A Dissertation Story

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A Dissertation Story

Postby starlooker » Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:42 pm

Hello, Pweb.

This is my thread in which to amuse and horrify onlookers about the trials and tribulations inherent in trying to write a dissertation. Could I use Bob? Yes. But I kind of want an official record of the journey. It might help me stay motivated. You know, if I don't work on it than the thread dies and sinks and has no posts and that would be sad, so I had better work on the dissertation. Because sometimes the motivation of, "You must do this in order to have the Ph.D." is simply not enough.

So, the proposal is written and has been sent out to committee members. I sent it out two weeks ago. I wrote the majority of it in December/January. I procrastinated on some minor changes and sent it to my advisor weeks after we'd set as the goal for my turning it in to her. Then I met with her about the (very minor) changes that she had suggested. We came up with a target date. Then I procrastinated and procrastinated and procrastinated some more. Met with advisor. She and I set a target date and I emailed committee members hoping that setting a date would motivate me. It did -- very slightly. It ended up taking me all of two hours to make the stupid changes. No time, really. I got it to my committee exactly two weeks ago from tomorrow (bare minimum amount of time).

That means I have had two weeks to prepare my presentation.

But did I?

Three guesses!

So I've spent yesterday and today putting things together. On Friday my fieldwork supervisor was very kind and let me use her (and a former supervisor) as a sounding board/dry run for the proposal. That was helpful. It made it seem doable. Had I not done it, I don't think I'd be as far as I am now. (Also, we're going out to lunch to celebrate on Tuesday!)

The thing is, I don't understand the methodology that I am using all that well. I'm doing this thing called Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) that requires a million variables and that it's apparently very easy to screw up in the early stages. For example, this morning I just discovered that according to the experts, if I proceed according to my plan I'm going to need 810 participants. I had thought I'd only need 250. Oops. However, given that other people who publish these studies use way fewer participants than they should, I'm hoping the committee will let that slide.

If they can just agree to let me do it, I'll plan to fix the screw-ups before I collect data. I swear.

Yesterday, reading over the proposal some glaring errors stood out to me. Not glaring in the sense of actually meaning anything. Glaring in the sense that my committee members will likely waste time chastising me for them.

For example, I implied in a few places that SEM will show "effects" which implies causation. K (not her real initial) will absolutely crucify me for that, especially if I slip that up during the presentation.

Also, I used the word "homosexual" rather than "sexual minority" or "lesbian/gay." There are two committee members I can imagine having fits on that. (By the by, I honestly DO know better than that. But I wrote large portions of this three years ago for my thesis, and the article that most of that comes from was in 1998 when the word "homosexual" was considered more correct than it is now.)

Also, I have a committee member who actually knows more about my topic and my methodology than I do.

That is never a good thing.

So, I'm sitting up at the school. I'm about to go home because that computer does not hook up to the Internet. Before tomorrow, I plan to

1. Finish an organized list of latent variable definitions put together with their associated observed variable measures and basic measure information (alphas, mostly).

2. Reread everything I can find about SEM. Apply it to my dissertation model.

3. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

4. Do laundry and set out clothes for tomorrow morning.

5. Come up with a list of questions for Cindy for 8:00 AM.

6. If time, read stuff for social psych and fieldwork.

7. At least four hours sleep.

Tomorrow at 10:00 AM, I shall stand in front of five faculty members (one of whom I have never met) and tell them all my ideas. Seventy-nine pages of proposal (that could easily be over a hundred) distilled into a twenty minute presentation and then a million questions that I pray to God I can answer.

(I read a good friend of mine's proposal. It was only 44.)

It's a milestone, of sorts. It's the windup for the very last stretch of my academic career pre-Ph.D.

I feel woefully underprepared and inadequate.

I think it's time to get back to it. I just have to finish my list of measures and then I'm going to go home, shower, and settle in for a long, long night.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby powerfulcheese04 » Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:04 pm

*hugs*

My mom's major professor didn't show up to her dissertation proposal... and her committee got way off track and off in the weeds about some stupid point.

She still got approved. And she got her PhD last May.

You'll do fine!

At the very least, your proposal can't go worse than hers did!
-Kim

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Postby Rei » Sun Apr 22, 2007 11:01 pm

*hugs*

Much luck!

I'm sure you will do well. I look forward to seeing updates in this thread :)
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~Blaise Pascal


私は。。。誰?

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Postby starlooker » Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:41 am

Thanks for the good wishes.

My advisor is upstairs but I can't go to her because I have a kleenex over my nose because it suddenly began bleeding.

Damnit! I don't have time for my body's somaticizing bullshit!
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Postby Virlomi » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:01 am

Hey missy, just wanted to say that I think you're probably in your meeting right now, and I'm wishing you well. Good luck, and let us know how it went!

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Postby starlooker » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:49 am

I NEVER EVER EVER EVER HAVE TO DO THAT AGAIN!!!! WAHOOOOO!!!!!!!

It's OVER.

It wasn't great. It was rough. There were lots of changes to my design that were suggested and will be made. And, also, it appears that I'm also going to be designing a scale in addition to SEM just because no measures exist to measure what I want to measure. So, I have to make revisions and then they see them and sign them. But overall, the darn thing got approved.

Here's how it all went down.

Let me introduce you first to the cast of characters (NOT their real initials. Although, why I'm disguising them I do not know. If anyone who knows me reads this, these people will be instantly recognizable. Eh. Never mind. We'll keep it simple. These are their real initials.)

C -- my Dissertation Chair. Tends to stammer a lot. Very mother-like presence in the department. I was trusting her a lot not to let me fall down on my face. Very practical, helpful, humorous overall nice person. Also very intelligent.

K -- Committee member from my department. Very intelligent, very self-deprecating, very much into scale development. Also the chair of the IRB at my school. Insecure on most issues, except, unfortunately, research.

D -- Committee member from my department. Fussy. Also insecure, but in an edgier way than K. Also in a more annoying way, as when K is insecure and trying to prove she's intelligent, she does very well. When he tries, he tends to make points that are, well, dumb. Gets flustered quickly.

J -- Committee member from the Psychology department. She and I have worked on other projects together. I began procrastinating and she and I had a fight -- well, not really. She yelled at me over email and I apologized very profusely because it was, after all, my own irresponsibility. Have felt nervous around her since. Also, she has a three month old baby whom she brought along.

R -- Committee member at large. From biology department. Basically along to make sure we're following procedures. Nice enough. Youngish. I didn't meet him until today, when I found him wandering around our department like a little lost puppy.

So, this morning I had the nosebleed incident described above. Then I went and talked to C. She was quite reassuring and assured me I was fielding questions nicely. She also told me that the issues I was concerned about (the measures I didn't have) weren't really going to be major issues.

Yeah. Turns out that was not, in fact, the case.

She was very mothery and nice, and it was helpful to talk to her.

And then I went and panicked in a nearby small office for some time. And then went to the classroom.

J arrived first, with the baby. Who is very pretty and delightful and behaved beautifully through the whole thing!

Then C arrived and asked me if I had the thing for them to sign off, and when I went to get that, I ran into R wandering around as though lost. I introduced myself, showed him to the room, went back to get paper. Returned and found four out of five committee members.

D?

D?

Where's D?

Went in search. His office was open. People had seen him. But I could not find him.

Go back to room. Not there.

C goes and hunts for him. Nope, no sign.

So we start without him.

Lit review was fairly uneventful until J asks a question about a variable that is a pertinent question and important, but so's the variable and I'm not ready to lose it so we start grappling about it and how it's defined and its implications and we begin to move forward.

Last slide of the lit review, and in walks D. Twenty. Minutes. Late.

Bastard. I'm really annoyed, still, by that.

Fortunately, I got revenge. He asked me to distinguish one variable from the variable that spawned all the discussion. And I got to look superior and say, "Well, as I mentioned before..."

Anyways. I'm not going through the WHOLE thing. But it was annoying that the issues I asked C about turned out to be, well, problematic. She could've had my back a bit more.

Oh. God.

K and J were really the ones who at every turn found a problem. Relevant problems, but still. So I responded as best I could. Sometimes arguing, sometimes not. But even when I wasn't arguing it seemed like I was.

Them: "I think _____ is an issue, because XXXX. So I'd suggest XXXX"

Me: "Yes, I see that as an issue, and you're right, I should fix it just like that."

Them: "I just think that it's really important because...."

Me: "What part of 'yes' don't you understand?"

Arg.

Anyways. But at the end, well, it was done :) And that's the important thing, right?

Right?

Right.

Yay me!
Last edited by starlooker on Tue Oct 16, 2007 9:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
There's another home somewhere,
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There's another way to lean
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There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby Eaquae Legit » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:58 am

Woo! Congrats my darlingest swphepwebber!
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII

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Postby starlooker » Mon Apr 23, 2007 2:20 pm

Thanks :)

Talked to C afterwards. She said that it went well, that I got a simplified model from it, and that I handled questions well. She also mentioned that my at-large member before I came in was really, really talking about how good it was. So I feel a little better.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby starlooker » Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:52 pm

One of my dear friends informed me today that my proposal went well. I asked who she'd heard it from.

"A very, very embarrassed, ashamed, upset D." she replied.

Apparently he referred to nearly missing my proposal as, "The single biggest mistake in his career that he's made that nearly caused harm to a student."

I feel somewhat mollified.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
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There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby NWS » Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:16 am

Yeah, I had an assistant dean of research on my committee. The rest of us changed our schedules to meet at the only time he had available for my defense and his secretary called and cancelled about 10 minutes before I was supposed to start. We just did it without him and I camped out in his office until he made time for me.

Sounds like you're well on your way. Congratulations.

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Postby Jayelle » Thu Apr 26, 2007 2:51 pm

A bit late, but congrats, Kirsten! I'm so nervous for the day when Paul has to go through all that... and it's not even me!
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Postby starlooker » Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:13 am

It's been a long time since I've posted here.

That's because I've been actively refusing to think about my dissertation. See, where we left it off was that I would make some revisions to things, and then the committee would approve it, and then I would get started.

But I couldn't bring myself to look at those eighty pages again. I just couldn't. And I was confused and worried about the technicalities. And so, last night, when I couldn't sleep because of all the fears running around in my head and business, I finally sat down to look at it and organize the changes and realizing I probably couldn't make them in time to take comps, which will f*** with my internship applications.

And so I spoke to my advisor about it this morning.

And it turns out what they were talking about was not the big proposal at all but just a one page brief synopsis that will take me maybe an hour to write, cuz I can make it as vague as I need to.

I literally had tears in my eyes. And starting to flow down my face after I realized what she was telling me.

I'm still teary eyed about it.

I did not actually realize how completely stressed out I was until the pressure went away. This is such an incredible relief, I just can't even tell you.

So, I'm up and running again and hope to have that piece of it finished this afternoon.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby Eaquae Legit » Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:17 am

Yay! Go you!!

*gives jellybeans and cookies*
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII

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Postby starlooker » Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:47 am

Thanks, Ali!

*munches*
There's another home somewhere,
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There's another life out there...

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Postby starlooker » Wed Aug 29, 2007 2:22 pm

Sometimes I find my previous accomplishments downright discouraging.

I've been glancing through my Large Dissertation Proposal (the 80 page one) in order to write my Small Dissertation Proposal (the 1 page one). It's been so long since I looked at it. And I feel totally lost and like the person who wrote it had no connection with me, but is much smarter than I am, and somehow I have to do all this work she left me with.

Reading my MA Thesis, too (121 pages). It seems like a dream. I did that? Really? Inconceivable! (Imagine me doing a Vizzini impression.)

I think I'm getting stupider as I get older, I really do.
There's another home somewhere,
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There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby starlooker » Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:01 am

Not much to say, but just thought I'd mention. Proposal approved by the grad school. Comps application approved by grad school. This is great except that I have to take comps on Friday -- well, start comps Friday -- and I am so underprepared.

Some of you remember my battle with quals. Comps is in some ways better, in some ways worse.

Quals -- five essay questions. Seven days to write scholarly, referenced, well researched 10 page essays.

Comps -- Three topic areas. Two to three questions apiece (likely you have some amount of choice in which one you answer). Four hours per topic area in a small room with a laptop with nothing on the hard drive. A clean reference list you come up with yourself. Write scholarly replies to the questions. Likely, they will be about things you had no idea you were supposed to learn.

Then, a while later, oral defense in front of your committee of your answers. This doubles as a chance for you to beat them to the punch and address any deficiencies in your answers.

Scared. Procrastinating. Must. Study. Now.
There's another home somewhere,
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There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby starlooker » Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:14 pm

Okay, Comps aren't really part of the dissertation process, but they are a big part of my process on my way to my Ph.D. so I'm putting comps stuff in this thread from here on out.

So, that said, here's what happened Friday:

Friday morning was Test Construction and Assessment. We could choose between 1A & 1B (test construction questions) and 2A & 2B (Assessment questions).

1A and 1B both sucked for me because I had not spent enough time putting appropriate multicultural references in my reference list. I had some, but the ones I really needed I was going to wait and put into my reference list for next week. However, I ended up doing 1B (develop a scale measuring microaggressions in the context of a particular minority group). I managed to get at least a little bit about all points of test construction into the paper. The ethical pieces and the initial rationale were not necessarily good. I chose to focus the assessment instrument on an ethnic minority group rather than sexual minority because all three professors who will be in oral comps with me are White GLBT folks. If I'd written on GLBT issues, then I'd have the miserable experience of being the straight person lecturing on what it's like to be GLBT. However, since we're ALL chock full of White liberal guilt, I figure using ethnic minority means they can be uncomfortable right along with me. And that's definitely better for me.

(The question I didn't write on, which, if I had time to research assessment translation, would've been more interesting was translating a standard depression inventory into the language of a culture which does not actually have a word for depression.)

Anyways, onto questions 2A and 2B.

Oh. Man. Someone up there LOVES me.

Over the past year, I have interpreted 34 MMPI-2 profiles and 1 MMPI-A. No one else in my cohort has nearly that amount of experience with the MMPI-2.

The first question --

They give you some background on a 56-year old White woman, her MMPI-2 scores, and ask you to 1) give the names of all the scales (they'd only put the numbers) 2) discuss the meanings of each scale, 3) discuss issues you'd be looking at in interpreting this particular MMPI-2 profile, 4) additional information you'd want to make solid recommendations to the court and 5) ethical issues.

Someone, somewhere is looking out for me.

I was SUCH a show-off. I went bananas. Oh my god. The other two people who attempted this one, it turns out, couldn't even remember which scale was which. However, I not only wrote on scale definitions, I wrote the meanings of different configurations, talked about the 2-point code controversy, spoke about which content/supplemental/psy-5/Harris Lingoes scales you would want to look at to confirm hypotheses -- it ended up being a 13 page paper.

Yeah. I may have gone a little overboard, but I was happy :)

Sadly, that was the end of happiness that day.

A one hour break, and then back for the Career Theory and Technique questions.

Oh, f***. This part sucked a LOT. Come to think of it, this was my worst on my M.A. Comps, as well. Which is weird, because I genuinely like the subject.

Anyways, this time there were three questions and we had to choose two of them to write on. I would have loved to have written on the second one; however, it required me to know at least some information about four distinct types of career assessments. I only knew the Strong Interest Inventory and the Self-Directed Search. These are basically the same thing. So I skipped that one.

The first one was writing up a treatment plan for self-sufficiency counseling for people on TANF (people with kids on welfare). That one was very vague and just sucked a lot.

The other one required us to articulate the theory that we feel best serves the broadest range of career clients. Since I don't know enough about any particular theory to articulate this, I wrote on four different theories in order to try and compare/contrast. This did not work at the end -- I just sort of picked on at random to be the best -- but I tried!

Yeah. I'm kind of hoping for a "pass with distinction" on the Test Construction and Assessment section. I'm just hoping for a "pass" on the career one.

Sitting alone in a room staring at the wall for eight hours can make you crazy. I discovered that I still am capable of kicking my foot higher than my head.

I swear, I think I really do have subclinical ADHD.

Anyways, the next one on Friday is Counseling/Consultation/Supervision Research, Theory, and Technique.

Which means, basically, it could be anything.

I have a LOT of studying to do.

I'm actually really looking forward to Orals. Orals you can jump into explaining why what you MEANT in your answer was something so much more intelligent than what you actually wrote. And I've already proposed a thesis and dissertation, and defended a thesis, and all of those went really well. Therefore, I've got some confidence in my ability to answer on my feet.

We'll see.

I less than three the MMPI-2. I less than three the MMPI-2 a LOT.
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Postby Eaquae Legit » Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:17 pm

Congratulation on surviving, my dearest darlingest!

And double congratulations on what I'm sure was a kick-ass 13 page paper!

*crosses all fingers and toes*
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Postby starlooker » Fri Sep 21, 2007 5:02 am

PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC

Comps.

So. Not. Prepared.
Some people learn from consequences and previous mistakes.

I am not one of those people.

So. Yeah. Lather, rinse, repeat.
There's another home somewhere,
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There's another life out there...

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Postby starlooker » Fri Sep 21, 2007 11:44 am

Oh God. I want to cry.

It's done but there is no relief. For next is orals. Plus getting everything ready for internship.

I am so f****** panicked.

And two of my committee members won't tell me when they're available for orals and I don't know how long to give them before I start harrassing them.

There is no sense of accomplishment. Just an overarching sense of failure and tiredness and stress.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby Eaquae Legit » Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:05 pm

*hugs and feeds goldfish and chocolate chip mix*

Zona, is your mailing address still the same? I have those CDs for you, finally.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII

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Postby starlooker » Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:11 pm

Oh, yay! Good news!

Yup, mailing address still the same!

*munches*

Post-test letdown delight. Good stuff.
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There's another life out there...

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Postby starlooker » Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:54 pm

I'm very nearly ready to cry, yet again. I must buy that damn waterproof mascara.

These are good tears, however.

I've been avoiding rereading my comps like the plague, certain that I sounded stupid, didn't answer the questions, and basically that I was going to be torn to shreds on all but the Assessment and Test Construction portion.

I reread them tonight, after procrastinating for literally hours.

They're -- really very good.

No, really. The language is professional (the majority of the time), the logic is coherent, and they are certainly defensible. There are definitely points I make that I should flesh out more in the defense, and I do need more citations on certain things. However, overall, it's really very good.

Damnit. Now I'm hoping against hope to pass with distinction on all three of them, which I don't think is even remotely likely. I don't want that because now, if I simply pass all three, I'll be horribly disappointed.
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There's another life out there...

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Postby starlooker » Tue Oct 09, 2007 2:19 pm

Well, I didn't quite "do" and I didn't quite "die" to quote Dr. Seuss.

I am honestly quite unsure of how I did.

No. That's not true. I passed. All three sections. And I passed the Test Construction and Assessment question with distinction. And I got major kudos on one of my essays from the "theories" portion. And I had some "outstanding" essays.

But, this is me, and I rate so much of my identity on doing well on tests that the feedback I got on the orals makes me feel like I'm just the most inarticulate, abstract, unable-to-form-a-sentence person ever.

And I know that it wasn't meant that way. And my advisor discussed it with me today and I feel ever so slightly better.

But not much.

I don't know. My paranoia is spiking a lot, as are my random feelings that various professors really, really hate me. Which is not true.

I will give the play by play a little bit later. Right now I guess the point is that:

I passed comps! And I will never, ever, ever have to spend a Monday morning doing that ever again!
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby Luet » Tue Oct 09, 2007 2:21 pm

huge congrats and lots o' hugs!
"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." - Albert Camus in Return to Tipasa

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Postby Rei » Tue Oct 09, 2007 4:51 pm

*hugs* Congratulations on passing! That is a feat in itself!
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point.
~Blaise Pascal


私は。。。誰?

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Postby Eaquae Legit » Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:32 pm

Congrats!!!

*jellybeans all around*
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII

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Postby Amka » Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:01 pm

Diamond studded butterflies!

That is really fantastic! I'm very excited for you.

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Postby Young Val » Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:10 pm

YAY! I knew you could do it!
you snooze, you lose
well I have snozzed and lost
I'm pushing through
I'll disregard the cost
I hear the bells
so fascinating and
I'll slug it out
I'm sick of waiting
and I can
hear the bells are
ringing joyful and triumphant

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Postby starlooker » Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:46 pm

Thanks very much everybody. I'm moving out of my post-comps slump. Sadly, what has helped the most is knowing there are other students as miserable as I am.

I've gotten a lot of hard feedback from the department this week, and am having a bit of a difficulty time making sense of it all. Emotionally, I've been a bit of a wreck this week.

Oh well. Isn't it nice to know that they don't just give out Ph.D.s -- they really do make people earn them?

On to another topic:

I NEED A FAVOR


I am in desperate need of someone who is not associated with the department to proofread my AAPI essays and my Curriculum Vita as I get through with them. Basically looking for clarity, typos, anything. I have some people associated with psychology looking at them, but I'd like a fresh pair of eyes on all of it. Particularly the CV.

Also, it would maybe help me get the damned essays done if I know someone's waiting for them.

PM me if you'd be willing to volunteer.

Thanks!
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby starlooker » Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:36 am

Having recognized the very strong possibility that I have ADD, I have set about remedying the way I function accordingly. Thus, I have decided for the day that I will experiment with working 20 min (approx, but no less than) and taking five minute breaks between. Also, I have redone my system of to-do lists where I have several lists (one for each area I have to do things) but am not allowed to have more than three things on it at one time. We'll see.

It's working well for now, but the trouble with me and new organizational systems, no matter how spiffy, is that I tend to lose interest in keeping them up and they go by the wayside after the novelty has worn off. This has happened to me on countless occasions.

However, this time I am optimistic that I may have gotten it right.

But then, I always am.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby starlooker » Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:50 pm

Tonight I finally printed out what I hope are the final copies of my CV.

My heavens.

First I went over it with a fine-tooth comb. Then I had my mother and best friend go through it with a fine tooth comb. Then I went through it again. Then my advisor/chair went through it.

Then I printed it out on fancy paper. One copy. Then I went through it again.

Then I accidentally hit a key and it formatted something, but I looked and looked and couldn't see what was wrong.

So I printed it. 16 copies.

Then I discovered I'd moved some bullet points in about a quarter of an inch.

So, then I fixed that and went through it yet again. And it was fine.

And then I printed it, 16 copies, and it had a floating widow.

So then I fixed that and went through it again.

And then I printed it.

And then I didn't look to see if there were any more errors! And then I stapled it and filed the copies away!

My friend Bob was here. He saw me stapling my rec letters before putting them in an envelope. "I didn't staple mine," he says, worried. I immediately start worrying. Jenny's wasn't stapled, come to that. Maybe there's a big staple faux pas I don't know about. He, of course, is thinking that they look nice stapled and you wouldn't lose them -- we finally just laugh and decide not to worry about it.

But deep down, I am worried about it. What if a training director cuts him/herself trying to remove a staple? What if he/she begrudges me a spot because I didn't know enough not to staple rec letters?

This is the worst process ever.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby starlooker » Wed Oct 31, 2007 10:20 pm

I hate FedEx. Their website tells LIES.

Due date for Hennepin is tomorrow. Did not finish it in time for express mail. So, in the wee small hours of tomorrow morning, I shall drive my poor little application to the local airport and have it flown and then couriered to the location in question.

I am right now working on one due on Friday the 2nd. I refuse to leave the school until it is done in order that I might get it sent out express tomorrow without having to have it ferried by commercial airlines. That works from GF to Minneapolis -- I doubt it would work so well from GF to Nashville.

Oh well. At least I'm done with the main application. Now it's just tweaking cover letters and re-writes of Essay 5 and supplemental applications.

Bleagh.

*Edit.

You know, not one of my rec letters mentioned that I am resourceful. Creative and resourceful. At the moment, I am feeling that was a glaring omission. I am the girl who puts up my hair with paperclips and uses toothpicks in creative ways and figures out a way, come hell or high water, to get her application delivered (I would have driven it tonight if I'd had to).

Of course, perhaps if I weren't such a ditz in the first place, I wouldn't be need the creativity and resourcefulness.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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starlooker
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Postby starlooker » Thu Nov 01, 2007 12:15 am

It's one o'clock A.M. I have two AAPIs signed, sealed, and ready to be delivered.

Everyone, please take a deep breath and cross your fingers for me.

This is so frightening.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

~~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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Postby Eaquae Legit » Thu Nov 01, 2007 1:01 am

*waves cheerleader pom-poms*

Things will work out, darlingest SWPHEPEBLANC.
"Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul." -- Pope John XXIII


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