an update on the dissertation front

I have dissertation news (or non-news?). Let me preface this by saying that I really need to learn to stop stating cut-and-dry deadlines. If you would have asked me earlier this week (even yesterday morning), I would have told you that I’d know by Monday whether or not I was graduating in December. Not true anymore. Things are never that easy with me.

My situation reminds me of a scene from Futurama, when Fry says something like “Can’t they just hurry up and destroy humanity already? It’s the waiting I can’t stand!” Not very logical. (Why would I want to know sooner, if the news is bad?)

Two paragraphs later… the actual news. Recall that I turned in my draft last Thursday,and my advisor had not been super positive about whether he’d get to it quickly. Well, by Wednesday afternoon (two days ago), after I had checked my email an estimated 10,000 times, I finally received something from my advisor. I was SO HAPPY because seriously, my goal date to turn the thing in to the committee was TODAY and I thus far had received nothing.

But, oh snap. It was not a full draft with revisions. Just revisions for the abstract and the first chapter. Which are great, but they’re only about 10% of the whole paper. He explained that he’s been busy and did not know when he’d get to the rest. K…

At this point, I was so hyped up! FULL of adrenaline, caffeine, and anxiety. I was very much on edge and having trouble keeping calm. Even so, I went home early from work, took a hot shower to calm down, and worked on the changes he had sent. I had them done by Thursday morning (yesterday), at which time I called him to ask if he wanted these changes returned to him now. He did not answer.

I was a bit disappointed too (“a bit” might be an understatement). I had thought/hoped for sure that by the time I finished these changes, he’d have sent me the rest. That’s why I bothered to leave work early on Wednesday–to get a jumpstart. Instead, here I was at 10:30 AM on a Thursday, un-showered and wearing my sweats, done with my changes and with no more to do. So I washed my face, put on some fresh deodorant, got dressed and went to work. No sense in wasting the vacation time.

I really felt like that was it. If I didn’t get those suggested changes from him back on Thursday (yesterday), I was done. Out of the game. (For this semester.) Sad to just sit and watch it slip away.

He called me back in the mid-afternoon though. He said he did not want the changes yet–not until the rest of the draft was changed. “So,” I inquired… “I will be getting that back from you…soon?” Nope. Not until Monday. He simply hasn’t had time with everything that’s been going on lately, including the latest: his home internet access was not working. He would also be out of town for the weekend, so unable to work on it then either. But he said he WILL work on it Monday. Not ‘might’ and not ‘try to get to it,’ but WILL.

Still though. Crushed. I was pretty sure it was over for me, for December. I knew was instead going to be destined for a spring ceremony in the city’s football/concert arena, that would look like this:

[I altered this old pic from another event, to sarcastically illustrate a May graduation to relatives, showing them how they would sit far from the stage--in stadium seating--and watch the graduation on the jumbotrons.]

Goodbye, dreams of of an intimate December ceremony in the college auditorium, like this one in August that Mr. N had (and I had as well, for my Master’s):

Sigh.

Still on the phone, my advisor was promising that he had blocked off the editing time for Monday. I sucked it up and asked “Do I have a chance at December anymore?” He said he didn’t know. And then we talked some more.

We discussed the Preliminary Approval process–that’s the form the committee has to sign by the 16th–and he said that if the committee didn’t have to find time to meet to discuss it (i.e. they will individually make changes, not have to get together about it at this time), it was probably still do-able. Instead of getting the paper to the committee today, or by Monday, he thought I should aim for Wednesday or Thursday. This would still give them about 2 weeks to read it, a timeframe they had all suggested was do-able before.

This means that if he gets the changes to me Monday night–and he said he would–I will have about 1.5-2 days to turn it around and get it back to the committee. I can do it, though it will be tight. (Pressure does crazy things to me, but one of the positive ones is my ability to churn out quality work pretty quickly. I have never been so glad to have that skill!!) Originally, he wanted to read it again after I made the revisions, before I turned it over to the committee, but he will no longer be doing this. He will trust my changes. This also means Mr. N and I will have to put an extra-great effort in to reading the revised paper and making sure it is sound–since my advisor will not be doing so this time. We can do that!

Provided that the committee thinks receiving it Wednesday or Thursday is OK, we might still be in business!

Here are the next steps, then:
If they like the work and sign the form by the 17th, I will need to schedule a defense date at the very end of November. The deadlines are very tight: I am required to allow 2 full weeks between Preliminary Approval and Defense, and I also must defend by December 1. Given that the Approval is due Nov. 17, that gives me about 2 possible days to defend this sucker! Between them signing the Preliminary Approval form, and the defense date, I would need to make any changes they request and provide them with a true final copy to read as well. So it’s going to be a busy month for me.

When we ended our phone call, I had renewed (though still subdued) confidence. My immediate next step is to just ask the committee if they’re OK with the slightly-later-than-expected delivery of the document.

If my committee is cool with receiving the document Thursday (I will strive for Wednesday, depending on the depth of my advisor’s changes), and they like it, and they sign the form, and they can attend a defense at the end of November, I might actually meet my goal.

Holy crap. It has been quite the week.