Ask Doctoral Advising

What is academic rigor? How do learners and mentors define it, especially once learners reach the dissertation stage?

That is a conversation that is perhaps not approached as often as it should be. Learners and mentors might have different ideas about academic rigor. Is it a concept they should discuss at some length before beginning that journey toward the completion of the dissertation? Would that trip be much smoother if the mentor made his/her expectations and standards very clear before the first word is ever written? And if the learner demonstrated that s/he understands and is willing to strive for those standards?

Over the years I most certainly have heard learners who have sought out the most demanding mentors, because they knew that was the best way for them to push their limits. But, I have heard just as many (or more) learners say they were only trying to do enough work to get by. If a B was enough to move on, they did not try to get an A. They would deliberately not choose a mentor who had a reputation for very high standards because, as one learner told me, he was simply not going to work that hard.

Why wouldn’t a learner want to shoot for the highest level of academic rigor with any course or with this dissertation? Why wouldn’t a learner want a mentor who is going to hold you to the highest standards? Why would a learner settle only for a high standard?