As the Spring 2010 semester was winding down my adviser informed me my topic was well-formed enough to finish up my dissertation proposal and move forward toward my advancement to candidacy. I scrambled to try and get the pieces into place: I found professors willing to sit on my committee, drafted a proposed reading list for my comprehensive exam, and prepared to defend my proposal. With all of the other priorities that come at graduation time, I wasn’t able to get everything into place before the end of the semester. Given that I’ve been in school since Fall 2004, I had to file a request for an extension on my advance to candidacy, which was approved.

I had high hopes that I could present my tentatively approved proposal and reading list to my committee at the start of the fall semester and complete my defense and my comps early enough to switch my hours from “dissertation proposal” hours to “dissertation research” hours. In mid August I was finally able to schedule a meeting with my adviser to review my proposal and reading list on August 24th.

Had a third party been sitting in on the meeting, it would not have been apparent that in the spring I had been close to defending my proposal. My adviser seemed surprised I was there, and appeared to have little to no recollection of what we had repeatedly discussed in the spring, to the point where he did not recall that I had a draft proposal (previously approved by him) and reading list (also previously approved by him).

When all was said and done, it was a pretty demoralizing meeting. At this point, I think there is no hope of completing my comps and defense by mid September (the last date I can switch hours is the 15th). So I have re-focused on the hope that I can get them scheduled by the end of September and completed within October.At his request, I sent my adviser a copy of my proposal, my proposed reading list, and a one-page summary of the research I did over the summer. I got him the proposal on Tuesday night and the other items on Wednesday. I still haven’t received so much as an acknowledgment he has received them.

Given how difficult it is to get my adviser to reply to e-mails and send substantive comments on anything I send him (or discuss with him in person), I am only cautiously optimistic. In fact, I am so pessimistic that I am quietly beginning to explore the possibility of switching advisers, which is probably very difficult to do  at this late date.

So, pending some feedback from my adviser, I am doing very little on my research. I’m spending my time enjoying the company of my family, doing some chores around the house I neglected in favor of my research all summer, and looking into the research interests of other professors as potential fallback advisers. It’s beginning to look like this semester could get ugly.