Support for a revamped qualifying process
DOI: 10.1063/pt.wuuf.qaxh
I read the article “Fixing the PhD qualifying exam ” by Tim DelSole and Paul Dirmeyer (Physics Today, July 2024, page 34) with great interest. I entered a PhD program in astronomy in the fall of 1993. I performed well in all my classes and passed my qualifying exams by the summer of 1995. At the time, there were no classes that taught students how to refine a research question. The expectation seemed to be that anyone good enough to do research would just know how or would be able to figure it out on their own. I left the program with a master’s degree in February 1996. Had the qualifying process been as DelSole and Dirmeyer describe, I believe I would either have succeeded in doing research or have departed knowing that I had not been left to the whim of my adviser.
More about the authors
Jenn Broekman, (jsb16.cc@gmail.com) Emerson Public Schools, New Jersey.
