Document Actions
Guidelines for Graduate Students
I supervise a diverse and wonderful group of graduate students. Oftentimes it seems like they are the best thing about this job. I have collected up a set of links here for the reference of current and future graduate students. I hope these are helpful.
Admission
To get admitted to the MA program you should have high marks. High marks and good reference letters. High marks, good reference letters, and an excellent proposal. "High marks" means something more than a 3.5 GPA, typically. To get admitted to the PhD program you need all of the above and a topic the resonates with an SFU Communication faculty member. "Resonates" means that they agree to supervise you AND they will champion your cause to the Graduate Admissions Committee. We have more faculty members than PhD places, so hedge your bets by getting more than one faculty member interested.
Timing
You should be done your MA program in 6 semesters (2 years) and your PhD in 9. If you aren't writing your MA thesis in semester 6, then something has gone wrong. The MA should take no longer than one semester to write, so start in semester 5.
Length
The MA thesis should be about 75 pages long. If you are doing the "two paper" option, divide by two. If you are doing a PhD dissertation the page length is more flexible, but it should still be under 200 pages. Save yourself for your career - don't blow it all before you even finish!
Style
Go to the SFU Library web site and download the Thesis template files and write your thesis in that form. Don't put it off, do it now. In fact, I strongly recommend that my students write ALL their papers in the thesis style. Get used to it. And use refence/citation management software, like RefWorks. It is free, and available from the library.
SFU Library Communication Research Subject Guide
SFU Thesis Guidelines and more
See also these guides from the library:
Reviewing your own, Spring 2007 edition
Last Steps, Spring 2007 edition
I am sure there are many other things I am missing here, and I hope some of my students will make suggestions of things to add to this resource/advice area. I've have turned on the comments feature of this page in case you want to add something directly, otherwise just e-mail me.