Last semester, I was asked to give a lecture to help masters students survive their thesis. I gave a very quick presentation with some very basic recommendations that probably seemed very vague. I’ve been getting emails and messenger questions about the topic ever since and I know that students are generally worried, confused, and in great need of some practical advise.

The authors of Orgtheory.net published a a very comprehensive guide on this issue with some excellent graduate school advise. I’d say the most relevant of those are relevant for both IIMBA MBA and PhD students :

• #1: Get the rules!
• #2: The unwritten rules of graduate school.
• #4: How to make the best of course work.
• #5: Graduate school exams.
• #6: Why friends are important.
• #7: Picking your adviser.
• #8: Choosing people for your committee who aren’t the chair.
• #10: Choose a dissertation topic.
• #11: What to do while you are working on the dissertation.
• #12: Writing your dissertation, part 1.
• #13: Writing your dissertation, part 2.
• #14: Sorry, you can’t write your dissertation in 15 minutes a day.
• #15: Working With Your Committee

Read those, they are very helpful.

Good luck.

(Following is the presentation I gave)