On this palindrome Saturday I am going to be digressing from the Alice in Wonderland school series I have been writing and will be writing about myself and my program.
Why?
Because it is nearly the end of the Spring semester and it’s been a hot minute since I did an update.
Two weeks remain in the semester.
That is 2 more times driving to the university for my research assistant job. I did decline to work this summer for the department as I anticipate life is going to get very interesting and busy over the summer.
That is 2 more assignments. One in the qualitative research class and 1 in the measurement class.
As the qualitative, I should have seen the writing on the wall. I do not care for math. Especially the kind of math that is required for quantitative research. Statistics makes me itch a bit. You know? I am leaning into the qualitative sphere. And this is shocking to me.
Talking? To other people? Not really a strength of mine. But here we are.
For the third class, the directed research class, I was thrown off a bit by being sick for 2 months starting in February. I just feel like I got a slow start. But that’s okay. I am chipping away at it. Next week I will be presenting my directed research project, an observation project, to the corporate research council. After that, and after the blessing of the school IRB and the hospital IRB, I will dive into the observations and finish the class.
Thankfully, I am not the first person to have a slow start and there is a process for this.
For the rest of the summer, I will be preparing for and taking my preliminary exams. These are exams that separate the PhD student you from the PhD candidate you. These are also the threshold that must be crossed to begin dissertation work.
The exams are timed, kind of, and meant to be written over two weeks from home, or 3 days at the university. I will stay home, thank you, and write them from here.
After I pass the preliminary exams (I hope) I will start work in earnest on my dissertation project and my dissertation itself. As I understand I will need to have it completed and defended by March if I want to graduate in May. The directed research informs the dissertation project research.
I have had so much support from the university in this journey. And a journey it is. And support from family and friends.
I need a better answer to what are you going to do after graduation?
For the longest time, the answer has been write for publication. I might throw in some teaching in there too.
After the end of this semester, I will be a 3rd year PhD student. If you had told my younger self that I would someday be looking at and surviving a dissertation she would have laughed.
Oh, boy.
Let’s get started.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 