Dissertation deadline

What?!? A non-Justin-related post?? (Gasp!)

But seriously, I thought some of you might be interested in an update on my academic life. For a while I have been hoping to complete my degree this fall, but when I learned I would be due to give birth December 9th, this goal took on a new intensity. (There is no graduation ceremony in December at my school, but nevertheless I can complete the degree at that time and just wait to participate in the ceremony next May.) This would have the huge benefit of nothing left hanging over my head after the baby is born, and the added bonus of no tuition bill in the spring (I used to actually get paid by my school to go there, but alas, after four years you wear out your welcome and have to start paying them!).

In order to accomplish this feat I have several deadlines I'll have to meet throughout this summer and fall. The first of these is August 15, by which date I have to turn in my "penultimate draft." This means a complete draft of my dissertation from beginning to end, revised to the satisfaction of my primary adviser and a second professor in my department. If it seems ridiculous to you that I have to have the dissertation this complete by August 15 in order to finish at the end of the year, then please be assured that it seems pretty ridiculous to me, too!

I recently completed a first draft of chapter 5 out of 6, leaving only one more chapter to write before August 15. Or so I thought. I just found out earlier this week that both my adviser and my second reader are basically unavailable in early August, so if I am going to meet the deadline I have to get my final chapter (which consists of about 3 pages so far) to my adviser by July 23, so that she can read and comment, and I can revise it based on her comments and get it to the second reader by August 1. In other words, I suddenly found out that I only have about 3 weeks to finish writing my dissertation! I have never written a whole chapter in 3 weeks time, so this idea is a bit daunting, but I am still determined to try to meet the deadline. Fortunately, I have some great friends and family who are helping me by watching Justin and giving me more than my usual 12 hours a week to work.

If I meet this first deadline, then my penultimate draft will be sent to a third reader (in my case, a professor at another school) and she has until sometime in September (I think) to read it and she can direct me to make further revisions. My adviser and second reader can also request further revisions in the early fall once they read the whole dissertation as one big work (they've been reading it in pieces so far). So, September and October will be about making all these revisions, and once all the major players are satisfied with it my dissertation defense will be scheduled for sometime in November. Even if I pass my defense my department can still request some final revisions to be made after the defense, before I turn in my final, final version at the end of November and officially complete the degree.

This whole schedule depends on me being able to write this final chapter during the next three weeks. Wish me luck. I'll let you know how it goes!