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Phd Essay

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The chemistry Ph.D. program is designed to advance students’ cognitive skills and should ultimately afford them the ability to become independent thinkers. When the students join a Ph.D. program they soon become members of a discourse community, which is a group of members that share the same values, goals, and lexis. Especially in the science disciplines the students become immersed in their new group by exploring various research projects and conducting experiments that will hopefully propel their scientific curiosity exponentially before they graduate. One of the primary goals for students within this program is to produce research publications in order for the students to exhibit supreme mastery in their field, and ultimately it is …show more content…

Grad student Mays explained that when new students are accepted into the program they enter into a group of their peers that range in experience levels from apprentice to more advanced by the time they are reaching the end of the academic tenure. However, as each new student joins the group every fall they are not formally admitted into their lifestyle, but are instead unfortunately left to their own devices to interpret and understand the functions and guidelines of the lab (Smith).
It is a process author Susan Gardner a researcher who studied the socialization process of grad students explained that this period can be categorized into the “[i]nformal stage…in which the novice learns of the informal role expectations transmitted by interactions with others who are current incumbents” (728). Furthermore, she adds that it is through socialization that can often afford each student the ability to be successful in their program (Gardner 728). However, despite members of the X lab learning hands on about how to conduct themselves in the lab, they do so without a clear sense of expectations or a formal set of guidelines and ultimately the students are always frustrated (Smith). Thus, eliciting one aspect that contributes to the level of frustration grad students often encounter in their program.
A Lack of Guidelines in the

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