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Students are typically admitted into doctoral programmes because they have been good course-takers. Yet, the PhD is awarded for doing independent research and making an "original contribution" to knowledge. Graduate faculty acknowledge that the transition to independent research is hard for many students, and that they cannot predict who will successfully make the transition and complete the doctorate based only on students' undergraduate records or even their performance in their first year of graduate school. Similarly, many graduate students feel unprepared to make the transition. Drawing on recent work on creativity, this paper provides a theoretical perspective on the factors that facilitate and impede doctoral students' transition to independent research.

The PhD dissertation is the ultimate educational product. It reflects the training of its author and the technical, analytical, and writing skills he or she developed in a doctoral program. Successful completion of the dissertation and the award of the PhD certify that the degree recipient can do independent scholarly work. That much is generally agreed. But who decides what an acceptable dissertation looks like? What are the standards by which faculty evaluate dissertations? This article draws on a study that asked faculty to make explicit their implicit criteria for evaluating dissertations. The study aimed to help departments, disciplines, and universities develop objective standards for the outcome of doctoral training--the dissertation--and to use these standards in two ways. At the student level, the goal is to employ them to improve graduate education and training and make it more transparent to students; at the program level, it is to assess educational effectiveness. (Contains 2 tables.)

Discusses attrition as a fundamental weakness of doctoral education, examining why half of America's graduate students leave without completing their degrees. Research suggests that problems relate to the application process, types of student supports, program quality, and faculty role. Attrition is deeply embedded in the organizational culture of graduate school and the structure and process of graduate education. (SM)