September 4, 2021
The fall semester has begun, and I am officially in the third year of my Ph.D. program.
Whaaaaat just happened??!!! As the famous quote from Bad Boys 2 goes: this shit just got real.
How am I starting my “halfway point” year already?! The first two years of my program have just flown by, yet this third year feels like it will take forever because it is the last thing standing between me and officially starting in on my dissertation.
Hold on, though. If I’m real with myself, this may be my third year in the program, but it may not be the “hump year” I think it is. For it to be such assumes that I would be able to complete my dissertation in two years: draft the first three chapters of my dissertation and conduct a pilot study in one year; then conduct my research, write it up, get it approved. Wait, that’s not right either:
- Year 3.75 (Spring 2022)
- Formalize my doctoral candidacy committee and get it approved
- Year 4 (Fall 2022 – Spring 2023)
- Write two lit reviews
- Write my methodology critique
- Conduct my pilot study
- Pull together my dissertation committee and get it approved
- Pass my essays oral defense
- Petition for dissertation
- Year 5 (Fall 2023 – Spring 2024)
- Write my dissertation proposal
- Submit my proposal
- Apply for IRB approval for my research
- Defend my proposal
- Officially start on my research (looking like Spring of 2024)
- Submit my dissertation draft
- Defend my dissertation
- Receive and make final edits
- BE Doctor King!!!
The question on my mind is: “how long will the contents of year five actually take?”
The whisper under that is: “does it really matter?”
I take your point, Whisper. I want to make sure my research and dissertation are solid, and that means it will take as long at it takes. However – and I say this with all due respect, Whisper – time equals money in this scenario as well. Not just with tuition, as more semesters mean more tuition payments. I mean with my own time and work. Can I be focused and produce a quality product I can be proud of by my originally anticipated graduation date of May 2024? Or is this a pipe dream and it’s just not posisble?
During the first two years of my PhD program, I felt confident that I could graduate by the May 2024 date projected by Saybrook University’s admissions. Now that I’m approaching the halfway mark (which I view as the end of this current semester), I can see more of the intricacies involved with the process of that last year. Year four is prescriptive – I’ll work on my three essays (basically drafts of chapters one through three of my dissertation) and conduct my practicum/pilot study. But then what? Do I leverage that summer to get a jump on my proposal, so when I officially start my fifth year I’m further along and would have more time for completing my research?
How much time will I need to conduct my research using Heuristic Inquiry, anyway?
A month? A semester? A year? More?
And is this going to be the time where I will need to taper my professional workload down? I am so used to working full time and going to school full time, that I’m not sure how I would handle working fewer hours. Then again, what I currently view as “going to school full time” may change once I start into years four and five. These years will move from structured coursework to self-structured progress. Many people may find themselves adrift with the absence of structure and due dates. Heck, I still haven’t had a chance (oh let’s be honest: the motivation. I haven’t had the motivation) to play with some drawings a colleague asked me to do.
Perhaps there is an important difference between these drawings that I have been putting off/ignoring and my upcoming unstructured self-structured dissertation work: I could not care less about those drawings. They are a distraction from other things that are more important to me, and I’m treating them as such. My dissertation work, on the other hand…well, that’s incredibly important to me.
Is it more important than my work? I have a hard time seeing the difference between the two: my work IS my Work. My work is the play space and prooving grounds for my theories, practices, and Work in this world. I love it, even as the company finds itself in an awkward growing space during this time of pandemic. I hope that my work and my dissertation will find ways to truly complement, enrich, and support each other.
