My Master's thesis
You're reading Mikko Saari's blog Life and opinions. This entry was written 05/15/2006, at 18:55.
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I got the grade for my Master's thesis today. I scored an eximia cum laude approbatur, that is accepted with particular gratitude. It is the second best grade one can get. The best grade, laudatur, is super-rare and really hard to get.
Getting an eximia requires a well-written work with something new in it; you can't get an eximia by going over someone else's work, no matter how well you do it. I suppose my contribution to the body of research on XML information retrieval was notable, in some way. I should get the actual evaluation tomorrow, then I'll know what they really thought of it.
I'm quite glad. I never expected to get a grade this good, it was too good to expect. Now they'll probably want to me to continue postgraduate studies, particularly as I'll be working on the department this Fall doing some kind of small research project.
Which is nice, but I'm not that keen on getting a Doctorate; it isn't too hot on the job market, really - getting a decent job with the Master's degree is hard enough, as I'm over-educated for most of the library jobs that are available. A Doctor is good for running a university library, which takes years of work experience, which might be hard to come by...
I'm also less keen on embarking on an academic career. While it might be kind of fun, I'm not so sure I'll enjoy the battle for the extremely limited research funding... Well, I'll just have to see what the future brings. Que sera, sera, right?
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Comments
Congratulations!
Good luck with the next decision. It's strange, but that's actually more important than getting the good grade.
Posted by: Iain Cheyne 
at May 15, 2006 8:10 PM