Malcolm's rule for MS Thesis topic.
#1. It must be doable within two academic years (if a field project
that would be two summer sessions.
#2. It should be a specific question that the results will be
publishable unless something REALLY unforseen happens.
#3. You should work with an organism that is easy to get in large numbers.
#4. The topic should use a strait forward design and statistical analysis.
#5. The outcome should be 1 very good publication in a very good
journal, or 1 article in a decent journal and a minor pub. It should
not be so long and involved that you are writing dozens of papers from
it. (this does not mean you can't get othe rpapers during your MS,
you just don't want it tied to it!!!).
#7. Unless you have grant funding, the project should be fundable with
resources that are already available. There is nothing wrong with a
masters student seeking grant support, they should. But the short
term nature of a masters does not give you much time to do it!!
#8. The project should be hypothesis driven (preferably).
#9. you should like the topic
#10. you should like the organisms you are working with (or if
cellular the techniques).
#11. you should be proud that you are doing something few get to do.
There is more, but that is a little list off the top of my head.
On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 10:55 AM, Jeremy Fontaine
<fonta...@student.umass.edu> wrote:
> Hello all, this upcoming Fall semester I will be attending the University of
> Massachusetts Lowell to obtain my Master's Degree in Biology with the
> possibility of a Biotechnology option. I want to do a Master's Thesis
> because I want to get my PHD later on, but I am really not sure what I want
> to do my master's thesis on. I completed my bachelors degree in Biology at
> the University of Massachusetts Amherst and learned a great deal.
>
> Some guidance or advice for the process of picking a thesis topic or how to
> approach the situation would be very helpful.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Jeremy
--
Malcolm L. McCallum
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
School of Biological Sciences
University of Missouri at Kansas City
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