Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Crunch Time


I met with my supervisory committee today. It was decided that due to various funding issues that I will need to graduate in December 2009. I have three semesters left to take all of my remaining courses and internships. In my program of study, we have to take four big finals; three written exams and one oral defense. The written exams are taken on separate days and each one lasts approximately 9 hours. In the summer of 2009, I will take the Entomology/Nematology final and the Plant/Soil Science final. In the fall of 2009, I will take the Plant Pathology final and do my oral defense. This will not be easy, but I have to do it.

4 comments:

makita said...

Hi Joyce,
Will you have funding for those 3 semesters? You can do it. I know it's tough, but you can do it. Hang in there. On the bright side, you'll be done sooner and go work for real.
Go Joyce!

Shadow said...

Hi Makita,
Thank you for believing in me. Apparently my committee also thinks I can pull this off. I have my assistantship for spring 2009 and my student loan for summer 2009. I will have to look for alternative funding for my last semester. I can hardly wait until I'm done!

Anonymous said...

I am a little confused..

You said before that you don't write a disseration, so what exactly are you "defending?" I thought is was an oral final exam, which is not the same as a defense.

Shadow said...

Hi Anonymous,
You are right, it's not quite the same. I've heard that it is worse than defending a dissertation and the thought of going through it makes me feel sick. We get grilled and anything that we have covered over the 4 years of the program is fair game. Yesterday, my committee told me to expect scenerio questions. For example I will be asked: what would I do if I were in some given situation... The answer will involve multiple steps and will involve performing mathematical calculations on the spot. Then I will have to defend my answer. This is just one example.

Can you show me where in all of my posts or comments I said it was an oral final exam? Also, your computer doesn't show up in my sitemeter. There is really just one computer that is not suppose to show...