Is it feasible to be interdisciplinary?
First, the country's long-term strategy.
The State Council clearly pointed out in the "Made in China 2025" to vigorously cultivate compound talents, and the Ministry of Education also issued supporting policies. Interprofessional bloggers are clearly the elite of compound talents.
Second, the survival of the profession.
Now the specialization of disciplines is a trend, but this segmentation has led to the end of the professional road. Therefore, if the discipline major wants to survive, it must recruit talents with an open mind. That is, if a major or discipline wants to flourish, it must inject fresh blood from the outside, and interprofessional candidates are such fresh blood.
Third, the future and destiny of the individual.
The situation of the college entrance examination or the examination for life will never return; when taking the Ph.D., it is wise to choose a major completely according to your own interests and realize your personal dreams.
For example, the Doctoral Admissions Brochure of the School of Humanities of Tsinghua University speaks of application assessment. However, its application assessment is essentially no different from the previous ordinary recruitment examination. This shows that it is very welcoming and encouraging to take the PhD across the profession.
In summary, interprofessional examination is an inevitable trend of history. Further, what are the feasibility criteria for an interprofessional exam?
The key to the interdisciplinary examination is to be familiar with the paradigm of the proposed cross-professional examination. In some cases, the paradigm of the major currently studied by the Students of the Examination is very different from the paradigm of the major to be cross-examined. It must be clear that if you blindly migrate, draw analogies or analogies, you will undoubtedly make mistakes and gain more than you lose.
▼ Recognition of important academic journals by various universities
01
Preparation for interdisciplinary studies
Gain insight into professional quotes
In fact, it is to deepen the understanding of the major you want to cross the exam. It can be considered at three sub-levels:
What？
- What does this specialty study?
- What are the directions and research areas?
- Who are the representative scholars? And what are their academic contributions?
- What are the hot topics in this research direction at present?
Why？
- Why did I step into this major? (What different things will this profession bring me)
- What are my strengths and weaknesses compared to those competitors?
- Can I learn from my own efforts in the short term?
How？
- How do I apply the appropriate research methodology?
- Under the premise of theoretical accumulation, how do I need to put theory into practice and improve my ability?
- How can I use the resources around me to make up for my shortcomings?
There is no standard answer to these soul tortures, but what is important is that it can effectively guide you to act quickly.
Understand the tutor's appeal
As mentioned above, in the assessment of the doctor, the test requirements for professional skills are relatively weakened, which makes the tutor's demand for talents more and more important, and the following things need to be done before contacting the doctoral supervisor in the early stage:
1. Understand the composition of the PhD supervisor echelon. How many students have inquired about the doctoral supervisor? What were their previous research directions? (This helps to clarify your own team positioning, whether you can add bricks to the team)
2. Understand the research direction of the tutor and the connection between your original major. (Once you find this subtle "connection," you can show your strengths in the email)
3. Find the point of convergence between your strengths and mentor's research projects. Scientific research work in the context of interdisciplinarity always needs to rely on the advantages of different majors (research methods, research experience), if you can clarify your core competitiveness, you can become a weight in negotiation and communication with your tutor.
02
Hardware preparation
1. Preparation of resume
For interprofessional partners, your resume should be divided into two parts.
One is previous research experience as the basis for your research (although it may not be of much relevance to the target profession, it is still indispensable);
The other is the preparation of your major (which needs to be reflected in the following aspects).
Finally, make your own "cross-professional" willing appeal.
The main points of resume production
2. Preparation of personal academic materials
As much as possible, reflect the accumulation of your target profession. After evaluating the books/papers that have been read, they are organized into the form of reading notes (including electronic versions) and placed in the "Personal Achievement Book".
Recommend a particularly useful note-taking software - Effie (can use Effie on Mac, iOS and achieve platform synchronization, the Android version is currently on the way online. Official website download address: https://effie.co)
- Concise organization of the framework, grading, (one-click expansion, contraction function is particularly powerful)
- Support PDF, DOCX, EFFIE and other formats of export, to achieve word collaborative management
- Its mind map feature simply can't be more fragrant, implementing the logical framework of notes for portable output
- Mind maps also support conversions in a variety of formats and styles
Preparation of academic papers
Regardless of the superficial statement, there is still a need for solid results, so once there is an interdisciplinary idea and you decide to go this way, hurry up and publish a paper!
03
Issues that should be paid attention to in interdisciplinary examinations (misunderstandings)
Professional choice
Do not be blindly arrogant and think that any major can go to the cross-examination.
The best principle is to be close to the major/discipline. The classification can be viewed from official platforms such as the China Degree and Graduate Education Information Network (http://www.cdgdc.edu.cn/xwyyjsjyxx/sy/glmd/264462.shtml) and the official website of the Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education of the State Council (http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A22/xwb_left/moe_833/ of the Office of the Academic Degrees Commission of the State Council). In line with the "second-level discipline - first-level discipline - discipline category" from the level of easy to difficult to choose their favorite major.
Catalogue of disciplines and majors of the Graduate Education Information Network
Of course, the number of disciplines is so rich that many seemingly unrelated disciplines on the surface do not actually have a clearly defined gap, and even have been mutually infiltrated and indispensable. This also provides an important message for students preparing for the cross-examination major. Like what:
1. Computer Science. It can be integrated into almost all science and engineering systems (architecture, medicine, biology, environment, geography...). ）
2. Philosophy. It not only occupies the theoretical high ground in the humanities and social science system, but also plays an important role in the fields of architecture, medicine (such as "Chinese medicine"), military, and jurisprudence.
3. For language subjects, cross-examination of journalism and communication arts can be considered. They all belong to the literary system, and the disciplinary boundaries are not as obvious as those of science and engineering.
4. History and sociology often become the sweet spots between the humanities and social sciences, as well as the intersection of arts and sciences.
Similarly, if you can take into account the coherence and interoperability of personal research before and after in the interdisciplinary selection, you can often become the ideal candidate in the mind of the tutor.
Half-knowledge of exam information
We must have an in-depth understanding of the cross-examination majors and the recruitment ratios of the target colleges and universities this year. (Download information from the official website of the Graduate School of the University)
If necessary, you can further inquire about those who have landed, what the original major is, and make your own first-hand reference materials (get the key data of the cross-examination proportion of the major)
04
Stop loss in time
If you do not meet the conditions mentioned in the "second section", then in a limited time, it is difficult to grasp the overall mastery of the cross-examination major, unless you are not a fresh graduate, still have a deep obsession with the inter-professional examination, otherwise, timely stop loss is the wise choice.
Kaober itself is a meaningful choice in life, and interprofessional needs more caution and preparation, I hope you can do what you can and get what you want.