1. Finish Qualifying Exams

What is it?

For my Ph.D program, before you start work on your dissertation you have to pass this thing called a Qualifying Exam. Basically, you form a committee of four professors and develop a reading list for each one of them. The exam has two parts, a written part and an oral part. For the written exam, each professor gets to ask a question. It lasts two days, and on each day you get two questions, 4 hours to prepare, and then 4 hours to write your answer. Then around 2-3 weeks later you get to come back and defend what you wrote in an oral exam.

Why is it on the List?

Well, it was something I needed to do and something that I had been dragging my feet on. I finished my Masters in late 2005 and should have taken this exam much sooner than now. I don't really know why I kept delaying it, but I knew when I made this list that this was something that was a huge priority for me and so it occupied the number one spot on the list.

The Process

About 3 weeks ago I took the written portion of the exam. Yesterday, I completed the oral defense of the written exam, and I passed. Now, I am ABD (all but dissertation) in terms of completing my Ph.D. There is still a lot of work ahead, but now all hurdles in my path have been cleared except this last one. Sure it's the biggest one, but all the other requirements are finished.

Of course, the dissertation process can be broken down into some steps (Proposal Development, Proposal Defense, Data Collection, Data Analysis, Writing it Up, Defending it) but yea... the dissertation is all that remains. I'm starting work on the proposal now and hopefully by Fall I'll have it defended.