the beginning of the end of the beginning

Yesterday I had the day 'off' from school, so I stayed home and 'relaxed.' Of course, by 'off,' I meant that I still had to do work at home. And by 'relaxed,' I meant that I did work at home, took the dog for two walks, and then cleaned out the garage and mowed the lawn.

Part of the reason I had to work on my day off is that time has been scarce lately because I'm doing an oral proposal of my thesis tomorrow. So in addition to the stuff that normally keeps me busy, I've had lots of prep work to complete. This thesis proposal is the beginning of the end of the series of steps required for my MS in experimental psychology (The second of two essentially useless master's degrees. Score!). But it is only the end of the beginning of the series of steps required for the PhD. I've outlined them below, because I know a few people have been curious and there are a lot of confusing steps. Some of the more important steps are in bold.


Fall 2010

• Propose thesis (i.e., ask the faculty if it's ok to do an experiment I've been designing; they vote to pass or fail me)
• Collect data for my experiment
• Take classes
• Do other research projects

Spring 2011

• Take classes
• Finish collecting data for the experiment
• Do other research projects
• Write up the thesis document (the results of my experiment)
• Orally defend my thesis (have my writing and ideas publicly critiqued by the faculty; they vote to pass or fail me)
• Get a master's degree in experimental psychology (if all goes well; if not, this will be postponed by a semester)

Summer 2011

• Take classes
• Do other research projects
• Choose a dissertation topic (another experiment; this one has to be grander and more important)
• Do lots of reading about my topic

Fall 2011

• Take classes
• Do other research projects
• More reading about my topic
• Begin designing the experiment for the dissertation
• Begin writing the dissertation proposal (where I explain the experiment in writing)

Spring 2012

• Take more classes
• Do other research projects
• Keep working on the written proposal
• Take my qualifying exam (another oral presentation; in this one, I have to talk about my past, present, and future research and argue in front of all the students and faculty that I deserve to be allowed to do a dissertation; the faculty vote to pass or fail me)

Summer 2012

• Other research projects
• Finish written dissertation proposal
• Apply for jobs

Fall 2012

• Orally propose my dissertation idea to a committee (they publicly critique it and vote to pass or fail me)
• Collect data for the dissertation
• Apply for jobs

Spring 2013

• Write the written dissertation
• Orally defend the dissertation (again, public arguing for my ideas; the faculty vote to pass or fail me)
• Graduate with a PhD in experimental psychology
• Apply for jobs

When I lay it all out like that, it doesn't really seem very appealing. Oh well: I'm pretty much trapped at this point.