not, are there any steps you can think of that should be taken for a possible solution?
6. Why did you decide to choose the major that you did? What exactly piqued your interest in the major?
7. Have you ever gotten into a passionate debate/discussion with a professor/classmate on a particular issue that lasted for a while (or that you feel was too complex to discuss in the amount of time you talked with the person)?

I hope these help.

-Aakruti

P.S. If you have any more questions about getting started on a thesis, picking a topic, choosing an advisor, etc. Leave a comment. I'd be more than happy to answer your questions ^_^

Time to get on track

Hey guys,

Sorry I've been super busy over the last month. A lot has happened regarding my thesis.

Books:
I spent all of the first two weeks of the semester checking books in and out of the library. I changed my topic one more time to corporate governance, so I had to start researching all over again. Luckily, there is a LOT of literature on the topic, and a good amount if it is really recent. For those of you who don't know, Rutgers libraries are really good at keeping their collections super up-to-date. A bunch of the books I got were even from 2010.

Proposal:
About a week and a half ago, I finished skimming over all of the books and drafted my proposal and my literature review. last wednesday, I went to speak with my advisor (Professor Lehne) who marked it up and suggested I further narrow my topic into subcategories that I want to look at. I anticipate focusing on four major subcategories, but I came up with 6 just in case some of those categories don't work out. I left the revised version of the proposal with my advisor today.

Tip: Choose an advisor who you are certain you will click well with. Every time I go to my advisor, even though we're talking about my thesis, I feel like we can converse for hours. My advisor is also super thoughtful, and from time-to-time, he will email me book suggestions. Also, when I went into his office, he had an inch-thick folder full of recent articles on corporate governance that he let me borrow (He is writing the third edition of his textbook called "Government and Business" and chapter 4 is on corporate governance. It's a great book, and it's one of the major reasons I settled on Corporate governance as my topic).

Topic: A Love Story
As I mentioned before, I changed my topic again. In case you haven't been following me too closely, I had changed my topic from a case study on Societe Generale (it involved too much economics) to the American regulatory structure (too broad, and also too economics-heavy) until finally I settled on corporate governance. After the second topic, I was feeling baffled and discouraged, wondering why I had chosen this field when it was seemingly really difficult to focus on policy in an economics-heavy field (I have never taken a college-level econ course). I decided to talk to my advisor who knew me and my strengths very well. The reason I chose him was because I took two of his classes, did really well in both of them, and was really interested in his field of expertise. I even enjoyed writing a term paper for one of his classes. Anyway, back to the story: I went to his office hours and he suggested several topics he thought I would be interested in. Finally, when he suggested corporate governance, the gears started turning in my head (the academic version of love at first sight ♥ ) Anyway, after I left my advisor's office hours, I went to the library and like the little nerd I sometimes turn into, I checked out fifteen books on my topic. After having skimmed though all of the books, I decided that this was the topic I would stick with till the end ♥ ^_^

One thing I recommend is that you finish your proposal by the summer before your senior year, because even if it's your senior year, you will be super-busy with applications for grad school, fellowships, jobs, etc., not to mention the senior seminars and otehr upper-level classes you will be taking. It'll also allow you to get a head start on writing it, so that you have less to do at the end of the year, during "crunch time."

That's all for now, For next week, hopefully I will have a clear timeline and maybe even an outline that I can start writing from. Realistically, I'll probably only have the timeline done, but I will still make a deliberate effort to at least start the outline. Until next time!

-A

Quarter life...uh i mean thesis topic... crisis

A few weeks ago, I went to Rutgers and pulled about sixteen books out of the library on Banking policy. As I had suspected, the topic required an understanding of economics. What I did not expect was lots and lots of math and econometrics related to what I was studying. The only economics class I had taken was microeconomics in high school, so I became afraid that this thesis would become burdensome on me, and a lot of my time would be spent trying to teach myself about two or three years' worth of economics in about two or three months. Furthermore, though I have done well in past mathematics courses, it is not exactly the most fun thing for me to do complex equations with multiple unknown variables, so I contemplated changing my topic.

As those of you who have worked or are currently working on a thesis know, at a certain point, you start thinking of your thesis at the oddest points in time. This happened to me yesterday. Last night, as I was falling asleep, I contemplated my thesis topic and started playing with ideas on how to make my thesis more political than economic (I am a political science major, after all). I thought back to why I picked the topic I did, and remembered that

1. I thoroughly enjoyed doing a term paper on GM, why it was failing, and how it could save itself

2. I chose Societe Generale because it was a systemic institution in France, and I wanted to do an interdisciplinary or interdepartmental thesis instead of just a normal departmental honors thesis.

This got me thinking: I decided that I wanted to do a thesis after I enjoyed writing a term paper about a systemic institution that was in trouble. I enjoyed studying how the insufficient regulatory structure was at least partially responsible for this near-collapse of GM. I wanted to study the POLICY behind this all. I chose a topic thinking that this would be what I was studying with a Bank, but instead I found myself to be drowning in a sea of economic terminology and econometric equations. It was not what I wanted to study at all! Therefore, when I thought back, I realized that I was focusing on the term "Systemic Institution" more than I was focusing on the terms that really interested me, "regulatory structure" and "Policy." Therefore, as I lay half-asleep in my bed, I decided that I wanted my thesis to focus on regulatory policy. More precisely, I decided that I wanted to examine the regulatory system of corporations, and how they have changed throughout the Obama administration, and I want to observe and examine the implications of these changes. I may also want to do a critique on how it's been working out, and what should be done to make it work better, based on thorough research of the topic.

I also gave up the idea of an interdepartmental/interdisciplinary thesis because the same day I went to the library, I went to visit Dean Lord in the honors office. The main reason I went to the office was to get an information packet for my brother who will be applying to the Rutgers Honors Program, but I got to talking about my thesis with Dean Lord. She told me that an "interdisciplinary thesis" was completely different from what I was doing, and she told me that what I was doing was departmental honors. I figured since my senior year will already be crazy enough, it would be wise of me not to let the overachieving part of me set myself up for something that may be too much for me to handle once the semester gets crazy. Therefore I decided to stick with a topic that I wanted to do that was related to one department rather than trying to create a topic that would fit two departments, but would not be something I'm super passionate about. That's why I decided to change my topic.

SOOOOOO.... Back to the drawing board (and back to the library to pick out books that are more pertinent to my new topic! ^_^)

Advice tidbit:

ALWAYS start seriously researching your thesis topic before your senior year begins. I thought that I was dead-set on pursuing Societe Generale as a thesis topic, and I was even extremely interested in what's been going on there, but after reading through books and building my bibliography, I realized that the topic was too heavy on the economics for it to be a pleasant and agreeable topic for me. Therefore, my advice is not only to research and know what you're in for before the semester, but also to love the topic you're researching with all of your heart, because you will be spending the better part of your year researching, thinking of, and writing about that topic.

Now, all I have to do is notify my thesis advisor and write up a new proposal for my topic ^_^

-A

My Return

I finally returned from Paris three weeks ago. After taking the time to finally settle down, I decided to call my local library to see if there were any books in the county that would be of use to me (Bergen County has a system called BCCLS [Bergen County Cooperative Library System] through which I am able to borrow any library book in the county, not just from my library). When I spoke to the librarian over the phone, she was much more helpful than I thought she would be. She asked me all sorts of questions about my thesis topic, so that she could better understand what I was looking for, then said that she would call me back later in the day. She did a thorough search for me and recommended at least 25 titles (most of which were in the Rutgers library). She also informed me of different databases that were available to me through the town's library (though Rutgers students have access to all those databases just by logging into the RU Libraries site).

After having thanked the librarian for having found so many great books for me, I drove down to Rutgers, and filled 2 tote bags with books that would help me build on my bibliography. I have 16 total. I searched through their tables of contents to see if there was any relevant information, and sorted them based on whether or not they will be of use to me. Currently, I am scouring the relevant books for useful information that I can include in my thesis, or that will help me better understand what I am researching. I also have an official thesis question:

"How did Societe Generale survive after both the 'Rogue Trader' incident and the subsequent economic crisis, and how can other large banks use this example to help prevent their failure?"

Besides building my bibliography and keeping up with current events regarding SG (Societe Generale), I am also beginning to draft my thesis proposal, which I hope to have ready to submit before September 1st. That's all for now!

-A

Research Begins

Bonjour! Paris has been keeping me really busy, so I haven't had much time to Update (or to do much for that matter) until this weekend. That being said, once I sat down to do research, I realized that I had no idea where to start.

Advice Tidbit:

Having pondered my dilemma, I realized that one of my mottos can work on thesis research as well: "When you don't know it, Wikipedia it." We do it all the time when an unknown concept comes up while doing homework, or during an instant messenger discussion, right? Wikipedia is a great place to gather basic information JUST FOR PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE on a topic, but as it's a wiki, and is editable by any joe schmoe, you need to verify the information through reliable sources (though I'm sure you've heard this a million times already in class).

Personally, after having read the wikipedia article, I realized that there's much more of a history to Societe Generale than I originally thought. It's been around for well over a century, and had been doing really well throughout most of its history. Despite that, however, there was a money laundering incident right before the economic crisis. With the burden on the institution from this incident, combined with the added burden of the economic crisis, it's really surprising that Societe Generale survived. The article also "flamed the fire" to my interest in the topic I'm researching.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Societe_Generale

The moral of the story is: If you're completely lost as to where/how to begin searching for information on your topic, use Wikipedia as a springboard to jump into your research.

Short-term goals:

-Come up with a solid thesis question (note: I emailed my advisor about it already, I just need confirmation)

-Create a rough outline of subtopics

-research current events as well as not-as-current-but-still-relevant articles involving SG, the banking reform and the economic crisis both in French and English

Human Subjects Approval

After a long hiatus, I have finally returned! I'm currently in paris for the semester. Getting here was definitely a wild ride between missing luggage, scrambling to find housing, dealing with the bureaucracy of the French University registration system, and just settling down.

After I settled down, I started up my "thesis activity" again (I say "thesis activity" because, as implied in earlier posts, there is much more to writing a thesis than just research). I read through all of the "Human Subjects Approval" (HSA) material twice, and then took the exam. Unfortunately, the first time around, I just barely failed by one question (I got 77.5%, and I needed 80% to pass). I'm sure you can imagine how frustrating it was to read through all of that material twice and fail. Instead of using up all of my energy on frustration, though, I decided to try a new approach to help me remember the material, and I went though all of the stuff I got wrong one more time. Finally, the second time I took the exam, I passed with over 90%! ^_^

Because I was on such a long hiatus from this blog, I will offer you TWO pieces of advice instead of one:

Advice Tidbit #1:

If you plan on studying abroad in a country where you are planning to do research, expect lots and lots of delays. While studying abroad, you need time at the beginning to get things like housing and school registration in order, and to orient yourself with the new setting. The best time to start (or re-start) your research, or even your "thesis activity" is after you feel you have settled down because if your mind is cluttered with worries of how your course registration paperwork got lost, or of how much longer it will take for your baggage to arrive, you will probably be more focused on that and will not be able to concentrate properly.

Advice Tidbit #2:

When you are studying for your human subjects approval exam, go through the material twice. The first time, read (yes, just read) all of the material properly and think about which material is the most important to remember (there will be a lot). The second time, go through the material again, but take notes where necessary (at least for me, I tend to remember things better if I write them down). Then, after having read your notes once or twice, take the exam. If you fail, you can see which answers you got wrong (at least on the Rutgers exam), and you can read up more on those points before you take the exam a second time.

Goals:

-Get Human Subjects Approval

-Come up with a solid thesis question (note: I have one floating around my head, I just need to talk to my advisor back home about it)

-Create a rough outline of subtopics

-research current events as well as not-as-current-but-still-relevant articles involving SG, the banking reform and the economic crisis both in French and English

note: I have abandoned the idea of finding a secondary thesis advisor here because unless you're in their class, or unless helping you will benefit them personally, french professors are usually very aloof. Also, there are no politics or economics departments in the school I am currently enrolled at, therefore any professor here who knows anything about my field will have no interest in taking on the responsibility of being my advisor.

another note: I did not get selected to be a part of the Law, Society and Justice fellowship, so from here on out, I will be going full speed ahead with my current thesis topic.

On a more optimistic note: I have an account at the bank that I wish to do a case study on (societe generale), and my personal teller (yes, you have a personal teller in french banks who deals with you directly and knows you very well, bank-wise) told me that she would be more than willing to help me if I had any questions for my research. Furthermore, the main headquarters of Societe General is in La Defense (easily accessible by the Paris metro), so should I need to conduct interviews on a higher level, travel will definitely not be an issue. ^_^