tomorrow is the day!

Anyone know why the smiley isn't working?



How did it go, Claudia!!

Anyone know why the smiley isn't working?



How did it go, Claudia!!

Anyone know why the smiley isn't working?



How did it go, Claudia!!

well gals - i can't say it went as great as i had hoped it would - but it certainly wasn't nearly as awful as i had imagined (or maybe it was! ha!) first of all, i really, really worked myself up yesterday and last night. ALL i could think about was how awful it was going to be (yeah, three cheers for positive thinking!) and how they were going to grill me and well you know! so i wake up this morning and drive to campus and i am making small talk with my advisor and one other committee member while we are waiting for the 3rd - and he is LATE. like ONE HOUR LATE. can you believe it? he was mortified, thank goodness, but then so was i because i had to wait for another 45 minutes and freak myself out some more!



so finally we started and my advisor kicks off the Q&A about my prospectus - that went OK. i managed to sound somewhat intelligent. i think i demonstrated that i had at least some knowledge of the topic. then i leave and they discuss and decide that i need to make some changes but only need to get my advisor's approval on them and it's all good. not a huge deal - i was a little disappointed but i expected it - it certainly wasn't as tight as it could have been. THEN my advisor says "well, now we can start the oral exam section" i'm like WHAT?! i thought we just did that!

(see, in our department, people have skated by with a "combo oral exam-prospectus defense) - so i PANICKED. they each asked me 2-3 - more later

well gals - i can't say it went as great as i had hoped it would - but it certainly wasn't nearly as awful as i had imagined (or maybe it was! ha!) first of all, i really, really worked myself up yesterday and last night. ALL i could think about was how awful it was going to be (yeah, three cheers for positive thinking!) and how they were going to grill me and well you know! so i wake up this morning and drive to campus and i am making small talk with my advisor and one other committee member while we are waiting for the 3rd - and he is LATE. like ONE HOUR LATE. can you believe it? he was mortified, thank goodness, but then so was i because i had to wait for another 45 minutes and freak myself out some more!



so finally we started and my advisor kicks off the Q&A about my prospectus - that went OK. i managed to sound somewhat intelligent. i think i demonstrated that i had at least some knowledge of the topic. then i leave and they discuss and decide that i need to make some changes but only need to get my advisor's approval on them and it's all good. not a huge deal - i was a little disappointed but i expected it - it certainly wasn't as tight as it could have been. THEN my advisor says "well, now we can start the oral exam section" i'm like WHAT?! i thought we just did that!

(see, in our department, people have skated by with a "combo oral exam-prospectus defense) - so i PANICKED. they each asked me 2-3 - more later

well gals - i can't say it went as great as i had hoped it would - but it certainly wasn't nearly as awful as i had imagined (or maybe it was! ha!) first of all, i really, really worked myself up yesterday and last night. ALL i could think about was how awful it was going to be (yeah, three cheers for positive thinking!) and how they were going to grill me and well you know! so i wake up this morning and drive to campus and i am making small talk with my advisor and one other committee member while we are waiting for the 3rd - and he is LATE. like ONE HOUR LATE. can you believe it? he was mortified, thank goodness, but then so was i because i had to wait for another 45 minutes and freak myself out some more!



so finally we started and my advisor kicks off the Q&A about my prospectus - that went OK. i managed to sound somewhat intelligent. i think i demonstrated that i had at least some knowledge of the topic. then i leave and they discuss and decide that i need to make some changes but only need to get my advisor's approval on them and it's all good. not a huge deal - i was a little disappointed but i expected it - it certainly wasn't as tight as it could have been. THEN my advisor says "well, now we can start the oral exam section" i'm like WHAT?! i thought we just did that!

(see, in our department, people have skated by with a "combo oral exam-prospectus defense) - so i PANICKED. they each asked me 2-3 - more later

Gosh, Claudia, what the heck happened? It sounds like things went well initially. What was the verdict on the orals? One of the girls in the program with me had something similar happen....I guess it just depends on your advisor? No other students showed up for her defense...the whole college of medicine is invited (ouch!), but because of the time of day she chose, no once came....and after she presented for her profs they grilled her on basic theory, etc for three hours...she was totally beside herself about the experience. I sure hope that isn't what happened to you!!!!



Kris

Gosh, Claudia, what the heck happened? It sounds like things went well initially. What was the verdict on the orals? One of the girls in the program with me had something similar happen....I guess it just depends on your advisor? No other students showed up for her defense...the whole college of medicine is invited (ouch!), but because of the time of day she chose, no once came....and after she presented for her profs they grilled her on basic theory, etc for three hours...she was totally beside herself about the experience. I sure hope that isn't what happened to you!!!!



Kris

Gosh, Claudia, what the heck happened? It sounds like things went well initially. What was the verdict on the orals? One of the girls in the program with me had something similar happen....I guess it just depends on your advisor? No other students showed up for her defense...the whole college of medicine is invited (ouch!), but because of the time of day she chose, no once came....and after she presented for her profs they grilled her on basic theory, etc for three hours...she was totally beside herself about the experience. I sure hope that isn't what happened to you!!!!



Kris

ha! ok i'm back!! yesterday was SUCH a busy day - i had to give my last exam of the semester (and hopefully of my life!) - anyway, they each asked me 2-3 questions about yep, you guessed it kristin! - BASIC THEORY! one of the profs actually had a response paper that i had written LAST FALL in her seminar and was like "well, here you wrote about the television audience . . . could you elaborate on what you mean?" OK, sure, like i have thought about that since last fall. they all asked easy but tough questions and i just couldn't articulate myself *at all* - it was a total nightmare. and the more trouble i had with articulation and trying to think of everything i needed to say, the more nervous i became and so you can see what happened. soooooo, somehow i finished and went out again and when i came back they told me that they would like for me to elaborate on their questions in written form. so they repeated their questions and i must answer them in 2 pages over the weekend and give it to my advisor on monday. i was so upset. i went with my advisor to her office to schedule an appointment to work on the prospectus and i just started crying. i couldn't hold it in anymore. and she was like "oh nooooooooo! no! no! that is not it at all!" she was very kind and assured me that i was not an idiot. she said it's not unusual and she said that i was a strange breed b/c during the ? for the prospectus, she said that i expressed myself BETTER orally and actually cleared up some issues for her HOWEVER on the oral exam, she said that they talked with each other about how they knew that i knew this stuff based on what i did in their individual classes but somehow i hadn't been able to express that - which is why they want the written. soooooo, that is it. it's over.



NOW, i'm freaking out about these written questions. i feel like my life is on the line here - i feel like they are going to critique every single word that i type there. and i must admit, i also feel like the biggest idiot. i'm really thinking, yes, there is no way in heck that i could have answered those questions in front of you b/c i probably haven't studied as much as i should have realistically - and i have too many other things going on in my life and i haven't completely dedicated my life to grad school - soooo, those are my thoughts now.







kristin, sounds like your bday party for your little girl was FAB!!! happy for you! and her!

ha! ok i'm back!! yesterday was SUCH a busy day - i had to give my last exam of the semester (and hopefully of my life!) - anyway, they each asked me 2-3 questions about yep, you guessed it kristin! - BASIC THEORY! one of the profs actually had a response paper that i had written LAST FALL in her seminar and was like "well, here you wrote about the television audience . . . could you elaborate on what you mean?" OK, sure, like i have thought about that since last fall. they all asked easy but tough questions and i just couldn't articulate myself *at all* - it was a total nightmare. and the more trouble i had with articulation and trying to think of everything i needed to say, the more nervous i became and so you can see what happened. soooooo, somehow i finished and went out again and when i came back they told me that they would like for me to elaborate on their questions in written form. so they repeated their questions and i must answer them in 2 pages over the weekend and give it to my advisor on monday. i was so upset. i went with my advisor to her office to schedule an appointment to work on the prospectus and i just started crying. i couldn't hold it in anymore. and she was like "oh nooooooooo! no! no! that is not it at all!" she was very kind and assured me that i was not an idiot. she said it's not unusual and she said that i was a strange breed b/c during the ? for the prospectus, she said that i expressed myself BETTER orally and actually cleared up some issues for her HOWEVER on the oral exam, she said that they talked with each other about how they knew that i knew this stuff based on what i did in their individual classes but somehow i hadn't been able to express that - which is why they want the written. soooooo, that is it. it's over.



NOW, i'm freaking out about these written questions. i feel like my life is on the line here - i feel like they are going to critique every single word that i type there. and i must admit, i also feel like the biggest idiot. i'm really thinking, yes, there is no way in heck that i could have answered those questions in front of you b/c i probably haven't studied as much as i should have realistically - and i have too many other things going on in my life and i haven't completely dedicated my life to grad school - soooo, those are my thoughts now.







kristin, sounds like your bday party for your little girl was FAB!!! happy for you! and her!

ha! ok i'm back!! yesterday was SUCH a busy day - i had to give my last exam of the semester (and hopefully of my life!) - anyway, they each asked me 2-3 questions about yep, you guessed it kristin! - BASIC THEORY! one of the profs actually had a response paper that i had written LAST FALL in her seminar and was like "well, here you wrote about the television audience . . . could you elaborate on what you mean?" OK, sure, like i have thought about that since last fall. they all asked easy but tough questions and i just couldn't articulate myself *at all* - it was a total nightmare. and the more trouble i had with articulation and trying to think of everything i needed to say, the more nervous i became and so you can see what happened. soooooo, somehow i finished and went out again and when i came back they told me that they would like for me to elaborate on their questions in written form. so they repeated their questions and i must answer them in 2 pages over the weekend and give it to my advisor on monday. i was so upset. i went with my advisor to her office to schedule an appointment to work on the prospectus and i just started crying. i couldn't hold it in anymore. and she was like "oh nooooooooo! no! no! that is not it at all!" she was very kind and assured me that i was not an idiot. she said it's not unusual and she said that i was a strange breed b/c during the ? for the prospectus, she said that i expressed myself BETTER orally and actually cleared up some issues for her HOWEVER on the oral exam, she said that they talked with each other about how they knew that i knew this stuff based on what i did in their individual classes but somehow i hadn't been able to express that - which is why they want the written. soooooo, that is it. it's over.



NOW, i'm freaking out about these written questions. i feel like my life is on the line here - i feel like they are going to critique every single word that i type there. and i must admit, i also feel like the biggest idiot. i'm really thinking, yes, there is no way in heck that i could have answered those questions in front of you b/c i probably haven't studied as much as i should have realistically - and i have too many other things going on in my life and i haven't completely dedicated my life to grad school - soooo, those are my thoughts now.







kristin, sounds like your bday party for your little girl was FAB!!! happy for you! and her!

Claudia, you are describing my worst nightmare



I know sort of how you feel! When I was in Germany doing my exchange year I wanted to take as many courses which would apply for my degree at home as possible. I needed a History and Systems of Psychology course and so a prof agreed to do a special problems section with me. I was to read the book during the semester and have a discussion at the very end with him (and write a paper). Anyway, I didn't realize that he wanted to do an oral examination and he started going page by page basically asking me to spit out all of these details...needless to say, I completely fell on my face!



Thank you sooooo much though for sharing this experience. I have to defend in a few weeks (have to pin everyone down on a date!) and now I am going to make sure that I take the time to prepare myself with THEORY just in case!!!!!! If we hadn't had this conversation, it might not have occurred to me in all of the stress and hectic....I guess that is the silver lining? Your experience helped someone else? D -->D"> OK...I am just trying to be positive there



Well, I will be thinking of you writing away, Claudia. My first draft of my thesis is due on Monday and I am no farther than I was a couple of months ago....I am suffering a severe motivational crisis which is probably evident in my frequent online visits and use of smileys!!! Anything to avoid writing!!!



Help....please send motivation!!!!



Kris

Claudia, you are describing my worst nightmare



I know sort of how you feel! When I was in Germany doing my exchange year I wanted to take as many courses which would apply for my degree at home as possible. I needed a History and Systems of Psychology course and so a prof agreed to do a special problems section with me. I was to read the book during the semester and have a discussion at the very end with him (and write a paper). Anyway, I didn't realize that he wanted to do an oral examination and he started going page by page basically asking me to spit out all of these details...needless to say, I completely fell on my face!



Thank you sooooo much though for sharing this experience. I have to defend in a few weeks (have to pin everyone down on a date!) and now I am going to make sure that I take the time to prepare myself with THEORY just in case!!!!!! If we hadn't had this conversation, it might not have occurred to me in all of the stress and hectic....I guess that is the silver lining? Your experience helped someone else? D -->D"> OK...I am just trying to be positive there



Well, I will be thinking of you writing away, Claudia. My first draft of my thesis is due on Monday and I am no farther than I was a couple of months ago....I am suffering a severe motivational crisis which is probably evident in my frequent online visits and use of smileys!!! Anything to avoid writing!!!



Help....please send motivation!!!!



Kris

Claudia, you are describing my worst nightmare



I know sort of how you feel! When I was in Germany doing my exchange year I wanted to take as many courses which would apply for my degree at home as possible. I needed a History and Systems of Psychology course and so a prof agreed to do a special problems section with me. I was to read the book during the semester and have a discussion at the very end with him (and write a paper). Anyway, I didn't realize that he wanted to do an oral examination and he started going page by page basically asking me to spit out all of these details...needless to say, I completely fell on my face!



Thank you sooooo much though for sharing this experience. I have to defend in a few weeks (have to pin everyone down on a date!) and now I am going to make sure that I take the time to prepare myself with THEORY just in case!!!!!! If we hadn't had this conversation, it might not have occurred to me in all of the stress and hectic....I guess that is the silver lining? Your experience helped someone else? D -->D"> OK...I am just trying to be positive there



Well, I will be thinking of you writing away, Claudia. My first draft of my thesis is due on Monday and I am no farther than I was a couple of months ago....I am suffering a severe motivational crisis which is probably evident in my frequent online visits and use of smileys!!! Anything to avoid writing!!!



Help....please send motivation!!!!



Kris