Choosing a Master's Dissertation Topic

«Don't ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility. Make decisions based on what should happen, not what shouldn't.» - Michelle Obama when campaigning in Phoenix in 2011

First off, long time no see. Sorry. (And thank you if you're still around.)

Second off, it's that time of year again: slowly accepting the fact that summer will soon be over and studies will begin once again (well, for most of the world, I suppose, unless you're in Australia or what-have-you: did you know that in Australia students start their semester in the end of July? I only found out about this a few days ago. Insanity. But moving on...).

Whatever this time of year may mean for you, my dear reader, for me it means getting serious about planning out the next two years of my life, since I'm beginning my master's degree studies in autumn. I took a gap year after obtaining my bachelor's degree and now I'm here - ready to slay, pumped, and full of certainty about my life choices.

...Except I'm not. But in order to explain to you the issue I'm going through most comprehensively I need to first introduce you to some basic information about my studies (please bear with me).

1. I am continuing my studies in sociology;

2. My master's programme suggests that I have the opportunity to spend the second year of my master studies abroad.

3. In order to do that I will have to have a certain level of academic success and the financial means to live abroad for 9 to 12 months (luckily I will not have to pay a tuition fee).

4. There is a select amount of scholarships I am able to apply to in order to be able to provide said financial means for myself.

Now that we've got this part covered, let's talk about why I have a problem (and how this problem may seem painfully familiar to some of you out there who have also chosen the academia path, or/and had to apply for scholarships, or/and had to reflect extensively on own research interests).

The thing is, sociology can be hella useful as a science, and there are so many important questions to be researched and so many important issues to be resolved in the field of social studies and sociology in particular. Researching the most pressing issues, of course, suggests an easier access to funding (in other words, if your research topic can provide maximum value to people, a community, or a country, you have more opportunities to get financial support from various sponsors, both independent and state sponsors). Plus, you probably will actually help big numbers of people if you pursue your research goals.

But what if your academic interests lie outside of what would be the top reasonable thing to fund? Yet this is the reality, sometimes there is a choice to be made: whether you want to be funded or you want to do what you're actually... well... passionate about.

I understand that this dilemma does not only occur in the field of science and academia but in many places, as the general scheme of this situation looks like, "should I take on a project that I'm interested in or should I take on a project that will probably pay well?"

And that's basically what I wanted to talk to you about today, because this is what I'm going through in terms of choosing my master's dissertation topic. I do really need financial aid to be able to live abroad during my second year but the topics that interest me cannot really be called extremely relevant and useful for many.

This uncertainty has actually bothered me for about half a year now, and I couldn't come to any definite conclusion until today. My mum, in a way, opened my eyes to the fact that sometimes we focus too much on the best scenario and judge based on it ("I will choose a "safe" topic and get the scholarship") rather than imagining the worst scenario. In my case that would be: I've chosen the "safe" topic that does not really spark much interest in me because I thought it would help me get the scholarship. And I didn't get it. So now I am stuck with my master's dissertation topic, which I will now have to work on for more than a year, yet which is not something I'd like to invest my time in, and which hasn't even provided me with the opportunities I'd expected it would.

In other words, returning back to Michelle Obama's quote at the very beginning of this post, I would have made a decision out of fear (of not getting the scholarship) rather than out of hope and possibility ("I can spend time researching something that to me seems like a dream research topic and that is understudied and original, and I can also still try getting a scholarship while doing something that is genuinely fun for me").

So my plan for August is to dig deeper into the topic that interests me so that I would be able to definitively make up my mind about what I want to dedicate my master's dissertation to. I know that if I will see the potential of this interesting topic idea (feasibility-wise and such) and thus let go of the "safe" topic idea it will be a bold choice of mine - but at this point I think that it is truly better to be bold than being miserable.