A Newly Minted Ph.D.

That’s right – about 3:30PM today, I passed my dissertation defense and am semi-officially a Ph.D.  I say semi-officially because there is some paperwork in the way, but for the most part… it’s done.  It’s an odd feeling.

The defense went well.  As I mentioned last time, the dissertation technically involves two sections: the public presentation and the private examination.  No one showed up to the presentation, so it all got sort of smushed together in my case.  My chair, John Campbell, sent me out of the room before things started so that the committee could meet in private.  I was brought back in a couple of minutes later, and gave my presentation in just over an hour, punctuated by questions throughout.  I was sent outside again, during which the faculty passed ballots around and presumably chatted a bit about my performance, after which my advisor walked out and greeted me with a “Congratulations, Dr. Landers.”

I went through what I’ll call the Four Stages of Ph.D. Achievement, similar to the Seven (correction: Five) Stages of Grief, but slightly less depressing:

1. Shock:  For about 10 minutes, I just shook hands and said “thank you” to my committee members.  It just wasn’t real yet.
2. Giddiness:  After all, this was the conclusion of 21 years of education.  I am, for the first time in recent memory, not a student, and that kind of closure is a little overwhelming.  Everything seemed just a little funny.  And I couldn’t stop smiling.
3. Eerie Calm:  This meant browsing the Internet and reading on Facebook as if nothing had changed from three hours earlier.
4. Acceptance:  Oh right.  I still have a ton of work.

There are only 25 days until we move, and I have many loose ends to tie up, so there’s actually a ton left to do.  When it comes down to it, the dissertation is just another study, only with higher stakes attached to it, and I still have other studies, grant proposals, and projects to worry about.  Plus packing.

A bright point in the storm: after I dropped off my “final oral dissertation defense” form with the signatures of my committee on it, I decided to drop by my Intro to I/O class currently-in-progress.  My teaching assistant, Stacy, had graciously volunteered to run the final class/review session if I didn’t get done with my defense in time to attend.  When I got there, Stacy was going over one of the worksheets with her back to the door.  As I sat down in a chair at the front behind her, a group started clapping over her talking which quite quickly transformed into a full classroom full of applause.  Which, I have to admit, felt pretty good.