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. ^_^

Human Subjects Approval

Hello Everyone! I hope you're enjoying your holiday season. 

I just discovered how easy it was to "register" for the Rutgers Human Subjects Approval course. For those of you who don't know what it is: There are federal regulations regarding how you can treat humans. This course is to make sure you know how to treat human subjects while doing your research. In other words, if you are going to interact with people at all to get information for your thesis, including interviews, meetings, getting human blood samples, etc., you need to get human subjects approval (regardless of your major). So, if you are a Rutgers student and you want to write a thesis, I strongly suggest you get this approval, even if you don't think you need it, just to be safe.

How to do it:

If you are a Rutgers student, it is super simple to get. First, go to: http://orsp.rutgers.edu/Humans/hscp.php . Then, read over the information on the page. Once you're ready to sign up for the sakai course, scroll down to where it says "What is the format of the program?" and click on where it says "to go to the Human Subjects Certification Program on Sakai, click here." Once you click on the link, enter your netid and password, and click "login." After you click "login," you will be registered for the course.

Advice Tidbit:

I just registered for the sakai course today, and saw that there was a LOT of reading material. I strongly recommend getting your approval as soon as possible if you plan on writing a thesis, and on top of that, I strongly recommend doing the course during winter break, spring break, or summer vacation, when you have time to sit and read through all of the material. 

Enjoy the rest of your holidays!

-Aakruti

To do:

1. Add 5 sources to the literature review from Thesis seminar

2. Set up a concrete question

3. Start a rough outline about subtopics within the main topic

4. Research professors in France who can be secondary thesis advisors (may not be able to do this until I actually get to Paris)

5. Talk to Professor Lehne about a fellowship I'm applying to (that may change my thesis topic)

6. Apply for the fellowship

7. Get human subjects approval

8. Set up thesis blog

Books

Hello everyone! I know I've been missing for a while, but finals can make even the people with the most time into busy bees (sorry I couldn't think of a less cheesy way to say that lolz). Anyway, I went to Alexander and Kilmer libraries soon after my previous post, and checked out a bunch of books related to my thesis topic. As I am dong my thesis topic on BNP, and I don't know much about banking to begin with, my first essential is a dictionary of banking and finance terms. I found two of these: 

-Dictionary of Finance and Banking (Oxford Edition) (KIL HG151.D54 1997)

-Dictionary of Banking and Finance (Peter Collin Edition) (KIL HG151.C655 1999)

With dictionaries in hand, I am now ready to explore the rest of the literature I checked out of the libraries:

-"European Monetary Integration & Domestic Politics" By: Walsh (ALEX HG3943.W34 2000)

-"Comparative Financial Systems" By: Smith (KIL HG171.S59 1982)

-"London and Paris as International Financial Centres in the Twentieth Century" By: Cassis and Bussiere (ALEX HG3944.L66 2005)

-"Fundamentals of Development Finance" By: Richards (ALEX HG.4027.7.R5 1983)

-"Financial Innovation in the Banking Industry" By: Garland (ALEX HG4028.A84.02 2000)

-"Economics of Financial Institutions and Markets" By: Smith (KIL HG153.S53)

Looking at my schedule between now and when I leave for France, there is no way that I will be able to sit down and read all of these books. For that reason, I put up the call numbers of all the books I checked out. If I want to check these books out of the libraries again after I return, I can always check this page for the call number, and then check it out of the library again without searching too hard ^_^

Anecdote: 

Before I go to the library to check out books, I always write the call number of the books I want down on a little post-it. This way, when I get to the library, I can just go to the stacks and grab my book. The day I went to get my books, I went from my dorm to Alexander to Kilmer. When I finished up at Alexander, I could have sworn that I put my post-it back into my wallet, but when I got to Kilmer, it was nowhere to be found. Knowing a little bit about the Dewey Decimal System, I checked the numbers on the back of the books I got from Alexander, and went to the same numbers at Kilmer, and found books that I could use. This anecdote leads me to advice I would like to share:

Advice Tidbit:

Whenever I go to the stacks at the library, I always have the call number with me, but when I get to the location of my book, I don't just grab my book and leave. I look at the other books on the same shelf, sometimes looking at the shelves above and below where I got my book. This is a great way to check if there are any relevant books that you did not find via the library's catalog search. 

To do:

1. Add 5 sources to the literature review from Thesis seminar

2. Set up a concrete question

3. Start a rough outline about subtopics within the main topic

4. Research professors in France who can be secondary thesis advisors (may not be able to do this until I actually get to Paris)

5. Talk to Professor Lehne about a fellowship I'm applying to (that may change my thesis topic)

6. Apply for the fellowship

7. Get human subjects approval

8. Set up thesis blog

Goals before Paris

I will be studying abroad in paris next term, and I will be leaving in January. This works out well because my tentative thesis topic, which I have already begun to research, is a case study on the BNP. I don't have my actual question down yet, but I know I want it to have something to do with either the current banking reform or the economic crisis, or hopefully, both. While in Paris, I will do some research but before I go, I have several goals to accomplish (I will strike them out as they get done):

1. Add 5 sources to the literature review from Thesis seminar

2. Set up a concrete question

3. Start a rough outline about subtopics within the main topic

4. Research professors in France who can be secondary thesis advisors (may not be able to do this until I actually get to Paris)

5. Talk to Professor Lehne about a fellowship I'm applying to (that may change my thesis topic)

6. Apply for the fellowship

7. Get human subjects approval

8. Set up thesis blog

I may not be able to accomplish all of these seeing as my time between the end of the semester and Paris is limited, but I will still try to get all of them done. 

Advice tidbit: Making these types of short-term goals can be really helpful in getting stuff done. Set a deadline for yourself and meet the deadline. Assign yourself little things, such as get 5 sources by x date. So far, it has kept me on track with my thesis after the class has ended. I also found that this blog puts me under pressure to meet my goals because if I know people are keeping up with me, then I feel like I am obligated to complete the tasks. Furthermore, I love making to-do lists because it feels so good to be able to cross things off of the list ^_^ This approach may or may not work for everyone, but it definitely works for me. 

Thesis Blog: Intro

Hello, this is my thesis blog, which was created specifically for the purpose of writing about my thesis: the research, the process and other ideas. 

Advice Tidbit: If you haven't taken it already, take an Intro to the Thesis class. At Rutgers, it's taught by Dean Levine. It's a great course because it teaches you how to go about researching, writing, finding an advisor, financing your thesis, etc. I strongly recommend this course for anyone who is writing a Thesis. 

Next time: My near-future goals