Fair enough, in cases where students enter grad school with a moderately robust inclination toward some particular orientation on some important issue. I think I differ from you in my estimation of the frequency of these kinds of events:
(1) New grad student has some pre-existing but vague ideas regarding the issue; these are quickly replaced by the prevailing position at the graduate institution. Reasons for this could very well include increasing intellectual maturity, deeper/more complete study of issues at the graduate level, and the sense that it’s a graduate student’s responsibility to have positions on major scholarly issues (as opposed to undergraduates more frequently just being set up as “observers” of scholarly controversies).
(2) New grad student enters school quite literally without any inkling that some particular scholarly controversy exists, and upon being made aware of it, takes up the prevailing position at the graduate institution.
Anecdotally, I find both of these to be pretty common scenarios, whereas I don’t think you do. This could be related to the fields I work in (music history and theory).
Yes, I think you’ve nailed it. I have a romanticized view of things—where students pick fields/schools after some research, and avoid grad school if they don’t get where they want to be.
Fair enough, in cases where students enter grad school with a moderately robust inclination toward some particular orientation on some important issue. I think I differ from you in my estimation of the frequency of these kinds of events:
(1) New grad student has some pre-existing but vague ideas regarding the issue; these are quickly replaced by the prevailing position at the graduate institution. Reasons for this could very well include increasing intellectual maturity, deeper/more complete study of issues at the graduate level, and the sense that it’s a graduate student’s responsibility to have positions on major scholarly issues (as opposed to undergraduates more frequently just being set up as “observers” of scholarly controversies).
(2) New grad student enters school quite literally without any inkling that some particular scholarly controversy exists, and upon being made aware of it, takes up the prevailing position at the graduate institution.
Anecdotally, I find both of these to be pretty common scenarios, whereas I don’t think you do. This could be related to the fields I work in (music history and theory).
Yes, I think you’ve nailed it. I have a romanticized view of things—where students pick fields/schools after some research, and avoid grad school if they don’t get where they want to be.
Maybe I’ve just been avoiding the territory. :P