I'm curious . . .

[Borodog]

Rduke55's post made me think of this.

Anyone else have their thesis or dissertation available online?

[tyrus72]

PM'd you.

[Borodog]

I guess people are wary of posting their real names online. I can't say as I blame them.

[bisonbison]

I can email you my undergrad thesis on Nazi newsreels. It's a hoot!

[Borodog]

Well, since my name is already in my profile, I guess I'd better put up or shut up:

My dissertation (http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-10012003-102031/unrestricted/etd.pdf).

[hmkpoker]

Ow, ow, my brain.

I really wish I didn't try to read that.

[Matt R.]

That's really.... really long. I'm considering going to graduate school for physics. Any thoughts on the matter? Are dissertations generally this long for physics? I'm not being a wimp about it (if I'm still interested in 6 months I'll probably apply, regardless of how hard it is), but the idea of writing a 190 page physics paper is bleh.

[The Don]

You burdened the NC taxpayers with that? /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Borodog]

[ QUOTE ]
You burdened the NC taxpayers with that? /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

The whole nation in fact. I had a GAANN Fellowship, Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need. Just exactly how the Nation was in Need of astrophysicists has never been precisely clear to me.

[gumpzilla]

[ QUOTE ]
That's really.... really long. I'm considering going to graduate school for physics. Any thoughts on the matter? Are dissertations generally this long for physics? I'm not being a wimp about it (if I'm still interested in 6 months I'll probably apply, regardless of how hard it is), but the idea of writing a 190 page physics paper is bleh.

[/ QUOTE ]

There's something in the tone here - conceiving of your dissertation as a 190 page paper seems a little strange to me - that suggests it might not quite be right for you. Something you should consider is that you'll have spent 4+ years, in most cases, doing not much other than assembling material for that "paper."

[Borodog]

[ QUOTE ]
That's really.... really long. I'm considering going to graduate school for physics. Any thoughts on the matter? Are dissertations generally this long for physics? I'm not being a wimp about it (if I'm still interested in 6 months I'll probably apply, regardless of how hard it is), but the idea of writing a 190 page physics paper is bleh.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not even sure that 190 pages is even up to the average. My answer is to do it if you love physics.

[Matt R.]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
That's really.... really long. I'm considering going to graduate school for physics. Any thoughts on the matter? Are dissertations generally this long for physics? I'm not being a wimp about it (if I'm still interested in 6 months I'll probably apply, regardless of how hard it is), but the idea of writing a 190 page physics paper is bleh.

[/ QUOTE ]

There's something in the tone here - conceiving of your dissertation as a 190 page paper seems a little strange to me - that suggests it might not quite be right for you. Something you should consider is that you'll have spent 4+ years, in most cases, doing not much other than assembling material for that "paper."

[/ QUOTE ]

It's still a paper, regardless of how long you spend on it. Maybe there's a definitive length where an academic treatise stops being called a paper that I'm unaware of though. (Edited to say -- okay, maybe I can't lump a dissertation in with other typical papers published in a journal)

That's all semantic though -- I'm aware it's not a typical "paper". The reason I was surprised: I conceived physics publications to be rather short, succinct mathematical ventures. I knew from experience in biology that dissertations are usually very long. My impression of physics is that you take on a really difficult problem, but oftentimes the explanation is much shorter than a typical dissertation in other subjects. i.e. Einstein's famous set of publications a century ago.

I'm probably just ignorant of how graduate school works though. I'm not really intidimidated by it, I'm just surprised at the length. After you realize it's 4 years in the making it's not so bad.

[gumpzilla]

Your dissertation won't be published in a journal. Parts of it significantly pared down might be, but the whole thing won't be (unless you're one of those types that wants to post it on arXiv.) The dissertation generally goes into substantially more detail than these papers, and frequently explains a lot of dead ends that you went down that you don't mention in publications. It will also usually become standard reading for the next generation in your lab.

[Borodog]

The trick is that the dissertation is really a stand-alone work. It must not only demonstrate whatever your new contributions to the field are, but also demonstrate to your committee that you have full command of the subject and the literature on it. A layperson, while obviously probably not being able to follow the detailed calculations, should be able to follow the thrust of the work from start to finish and make sense of it.