最后更新于2021年11月14日

A Master’s program is not just a continuation of an undergraduate program. You are going to specialize in a particular subject field; hence it’s a process of acculturation. While an undergraduate degree provides you a range of potential jobs, a Master’s degree will put you on a specific track. So, it can certainly increase your job prospects in a niche domain. Within the Master’s program, the dissertation or thesis component is extremely important. It is what you have to show for your time in a master’s degree program; especially, if you don’t have any work experience. In this post, we will look intohow to choose a Master’s Dissertation (or Thesis) topic。

How to Choose a Master’s Dissertation (Thesis) Topic

The thesis or project tell the employer what you can bring to the table. More often than not, you will be asked to describe your dissertation project during your job interview. Even in my case, my dissertation project played a vital role to land up to my first job.

因此,如何选择一个好的论文主题?是honest, there is no bad or wrong Master’s project per se. However, a strategic project selection could influence your career trajectory in many ways. A Master’s dissertation might not provide you the opportunity to conduct groundbreaking research. However,a Masters degree is an ideal opportunity to establish your domain expertise and showcase your technical and soft skills。Employers take a very close look at the dissertation topic, and so you should be considerate enough before choosing your project.

5 Quick Tips for Choosing a Master’s Dissertation or Thesis Project

Pick a topic that can be done quickly。这不是博士学位。论文;因此，您将没有4至5年的时间进行研究。当您开始写作时，每个主题都会扩展，因此请选择一些简洁的东西。A Master’s thesis is a competency test and not a professional standard。

Evaluate the job market。Have a look what technical skills are being asked by the employers in your domain. You have to realize that though grades are important, employers hardly care about the grades; especially when you have done a Master’s degree. If your research is good enough and your grades aren’t too low, then you have nothing to worry about. It would be wise if you spend your time getting some quality work experience along with a Grade B, rather than earning grade A with no work experience.

You need to be passionate about the project。如果您对这个话题不兴奋，那么您可能很难完成它，甚至在Viva中失败了。因此，选择您喜欢的东西。毕竟，面试或博士学位时，您需要出售它。程式。当您对自己的论文论文表示兴奋时，您基本上表现出对研究领域的参与和热情。这将在您的面试中有所帮助。

询问并接受反馈。Talk to your potential supervisor, personal tutor, and course coordinator. During your thesis, you will work with a supervisor or adviser. Besides, you will also have a personal tutor and course co-ordinator around you.If you have problems coming up with a thesis topic, sit down with your advisor, personal tutor, and course director and talk about your interests. It could be also a good idea to visit the Careers Services, and speak to the career advisers and/or counselors. Their feedback will surely provide you some good topics that are best for you.

确定您的职业轨迹。选择创建轨迹的主题。您不必一定要接受它，但是您可以保持选择。对于每个人来说，找到一个他们将在3 - 6年中享受的话题并不实用。此外，并不是每个人都想获得博士学位。但是，可以打开选项不会有任何伤害。即使您希望在工作几年后选择MBA，这也可以再次帮助您完成MBA申请和入学过程。

How I Chose My MSc Dissertation (Thesis) Topic

Now, I would take a walk down the memory lane to give you a rough idea about how I chose my dissertation topic. I attended Aston University in the UK for my MSc Pharmacology program (2008 – 2009). The dissertation was unarguably the major component of my Master’s program. My dissertation was not only carrying the maximum number of credit points, but it was also bound to influence the direction of my career after graduation. I knew that 3 – 4 months is not a decent time period for making any ground-breaking discovery. After all, it was my MSc dissertation and not a Ph.D. thesis. However, I needed something intellectually challenging. So, I was more focused on re-establishing the previous findings and hypothesis. My primary objective was to learn what questions to ask and how to conduct a research study. Secondly, I was keen on learning more about molecular pharmacology, and the cross-talk between neuroscience and cardiovascular medicine. Besides, I also needed to focus on learning some useful lab techniques that would make be employable. So, I was really thoughtful and strategic on choosing my dissertation topic. After considering three four options, I decided to do my dissertation on investigating “The Role of RAMP1 in Binding Adrenomedullin at the CGRP Receptor”.

CGRP怎样项目从一开始使我着迷ning. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a 37 amino acid vasoactive neuro-peptide, derived from the alternative splicing of the primary transcript of the calcitonin gene (Amara et al., 1982). CGRP is released from the sensory fibers originating in the trigeminal ganglia (Goadsby & Edvinsson, 1993) or adventitial-medial border of arteries supplying the heart (Gulbenkian et al., 1993). CGRP has been reported to be widely found in the central and peripheral nervous systems, hypothalamus and cardiovascular system of humans and particularly in sensory nerve fibres. CGRP is a potent vasodilator with significant effects on arterioles and capillaries. Apart from significant roles in the nervous system, CGRP also controls cardiovascular functions. CGRP has also got major implications in migraine, nociception, bone formation, glucose uptake, blood pressure regulation, broncho-protection, neurogenic inflammation and tissue repair. But, the exact mechanism by which CGRP exerts its action was poorly understood. My project was supposed to be on understanding the receptor binding and the mechanism of action. Thus, I became very excited with the project background.

The fact that really made me excited was that the CGRP receptor, a family B GPCR, is a heterodimer between a conventional seven-TM (transmembrane) helix GPCR-like protein [known as calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CLR)] and a single TM protein, receptor activity-modifying protein 1 (RAMP-1). The RAMP-1 protein is required for CGRP (ligand) binding to the CLR receptor, and also facilitates the CLR expression at the cell surface. When CLR co-expresses with RAMP-2 or RAMP-3, it functions as the adrenomedullin (AM) receptor.

图像：CLR和坡道的异二映。（a）CGRP和AM受体的分子构成。（b）CGRP受体的糖基化和运输阶段。[资源：大自然评论神经科学]

令人惊讶的是，除结合CGRP外，还发现CGRP受体（RAMP1-CLR）的亲和力比CGRP少10倍。在1999年，有人提出糖基化水平可能在配体选择性中起重要作用。在2001年晚些时候，建议坡道改变受体复合物（CGRP受体）的糖基化状态。过去还有许多其他研究试图解决这个确切的难题。但是，确切的机制是模棱两可的。因此，我论文的主要目标是了解RAMP-1在CGRP受体上的结合AM中的作用。

My supervisor had advised me to probe the residues 78 – 89 in the extracellular domain of RAMP1. He further explained that the project will involve chimera studies, cell culture, transfection, gel electrophoresis, cAMP assay, radioimmunoassay, handling of radio-nucleotides and basic exposure to molecular cloning. After understanding the project background and knowing about the potential lab techniques, I was sure that this would be the ideal dissertation topic for me.