Officially a doctoral candidate
So, there are a few tests and hoops one has to jump through in my school to be an official candidate for a doctoral degree thingy.
One of these are cumulative exams. the mornings of first saturday of every month are full of fun exams. I get to chose one to take. I have to pass 6 exams before I fail 11. Sounds easy, eh? I was at 6 pass/7fail when I finally finished. I have not heard of anybody not make it, but it is rather scary to think about. In your 2nd+ year, not taking it counts as a fail.
then there's the oral exam I have whined about a bit here. I passed with condition last November, and finished my condition today. I basically learned that my data interpretation is crap because I don't know some magical constants I assumed in fitting my data. I spent a good deal of time preparing for this presentation I was to give, and lo and behold, I didn't prepare anything that they wanted. But I passed, so it's all good.
The only things left are one more class for the engineering program I'm in (which I may not take for another 2 years due to people being fucktards) and my thesis. that's it. then I'm a doctor of philosophy. Of course, thesis work takes years upon years and all sorts of fun stuff like that. but it's nice to think that I could possibly finish in the future.
One of these are cumulative exams. the mornings of first saturday of every month are full of fun exams. I get to chose one to take. I have to pass 6 exams before I fail 11. Sounds easy, eh? I was at 6 pass/7fail when I finally finished. I have not heard of anybody not make it, but it is rather scary to think about. In your 2nd+ year, not taking it counts as a fail.
then there's the oral exam I have whined about a bit here. I passed with condition last November, and finished my condition today. I basically learned that my data interpretation is crap because I don't know some magical constants I assumed in fitting my data. I spent a good deal of time preparing for this presentation I was to give, and lo and behold, I didn't prepare anything that they wanted. But I passed, so it's all good.
The only things left are one more class for the engineering program I'm in (which I may not take for another 2 years due to people being fucktards) and my thesis. that's it. then I'm a doctor of philosophy. Of course, thesis work takes years upon years and all sorts of fun stuff like that. but it's nice to think that I could possibly finish in the future.