We have a time line!

Generally it is understood that a Bachelors degree takes between 4 and 5 years. You know what classes you need to take and can figure out how many semesters that will be based on how many you take each semester. A Masters degree is similar, except generally less time than the Bachelors. My Bachelors took me ten semesters (although I graduated with almost twice the required number of credits). And my Masters took me four semesters.

A PhD is a little different. And the joke is that you just don’t ask a Doctoral student how much longer they have. Because honestly, we generally have no idea. There’s the whole class work thing and the defenses and the dissertations and the conferences and the publishing. And it’s just hard to nail down how long that will all take.

But today, today I have a time line. For today, I’ll finish up my course work in the coming calendar year. (Yeah!!) During that time I’ll also prepare some papers to be submitted to journals or conferences. Then I’ll get my dissertation proposal in the first half of the next year (Spring 2011). And I’ll run my dissertation research during the 2011/2012 school year. I’ll get the write up all done and ready to go and my Christmas present to myself (and Brett too) will be a diploma in 2012. :apple: 42D

So that’s the time line. For today. Next week it could change. And who knows what could happen at the end of another semester. But for right now, that’s the direction we are taking things.