As I enter my final semester of coursework (AHH!), I figured that I would give you all an update as to how my doctoral process is going.

My last course is an advanced methods course offered online (as I am NOT traveling back and forth to Florida for classes another semester) in survey methods. As someone who literally programmed an entire survey for a sample of 25,000 in about fifteen minutes today with advanced display logic and branching, I think it’ll be a pretty simple class to end my coursework. In writing this blog post, I realized that I still hadn’t checked for any required textbooks for a class that starts on Monday – I’m nerd enough that I had already bought the exact book I needed for class when I started my new job. My boss and I also joke that I can always ask for help with my homework during our one on ones if I get stuck, since he’s a trained survey methodologist. Researcher perks, I guess.

Also in the month of January is the first of several major doctoral hurdles over the coming year and half: my comprehensive exam. My department technically calls them our “preliminary exam” or “prelims” but I feel like every other department in the world calls them comprehensive exams or comps. The Saturday before MLK Day, we’ll all get access to a prompt and be required to respond with a 25-page paper (including references!) that addresses the prompt while providing context and understanding gleaned from all of our core and major classes in the program. As I’m a Higher Education PhD student, that includes the four core classes within the department plus the additional FIFTEEN CLASSES I’ve been required to take to fulfill my coursework requirement. Thankfully, I don’t have to utilize every single course (other than the core four) and I’ll be relying heavily on my methodological courses to write part of the paper.

The good news is that my employer has given us MLK Day off completely and my boss and I worked out some half-days for me in the middle of the week so that I can get this dang exam passed on the first try. Though a lot of people talk about taking the entire week off for comps just to focus on them, I’ve been working full-time this entire degree program and have been balancing work, coursework, marathon training, and hobbies the whole time. Honestly, I’m the person who struggles when I don’t have a routine, so it’s going to be critical for me to have some sense of normalcy for me to be able to focus properly. I’m hoping to have everything wrapped up that Friday so I can turn it in early, but I guess we’ll see!

We should hopefully be getting the results of our comps back by the end of February to determine if we’ve passed and can advance onto candidacy to start writing our prospectus proposal for our dissertation.

After my literature review class last semester, I have about 40 pages of my first three chapters already written. As you might be able to guess from the name of the course, my literature review (or Chapter 2) is the beefiest of the three. But I’ve got some good progress on my introduction chapter (Chapter 1) and my methods are coming along as well (Chapter 3). I’ve had some good conversations with my chair about both my study design and the conceptual frameworks I plan on utilizing, so those are some of the areas I want to address right away when I get into edits.

I also have the rest of my committee chosen, which is great news for me! My chair is who I was assigned to when I first started (like we don’t have a ton of overlap methodologically or topically) and I know he’s not going to let me slide through with a shitty study; even though I don’t want to be an academic, we’ve both come to an understanding about the rigor and thoroughness that I want to uphold throughout the whole thing, even if just for my own mental well-being and satisfaction. I have someone else from the department who is serving as my methods person (after I bounced around between a few options in methods before landing on collective case study) and another from the department who is serving as my in-department topical person (not directly aligned with my exact research topic, but definitely knowledgeable on something very similar). I also managed to secure my outside discipline person as well, who I worked with in my first full-time job after my Master’s program. As I’m studying internships, I thought it would make sense to look for someone who had knowledge about internships and internship courses, and one of my departmental internship coordinators checked all the required boxes to serve on my committee from the Graduate School and was super-excited to join in!

Right now, I am hoping for a first-round pass on my comps (I can get a second attempt in May if I don’t pass the first time) by the end of February, a prospectus defense in July or August 2023, and a final dissertation defense the last week of April 2024 (and a technical, on-paper graduation in August 2024). I really want to stick to this timeline because it means I could attend our departmental hooding ceremony in-person that only happens once a year during the Spring graduation week, and I want to be able to be there with my friends and colleagues to celebrate.

I have a pretty aggressive calendar/schedule built out for the entire process, but it also currently gives me a lot of time for flexibility and edits as I approach the dissertation defense. One of my goals for the year is to also track the amount of time I’m devoting to my prospectus and dissertation, starting with at least 7 hours a week that increases to 10 hours a week as I actually get into the meat of my study itself. I’ve also determined that I work best on my dissertation-related stuff from the library at my undergrad, so I’m trying to get up there at least two or three times a week to get stuff done. I also have time blocked off two nights a week to start as if I’m enrolled in a “Prospectus Writing class” by myself; just having it on my calendar means I’m more likely to do it, especially when I have a boatload of reminders and notifications that go off to let me know when to head to the library. Finally, some friends and I are working on finding a time for a writing group each week, just having some hours set aside to write on Zoom from three different states along the East Coast and get these damn things written.

All in all, I feel like I’m in great shape here at the start of 2023 as I’m making progress on finally getting those three letters at the end of my name. Ask me this time next year if I’m still as excited, and hopefully that answer will stay the same.