Thursday, 09/04/08 - 9:29 am.
Two mornings ago, I received a phone call full of anguish from my thesis workmate, telling me our thesis wouldn't be approved due to faulty methodology. It was an awful day (I even rejected a good job opportunity that came up that morning, because I wasn't thinking right when I got the offer; of course I regretted it afterwards). The judge of my thesis was my professor several times, a nice woman I respect very much. She knows all about methodology, unlike my thesis advisor, Mr. Basket.
Which is partly why we got in so much trouble, he let us pass a lot of things that weren't right. He was the one who told us we had a big simple and to cut it down. We're in trouble because we cut it down and then he literally washed his hands from all responsability. I suppose we should've known better about the sample, and for everyone outside is easy to see that. But we were dealing with a lot of trouble from the beggining, and more than an advisor we had a bystander. We did justify the small sample, but the judge didn't think it was enough to draw conclusions. Yeah, yeah, fair enough. Aside from that, she does like our thesis and thinks it's nicely done.
Honestly, people kept asking about my thesis and graduation day, and I was always very cautious. We'll see, I'd say. I didn't want to claim victory until I saw my grade, but honestly I didn't see this coming.
Things are getting resolved by now, not without a huge cloud of shame hanging over my and my team's heads. It'll be a lot of work, like rewriting a good part of our thesis in less than a week. We have a deadline and it's not just rewriting...it's applying the questionnaries to 250 plus people to have a reasonable sample and THEN rewrite. We're crossing our fingers the tendencies will maintain and we'll only change numbers and not entire pages of ideas and conclusions.
Worst part is that the rest of our classmates already have their grades (Irene, Victor and Victoria got a 9.9, but at some price -to be discussed at a later day-) and often ask about ours. We say we're doing some corrections. We don't say we're rewriting everything from the neck down. We'll try to keep it a secret. Cross your fingers for us, and please, don't tell anyone. I feel embarrased enough.
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