The early bird gets the worm...

I received some great advice early in the MCS program from a particular prof. She suggested that for my eighth (and final) course to set up a directed studies course rather than registering for a 'regular' course (as offered by the Faculty).

This is good advice because the first part of COMS 790 (your 'thesis'...or, sorry, 'project' year - whatever!) is quite tricky. You've got to pull off a literature review in a relatively short and scary period of time.

"So why do this to yourself?" advised this prof. Rather, set up a directed studies during your final semester of coursework so that you can get a jump on this literature review and have a more reasonable amount of time to do it.

One could argue that this is unnecessary because after all, you do have the entire summer before your COMS 790 begins in September to work on your lit review.

I've been in this program for what feels like a million years and I assure you that each April I am committed to keepin' on keepin' on with my school work through the summer...yes - I'll go to the library every Thursday just like I did during the semester - sure - I'll read scholarly articles while I'm vacationing in B.C. Well, I assure you, it ain't long before the only reading I can handle in the balmy month of July is the Archie comic on the magazine rack at Safeway. And not the double digest, either.

It goes like this: figure out what you want to look at as a topic, approach a prof who has some experience in this area (I am doing this one-on-one with a prof, but I have heard of groups of students setting up directed studies), and ask if he/she is open to the idea.

If all is a 'go,' there is a form you and the prof must fill out indicating what types of assignments you'll be doing (how many papers, how much each is worth, due dates, etc.)

Then you are off....and although you may feel a bit lost, at least you know that you are stumbling somewhat in the relative direction of your thesis.

This is what I'm doing right now - a directed studies. And stumbling. But they say it is 'normal.' Hmmm.