{ 2007 12 20 }

It happened without the aid of alcohol or bribes, really!

I am officially a Candidate for the Doctorate of Philosophy in Public Health.

And hot damn and hallelujah for that. I don’t ever have to go through it again! (The candidacy part, that is.)

It wasn’t that bad, the ‘deliberation’ took maybe a minute (one of the shortest I’ve seen) and the only revision I have to make is to construct the full field guide (usually done collaboratively, but they want me to produce my own full copy before hiring anyone). With some of the questions and discussion that occurred, I was pretty surprised that I wouldn’t be doing more. The discussion was extremely supportive and most of the talk was literally about what choices would make things easier on me — which, in retrospect, was really wise. My committee had a lot of different views and comments and them all hashing over my prospectus was a great lesson in why diverse teams can be strong: it is great to have many viewpoints.

So, my “prospectus results” form was completed with the “approved” box checked. Once I do the changes they want, I turn in the full prospectus to the Dean. Then, I actually have to start doing all the things my committee agreed I was qualified to do. Honestly, it’s hard to celebrate this milestone mostly because the work isn’t over… it’s sort of like it’s just started. The celebration part is that I don’t have to pass any more qualifying milestones… I just have to complete the research I proposed.

But that can happen later. Right now, I want to focus on some holiday fun — and maybe treat myself to a massage or something tomorrow…?

Posted by holly on Thursday, December 20th, 2007, at 8:39 pm, and filed under Issues.

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