The PhD process from a student perspective

3 Weeks today. Barrett died 3 weeks today. In addition to that sad fact I am still surfing an avalanche of work and the cosmos are literally aligning against me. I am taking four courses this term. That is more than I have ever attempted at this level. I am nervous 3 of the courses are online and one of the courses is Saturdays. The Saturday course meets 5 Saturdays during the semester...basically my schedule is wide open.

I have only taken two summer courses at online at Mississippi State. I am anxious to see how a semester course will be. I personally am a big fan of Quarter systems myself. The rest of the world runs on quarter systems and they work much better in academia in my esteemed, as it were, opinion. :) Let me be totally brutally and painfully honest I get bored of my classes. I love learning, but I get anxious to move on to the NEXT thing.

For those who may or may not be familiar with the Ph. D. process:

• First hurdle: Statistics Qualifier (called at some schools quals) The statistics qualifier has to be passed after one year of course work. Read: one year of statistics. :)
• Second hurdle: Finish course work (I am hanging out right here patiently stalking my next hurdle).
• Third hurdle: Written comprehensive exams- This one varies from school to school For me it means a one to three day grueling closed book examination on everything I know.
• Forth hurdle: Oral comprehensive exams-A verbal examination of all that I have learned about research and statistics and my chosen field of study.
• Fifth hurdle: Dissertation topic proposal- This is where I propose the first 3 Chapters of my dissertation. The first three chapters of a dissertation are Introduction, Literature, Review, and Procedure. After this stage is complete I will be ABD it stands for All but dissertation.
  
• Final hurdle: Defending my dissertation. This is similar to the Oral Exam except that I will only be asked about my topic. I will also be presenting Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 of my dissertation. After that it is Dr. Adams to all of y'all. :)

Some of these activities can occur on or around the same time. You are still taking course work when you take your Statistic qualifier. Additionally you can take your written exams when you have 6 hours of course work left in your program. Some schools allow you to have an oral exam and your proposal at the same time. However it is important to note that at any stage in the game you can fail. You have two chances to pass your statistics qualifiers or you are gone. A C is an F in a PhD program so you can get 2 Cs and then you are gone. You have 2 chances to pass your written and oral comps...well you get the idea.

The time frame is approximately 4 years. Roughly 2 years of course work...4 to 6 months of studying for comps. A month to wait and hear your comp results back. Then a few months to schedule and take your orals. Then about a year to a year and a half for the dissertation.

That is pretty much it in a nutshell. There is a lot of drama long the way. :) I will be cataloging that further at a later date.