I'm supposed to be getting a ton of homework done this week. My pre-lim exams start on April 3rd. Between now and then, I have 69 mid-terms and 69 papers to grade for my students. I also have a ton of reading to do. And I have to write a syllabus of a course I would like to teach. I have a 20 page paper I need to finish (and have graded) and I have an oral exam on Monday (to finish a different incomplete). Let's talk, for a brief moment, what the pre-lims consist of. On Monday, April 3rd, by 9:00am, I will receive approximately five questions from four different professors. I will have to answer two questions for each of the four professors. I will have fourteen days to type approximately eight page answers to these eight questions. Then, I e-mail my answers back in and wait. After about a week, I will have to orally defend my answers. This could take anywhere from a half hour to 4 hours. How bad your questions are usually determines how long your orals are. I will also have to talk about my syllabus. After this, I will be ABD (all but dissertator). Let's talk about that process.
I have to write a fifteen page dissertation proposal. There will probably be a fifteen page bibliography as well. I have to orally defend this. Then, this summer, since I did receive funding, I will travel to Russia for about a month. I will go to the archives in Moscow and in Samara. There, I will try to figure out what the archives have, and if they'll even let me in. When I return to the states, I will fill out several grant proposals, so I can receive funding for Fall 2007, to return to Russia for 9 months. After that research trip (in which I live in the archives and libraries), I write the dissertation: it has to be approximately 300 pages long. Now, doesn't that sound easy?!?
Meanwhile, I have to find time to visit my elderly grandparents, move to Virginia, and plan a wedding and a honeymoon. After all this, things will settle down considerably. Part of that is because Wes is being deployed in Nov. for six months. Just the way you want to start your marriage out: by not seeing one another. He'll be gone for the entire month of September as well.
So, this is why I'm slightly stressed out. And I should actually get back to my homework.
3 comments:
oh honey. i'm sorry that you're so stressed out. sounds like you're handling it all pretty well though.
Eh. Honey, you can only work on a task 1 hour at a time without a break. Otherwise, your brain goes on overload and you stop having a full ability to concentrate. Don't forget to look up occasionally from the books and breathe!
Hi!
I stumbled on to your blog from a comment you left on another blog. As a fellow grad student, I feel your pain! Good luck with your prelims -- you will be so glad once they are done!
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