Doing your dissetation on something your advisor doesn't research?

[biogirl215]

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Is this really unusual or not? I work in the lab of a professor who is also the advisor of a grad. student friend of mine, and her dissetation has NOTHING to do with anything the professor researches--it's an awesome topic for her, as it's a combination of her "favorite" pathology and her unusual theoretical orientation, but it has no relation to her adviser's interests, other student's research, or to anything any of the other department faculty are doing, for that matter. My understanding was always that you aligned yourself with a professor who shared your research interests and that your dissertation generally was related in some degree to your once-POI's research or at least to some faculty member's.

How much freedom are grad. students usually given in deciding their dissertation?

 

[Collective]

I think it depends on your program and your advisor.. Like your friend, I was able to conduct my dissertation on a topic that I was passionate about which was not related to my advisor's research. I was able to find people in another department/school that were interested in my topic who became a part of my dissertation committee. And my advisor was very supportive. However, one downside to doing a topic that your department has little experience with.. is.. you cannot draw on their expertise and are more on your own to figure things out.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

It *can* work, but the supervisor would need to feel comfortable enough to supervisor you, and/or may need some outside help to make sure you get what you need. My friend is doing her Ph.D. (in another field), and ended up securing 2 supervisors, as her research crosses over two distinct areas which both required expert supervision. It took some work on the front-end, but it looks like it will all work out.

 

[JockNerd]

Wouldn't happen where I am. We're super research-focused, and students are expected to learn applied research directly from your adviser. You aren't going to be *told* what to research, but since the mentorship piece is so big here it's just kind of expected that you'll be doing something similar.

I'd be concerned with the dissertation defense. Adopting another research modality, another topic.... you'd need to get in so close with someone else on the committee to know what you're doing that I'd be wondering, why not just switch advisers?

 

[psychwanabe]

Many times if it's in the area of your advisor but with a twist, you can get members on your committee that specialize in the part of your topic that your advisor doesn't study.

 

[biogirl215]

In case, none of the other department faculty do research in this area, and the one that does do something vaguely releated isn't on the committee... Yeah, I'm confused; the only thing I can think of is that she's also working with someone outside the university on it. I do know she had some delays in getting approval to begin her work (she said her committee was "slacking"), so maybe there's already been some issues in this regard.

 

[Cosmo75]

Mine is not related to my advisor's specialty area at all. So when I established my committee I put people on there who were more in line with what my topic is. So I have a nice balance. My program (PsyD) is generally ok with this as long as you have at least 1 person on your committee who knows what's up with your topic.