The Final Year?!

Warning: This post is not exciting, but I have been in an emotional rut these past few weeks and I haven't felt like posting too much and perhaps this post will explain my absence.


A couple of weeks ago I felt incredibly frustrated about my progress, or lack thereof, in the PhD program. First, let me say that I'm very blessed and thankful that I was able to get into the Ed Psych program when the Stats program and I weren't really getting along. However, my transfer into the Ed Psych program has not been as seamless as I had hoped it would be.

I attended a group meeting a couple weeks ago that briefly described some of the requirements that had to be completed before graduating. Let's just say that I left that meeting and I saw my dream of graduating in May 2011 disappearing before my very eyes and I felt very frustrated, alone, and helpless! Not at all a good feeling. (Sidenote: It's not that I'm not enjoying my time here, but I'm really getting sick of living without my husband and I'm ready to be done with school!)

After the meeting, I arranged a few individual meetings with some professors so that I could get a better understanding of the remaining requirements. (My adviser is in the Stats department and is not as familiar with the Ed Psych requirements.) One benefit of these individual meetings was that some of these people will eventually be on a committee that will determine my fate and it's nice that they now have a face to go with my name.

A second benefit is that it looks like I might still be able to graduate next year... hopefully May 2011 but if not May, maybe August 2011!! It means that I will have a very busy year ahead of me and I still have to work out some details - it is recommended that I do my preliminary exam before next Christmas, but I can't do it until I submit a research paper but I can't submit the paper until I take a course next fall so I will probably be submitting the paper and doing my preliminary defense during finals week next year (yup! start praying for me now! that will be a busy week!) - but at least my dream of being done in a year is still a possibility!

Thankfully I have a couple of wonderful advisers who are willing to work with me to help me graduate as soon as I can! Also, Melissa (our department secretary - but really, she's more than that!) has been an amazing help!! She has been helping me figure out my courses and get all my paperwork filed.

Now I just have to try to figure out what to do this summer! I'm applying for internships and the one I really want is in Austin so hopefully it will work out! It would be awesome if I could spend the summer at home with my babe!!!

Smile: Yay for having wonderful people here to keep me focused and to help me on my journey!

Frown: Boo for having to write letters of intent, etc. for these internships! I have trouble bragging about myself and these letters are really hard for me to write!