Dear Agony Aunt
Honours is over, I have a great idea for a master’s dissertation, and I’ve scraped up money for fees. But am I good enough? Will they accept me? Should I apply to my old university where they know me, or should I change? What about the stress? Is a humanities research degree a worthwhile career investment, or should I rather get a job and start earning? Help!
Confused
Dear Confused
The questions you ask boil down to “what should I do?” and “how should I set about it?” The simple answers are: do what you most want to do, then get started the right way.
Remember you’re in a buyers’ market. If you have the entry requirements, the institution taking you on gets not only your fees (which can average R4 000 to R5 000 a year), but a further R32 000 or more in government subsidy when you pass. Cash-strapped faculties will encourage you to register. You’re worth a lot to them.
So shop around. Get interviews at all the institutions you’re prepared to consider. You might feel they’re doing you a favour, but they’re as keen to recruit you as any service provider whose business needs clients and, if they’re smart, they’ll put on a terrific marketing act.
What you want from the interview is an invitation to come on board, so prepare to demonstrate that you’ll work hard, and that you can complete a research degree efficiently. But use the opportunity to interview them as well. Find out what value you’ll get for your money. As with any kind of service provider, some will suit you better than others.
A guy fresh out of honours got depressed recently when it took three weeks to arrange a meeting (the professors were busy), and then the professor he did manage to see couldn’t show him how to write a proposal, structure his ideas into a working plan, or even lay out a bibliography correctly! The candidate had the sense to try elsewhere. He’s now registered with other people who were accessible and able to show him the ropes.
Check out the institution. There was a time you could assume that an institution with an overall good reputation would do, and, as Saleem Badat (CEO of the Council on Higher Education) has pointed out, just six of South Africa’s universities produce about 70% of our master’s and doctoral graduates. But some of the supervision on offer at the well-known research institutions may be less than adequate in your chosen field. Also as can happen across the world some (not all) top people are too busy publishing their own learned papers and attending conferences to give time to struggling master’s students. Smaller, less well-known universities and technikons may have pockets of excellence unmatched by the big boys and could give you a far better deal.
Ask yourself, can the institution put at your disposal the expertise you need? Has it a proven track record of supervising successful master’s candidates in your field?
Prepare for the master’s route as sensibly as any runner wanting to run (and survive) a Comrades marathon. You’ll need the equivalent of the best coach or personal trainer you can find. You won’t eliminate stress, but with the right guidance you’ll overcome it and succeed.
Meet your potential supervisor. Does he or she understand when you try to explain your ideas? Are the responses useful? Can he or she be tough when necessary and help you do an excellent job? Can you respect this person’s judgement even when things get difficult? Can s/he be trusted to keep appointments, to stimulate your interest and to comment constructively on working drafts and return them quickly? What do other students say who’ve done master’s degrees with this supervisor?
Finally, do you feel energised after a consultation with this person, or depressed and worried? If the expertise, the experience, the reputation as a supervisor and the vibes are right, you’ve hit bull’seye.
Are you good enough? It depends what you mean. You want to tell the world your good idea? Go ahead. If the world likes it the world will applaud. If the examiner likes it, an “M” will follow your name. And you’ll have proved to yourself that you’re able to take a concept and run with it.
If by good enough you mean am I good enough for an institution to accept me, that’s easy to prove. Apply! If they offer you a place, you’re good enough for them. If they don’t, you’ve risked and paid nothing, the decision is out of your hands, and you can find a job, travel, start your own business, whatever.
Is a humanities master’s degree a good career move? Yes and no. It’s like doing exercises. For a professional football player, it’s essential: you need to be super-fit to keep your job. For a computer nerd, it’s indirectly relevant. You’ll have fewer aches and pains and you’ll live longer. A master’s can be relevant in the right context an MA in French could give you the edge in a company doing business with Congo or Morocco. Even in non-job-oriented humanities fields such as classics, philosophy or literature a good degree will give you the habit of investigating matters thoroughly. You’ll learn to present a case so convincingly that when someone (like an examiner) shakes your argument hard, it’ll hold firm instead of falling to pieces.
A master’s tells potential employers you have staying power and that you can work independently, find and assemble relevant facts, and communicate in ways that satisfy the experts. Best of all, it gives you self-confidence. You’ll always do okay if you feel like a winner.
The best reason to write a dissertation, though, is passion for your topic. This is true in all disciplines. Life is short. Every hour doing what you love is an hour of potential happiness. With the right trainer and serious commitment from you, all you need is to get accepted at the right place, to plan sensibly and enjoy.
The Agony Aunt has worked for decades at universities in and outside South Africa