Defending

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You'll be fine. The hard part is getting to the point where they let you defend. The actual defense is more of a formality. In any case, good luck!
 
Good luck Eric!
 
Neuronix said:
Yep, I'm defending tomorrow. 😱 I'm more nervous now than I think I have been in well... ever!
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Like others have said, you've made it past the hard part. Break a leg....and if that doesn't work, break all of the committee's legs. :meanie: 😉
 
I really nailed my talk so things went smoothly after that. The only issue is that I need to revise the wording and some figures in some areas of my thesis. But I need to have it re-reviewed and deposited by the end of this week! Eek! The stress just never ends!
 
I'll ask the SDN hive's opinion on my acknowledgements. Several people on my committee think it sounds too "bitter" and that I will regret writing it in 10 years. I strongly disagree and chalk it up to almost nobody having had these experiences. Everyone else just writes "I want to think my parents and my PI", but I don't have family support and nobody recognizes that. This whole MD/PhD thing was entirely because I pushed like hell for it against everyone's "advice". As a result, I am truely grateful when people are supportive of me and have my best interests in mind, and I want that to stand out. It's my right to put whatever I want, and I will, but I'm grateful for any feedback from the SDN hive. Oh, and it's right at the length limit as it is so no more adding 🙂

Names have been removed to protect the innocent.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It was 1997 when I was awarded my general education diploma after leaving high school. I would like to acknowledge everyone since then who told me that I wouldn't, couldn't, and shouldn't. First, those who told me I wouldn't go back to college. This is followed by others who told me I could never succeed as a pre-medical student with such little preparation. Then it was those undergraduate advisors who told me I shouldn't do an MD/PhD program. "You can't do both" I was constantly admonished, along with frequent other pieces of "advice". My favorite was always the old adage that "the MD/PhD program does not award you a REAL PhD, but something more like a MS degree". This thesis stands as my testament that they were wrong.

I thought once I began at Penn that I had heard the end of wouldn't, couldn't, and shouldn't. Yet, somehow I found many lab doors closed to me. Some labs couldn't take more graduate students. Others wouldn't take MD/PhDs. Others I shouldn't have joined, according to my advisors. Indeed, my graduate advisor at the time told me I could never succeed in an MRI lab. To him, I would be wasting my time without years of intense preparation in physics and math. I am glad I did not heed his words. It was instead my PI (his name here) who told me "I once had a music major come into this lab and he was one of the best students I have ever had. If a music major can do it, you can do it." It is no wonder he became my advisor. For this, and many many other things, to him I am grateful and will always be so.

I must recognize my family for the direction (but not support) they have given me. After I was born, my mother had a psychotic break from which she periodically and incompletely returns. When I was eight, my father learned he was dying of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency induced cirrhosis, and our lives were forever changed yet a second time. As the only child of a truck driver and a store clerk, I feel like I have been fighting my whole life. Yet, I always had one advantage. My grandmother, an orphan of the great depression, somehow knew in the early 1980s that computers would become the great tools of the future. She put the TRS-80 Color Computer 2 in front of me when I was 3 years old, and a programmer was born.

Those who know me know that I take challenges head-on--with sincerity, honesty, and broader vision, and I acknowledge those who have cared to see me for that. To X Person and Y Person whose helpful discussions shaped both several portions of this thesis and my own career ambitions. To Z Person, and A Person who are continuous sources of information and optimism. To B Person and C Person whose technical discussions have made much of this work possible and have enriched my knowledge of MRI research. To D Person and E Person who have been both my helpers and friends. There have been many others who have helped me along the way and I lament that I can not name them all, but some deserve special mention for their frequent and exceptional support: F Person, G Person, H Person, I Person, J Person, and K Person. I thank you all.
 
Even if it is "bitter", it's probably rightly so and is quite inspirational. In sum, I think it's great.
 
Neuronix: You specifically asked for opinions, so I will provide mine. First of all, I once saw a student in a similar situation to you send an "I hate you" email to everyone after getting their PhD. That was not a good idea.

Your acknowledgment is no such thing, and I'd leave 90% of it the way it is. However, I personally recommend taking out about 2-3 sentences that are excessively bitter. Not the part about your personal life history, but the more general negative comments about MD/PhD and the like. You won't hate having them there in 10 years, but they'll bring back reminders that you won't need to have in 10 years. There are better places for such ideas, including SDN.

If you leave it as it is, you'll be fine and no one will be upset, but just a bit of editing of a couple sentences would be my personal recommendation.

As always, you are welcome to PM me about this.
 
Tildy said:
Neuronix: You specifically asked for opinions, so I will provide mine.
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I HATE YOU!

Just kidding, I appreciate your thoughts. 🙂 Burning bridges isn't my thing. Besides, not to sound bombastic but it seems that most of the PhD types in my department are convinced I'll be their boss someday and make 4x what they make. The key now is just not fscking up so bad I don't make that happen 😀
 
Neuronix said:
I HATE YOU!
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aw...be nice to Tildy, she (the dog, not her master...) got her monthly Percorten shot for her Addison's and she hates that. She shakes the whole way to the vets office each time.

You'll do the right thing with the acknowledgment, I'm not worried about that. Just a bit of tweaking so it brings you 😀 when you read it in the future might be nice.
 
When I was in HS, I was the class valedictorian. One of the teachers was good friends with the parents of the boy who was salutatorian. She actively tried to help him by sabotaging me even though I had earned a higher GPA in harder classes than he had over a three year period, fair and square. Things got ugly enough that my parents and another teacher had to get involved, and I had to take a different English class my senior year to get away from this teacher so that I wouldn't get a low grade I didn't deserve.

I was the last person to give my speech at the graduation ceremony (after the salutatorian, the class president, and some other girl who was also on stage for some reason). He (the salutatorian) didn't mention this teacher at all in his speech, but I did. When I got to the part of my speech where I was acknowledging people who had helped me, I specifically mentioned her and thanked her for her help. Of course, most people in that auditorium did not know that I was being completely sarcastic, but my friends and the salutatorian knew. He actually snickered on stage.

It turns out that this teacher was not able to attend the graduation ceremony, but she was good friends with one of the county school board members who did attend. After the ceremony, this board member went out of her way to come up to me and was just gushing, "Oh, Evil-Teacher-from-Hell (ETfH) couldn't be here today, but she would be so excited to know that you had acknowledged her! I'll be sure to tell her when I see her this week!" I thanked this board member and said that it would really mean a lot to me if she did tell ETfH that I had acknowledged her.

I never saw this teacher again, but I felt vindicated every time I thought about how she would have had to pretend to be honored when the school board member told her about what I did. In fact, she would have had to pretend to be honored and happy about it whenever *anybody* mentioned it to her. By saying the opposite of what I really meant, I was able to get my message across to her in a way that made it impossible for her to say a word against me, and would twist the knife again any time someone else brought it up without her being able to so much as say a single word against me.

There is much precedence for doing this in history and literature; one famous example is Antony's speech criticizing Brutus for killing Caeser. Overall, I think it is a truly disarming and classy way to make your point, and ultimately make it more poignantly, than you would be able to do by directly criticizing the person. This teacher has long been insignificant in my life along with everything else from HS, and I can't even tell you the last time I had thought about her before your post made me think about her now. But I can tell you that this memory is still able to make me laugh like hell 15 years after the fact. 🙂
 
QofQuimica said:
There is much precedence for doing this in history and literature; one famous example is Antony's speech criticizing Brutus for killing Caeser. Overall, I think it is a truly disarming and classy way to make your point, and ultimately make it more poignantly, than you would be able to do by directly criticizing the person. This teacher has long been insignificant in my life along with everything else from HS, and I can't even tell you the last time I had thought about her before your post made me think about her now. But I can tell you that this memory is still able to make me laugh like hell 15 years after the fact. 🙂
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I had a difficult time with my advisor in grad school, and this is what I said about him in my acknowledgements (translation added in bold):

I would like to thank my advisor, [redacted], for all the support and guidance I have received over the years which wasn't much. He has always been extremely accessible i.e., a micromanager, and is a man of great vision and optimism who refuses to let reality get in the way. His enthusiasm for science is truly inspirational. It has been an honor to be his first graduate student.
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My friends and I knew what it meant, but no one else did. It was kind of fun.

I also thanked three local bars for having "greatly improved the graduate school experience."

It's your thesis. No one will read it. Write whatever the f**k you want. You've earned it.
 
1) The purpose of a publication is to highlight a scientific study or a series of studies. A PhD is a reward for completing said studies (among other things). The acknowledgments section of a publication is to acknowledge the people who helped you with the study, not to ANTI-acknowledge those who DIDN'T help you or hindered you.

2) I don't really know anything about your family life, so I have no basis to make a judgment about that portion of your statement, but I know that my family prefers to keep medical conditions private, and not make them public. It makes me uncomfortable to read that paragraph, because I don't feel like I have a right to know about your mom's mental health. I just know that it would make me sad if someone published that about me, even if it were the truth.

3) I also think that putting negative statements about the institution that provided you with the opportunity to get this degree and make this publication probably falls into the category of bridge burning, especially if you go into detail about all of the barriers they put up to you getting your PhD.


This whole post is very pretentious of me, I know that. But many people on this forum have benefited from your honesty in the past, and now I will respect you enough to be honest with you in return: I feel like less is more. I took out a couple of parts, and this is what I got after a couple of minutes alone with my backspace button. If you are interested in having me actually revise it, I am more than happy to help. If, however, you are sick of my crap and are interested in punching me in the face, that is understandable too.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

When I was told that I could never succeed in an MRI lab without an extensive math and physics background, my PI told me that “I once had a music major come into this lab and he was one of the best students I have ever had. If a music major can do it, you can do it.” It is no wonder he became my adviser. For this, and many many other things, to him I am grateful and will always be so.

I must recognize my family for the direction (but not support) they have given me. As the only child of a truck driver and a store clerk, I feel like I have been fighting my whole life. Yet, I always had one advantage. My grandmother, an orphan of the great depression, somehow knew in the early 1980s that computers would become the great tools of the future. She put the TRS-80 Color Computer 2 in front of me when I was 3 years old, and a programmer was born.

Those who know me know that I take challenges head-on--with sincerity, honesty, and broader vision, and I acknowledge those who have cared to see me for that. To X Person and Y Person whose helpful discussions shaped both several portions of this thesis and my own career ambitions. To Z Person, and A Person who are continuous sources of information and optimism. To B Person and C Person whose technical discussions have made much of this work possible and have enriched my knowledge of MRI research. To D Person and E Person who have been both my helpers and friends. There have been many others who have helped me along the way and I lament that I can not name them all, but some deserve special mention for their frequent and exceptional support: F Person, G Person, H Person, I Person, J Person, and K Person. I thank you all.

.And finally, I would like to acknowledge everyone who told me that I wouldn’t, couldn’t, and shouldn’t. This thesis stands as my testament that they were wrong..
 
I just went back and read this thread more carefully. If it's the acknowledgements of your THESIS, then who gives a crap if people don't get fuzzy feelings when they read it? Write whatever makes you happy! I thought this was for a publication in a journal or some sort. 😛

Now I feel like a jerkbag.
 
It's ok jerkbag 😀. I asked for feedback. In a publication I'd never put something like this just like nobody ever puts "I'd like to thank my parents...". I realize what I wrote is controversial, and I think that's in part because there is nobody out there with circumstances like mine I'm aware of. Typically you can not offend by following convention, yet I have no convention to follow. That's why I'm not entirely sure what to write. I can either modify what I wrote to more closely follow the passive-aggressive or omissive conventions (i.e. if you don't have something positive to say don't say it), but I don't feel that it does myself justice in a number of ways. I just honestly don't know anyone that has faced these kinds of issues.

I'm sick of being told "no you can't", "you have to listen to me", etc... I want everyone to know that I succeeded in the face of doing the "wrong" thing over and over and over and over again... I probably will continue doing that too.
 
neuronix said:
so what i'm learning is that in graduate school, like in medical school, passive-aggressive is synonymous with professional.
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😀

Don't be disingenuous, Neuro. Just decide if you want to be passive aggressive or plain ol' aggressive. 😉
 
Neuronix said:
Was what I said in that quote passive-aggressive? I've never been very good at it :laugh:
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No, because it's blatantly obvious that you're being sarcastic in the first paragraph. Passive aggressive people aren't openly defiant. :laugh:

All kidding aside, I'm just putting that out there as an option. Personally, I think it's a good option, as I said before. But I would hate for you to think that I'm trying to tell you what to do. 😛 And other people are right that no one will ever read your thesis....I mean, who the heck could even understand it??? :meanie: 😉
 
I guess I'm in the minority here, but to expand a little bit on my opinion, I don't think there's something "insulting" or abrasive in his ackonwledgement section. Your advisor's recommendations were true and genuine motivations for you to pursue this particular project. And as someone who will probably get in grad school and do the PhD, it's good to know that your advisor's words aren't golden, and if they tell you, you "shouldn't", you shouldn't stop right there at your path (and ironically enough, I definitely have in mind getting into a much more quantitative field, and if they tell me you "can't", I will refer them to Neuronix 😛). I personally say write whatever you think really motivated you and helped you in this project. But having said that, I do like gliagirl's wordings. It passes almost the same message while being slightly more "politically-correct" I guess.
 
You also don't have to have acknowledgments at all. I agree with the statement that acknowledgments means thanking the people who helped you, not thumbing your nose at those who didn't.

Besides, hindsight is not really 20/20. You have no way of knowing if those people did not in fact help you by making you more determined (and more stubborn). I had an ex-boyfriend in HS tell me that I wasn't smart enough to take the BC calculus class. I had been worried about taking it myself but that comment pissed me off, so I took it and got a 4 on the AP exam. It saved me a year of math in college.

I liked GliaGirl's wording but I would probably soften it even more:

---

When I was told that I could never succeed in an MRI lab without an extensive math and physics background, my PI told me, "I once had a music major come into this lab and he was one of the best students I have ever had. If a music major can do it, you can do it." It is no wonder he became my adviser. For believing in me when others did not and for many many other things, I am grateful to him and will always be so.

I must recognize my family for the direction they have given me. As the only child of a truck driver and a store clerk, I did not have the early support to pursue higher education and I had to develop the ability to fight for what I wanted. Yet, I always had one advantage: my grandmother. She somehow knew in the early 1980s that computers would become the great tools of the future, despite growing up an orphan during the Great Depression. She put the TRS-80 Color Computer 2 in front of me when I was three years old, and a programmer was born.

Those who know me know that I take challenges head-on: with sincerity, honesty, and broader vision. I want to acknowledge those who have cared to see me for that. To X Person and Y Person whose helpful discussions shaped both several portions of this thesis and my own career ambitions. To Z Person, and A Person who are continuous sources of information and optimism. To B Person and C Person whose technical discussions have made much of this work possible and have enriched my knowledge of MRI research. To D Person and E Person who have been both my helpers and friends. There have been many others who have helped me along the way and I lament that I can not name them all, but some deserve special mention for their frequent and exceptional support: F Person, G Person, H Person, I Person, J Person, and K Person. I thank you all.

And finally, I would like to thank everyone who told me that I had an impossible dream and that I was pursuing the wrong path. This thesis stands as my testament that you were wrong. But the determination I felt to pursue it despite the resistance I encountered makes me grateful for you all the same.
 
Congrats on the Defense!!!!!!

On this topic.... I do agree that it does sound excessive. What's the point of calling these people out and writing about how they weren't nice to you? If it just makes you feel better, maybe you should write it and then burn it or something... but it really doesn't read like the kind of thing that belongs in your thesis. 10 years from now, if someone picks up your thesis and reads it, I doubt they'd get the impression from it that you intend.

... But really, who cares? It's likely your committee didn't even read 90% of your thesis anyway, and I doubt anyone other than yourself will read that section of your thesis anyway. So go nuts.

G
 
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