Yesterday afternoon I passed my comprehensive exam and successfully defended my dissertation proposal. Which means I am now officially a PhD candidate. The immediate effect of this is that I can register for dissertation hours; rack up 12 of them and I’m done. I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The more immediate effect is that I need to refine my research topic over the next 6 weeks and then come to agreement with my committee on exactly what my research will focus on. I’ve heard the dissertation proposal described as “what you think you will do your research on.” Apparently I’m living that very early in the process. An issue I’ve been struggling with for several years now is how to scope the research — how much is too much vs. how much is too little? I guess I still haven’t figured that part out.

But for the next couple of days that just doesn’t matter. For now, I’m going to relax and enjoy the fact that I passed.

A very busy week or so. After finally finding a committee replacement I’ve had to coordinate a proposal defense and comprehensive exam before the semester gets started. My advisor was out of town until last Friday, there was a holiday Monday, then an ice storm closed school on Tuesday. Through the magic of e-mail I was able to coordinate a time for the defense and exam, but reserving a room and getting a chance to discuss all of this with my advisor one last time was difficult.

Thankfully, all of the pieces fell into place yesterday afternoon — the graduate student office was able to find me a room, my advisor was in and had generally positive things to say about my presentation, and I even got to meet the fourth member of my committee face-to-face. Even better, my dissertation group was kind enough to put me through the wringer last night and help make sure my presentation was ready to go.

Now I just need to finish the updates and do a few more rehearsals before my defense at 1:30 today. No rest for the weary.

This morning I heard back from a potential committee member, and he graciously agreed to serve on my committee with a proposal defense date before the end of January. At last, I have a full committee again and I am back on track to take my comps before the start of the spring semester.

Of course, the down side is that I have to hit the books hard and make sure I can pass the exam, as well as put together a brief for my proposal defense. I guess every silver lining has its cloud. But I am grateful I have found a fourth committee member at such a late date.

I continue trying to find a replacement committee member. So far, the couple I have been able to contact haven’t been able to support a proposal defense before the end of January. I’ve still got a few possible candidates, but I’m waiting to hear back from one in particular that was recommended by the department chair. I think going with the department head’s suggestion is probably a good idea if its possible.

In the meantime, the clock continues to count down to the start of the semester. If I don’t find someone by the middle of next week I’m afraid I’ll need to start work on a second extension on my advancement to candidacy.

I had a brief scare toward the end of last semester. I had not heard back from my advisor about the suitability of my latest proposal draft. I went to see him to ask him to sign the papers for a second extension (decidedly NOT a good thing) and he seemed surprised adn told me my proposal was ready for my committee and I should look to schedule my comprehensive exam and proposal defense. That solved one problem, sort of. Luckily the wonderful folks in the graduate student office said that if I could defend by the start of teh spring semester I could avoid the pain of a second extension.

At which point one of my committee members had to withdraw because of scheduling conflicts. So ever since the 15th of December or so I’ve been scrambling to find a new committee member, as well as study for my comps on the assumption that my committee members will be content with my proposal as is and will accept my reading list. My advisor is out of town until the 14th, so I’m pretty much on my own. Based on his recommendation, I’ve asked the CS Department chair to sit on my committee based on his own research but I have not heard back from him yet. But it’s only two days after New Year’s, so I’m still optimistic.