Get a PhD

Today I submitted the application for extension of study period. Hopefully this will be the final year I need to register. 4 months ago

On Tuesday something important happened. Out of the blue a co-supervisor was appointed for me. My supervisor is too busy to give me the attention he would like to, so he appointed a right-hand man to guide me.

It’s mostly a skeleton, but my thesis stands at 40 pages. 4 months ago

I’ve almost finished a second masters degree—in public health. If I were 10 or 15 years younger, it would be worth pushing on to a DrPH, but I’m totally crippled by student debt. Had I not gone back to school, I would be able to retire comfortably at 67. Servicing my debt will keep me working well into my 70s as is.

Besides, my mind blew a few circuits with the MPH program. Thank goodness I’m on my thesis project and have my classes behind me. 4 months ago

For better or for worse, a PhD in the biomedical sciences requires a certain amount of luck. In my case, that luck has been a long time coming. Today I got to report my first solid piece of reasonably novel data, and from here I ought to be able to build my thesis around what I’ve discovered. As much as I’d like to go into the gritty details, I’m going to wait until I’ve published to disseminate the information so that I don’t jinx myself or end up eating my words later. What I will say is that persistence and endurance appear to be much more important to the completion of a PhD than outright intelligence or productivity. 4 months ago

So I’m pretty well underway on my PhD. I’m doing a project on cancer research and have already published a review article, although my project has been changed since then. So far, this process has been much more difficult than most of the other goals I’ve approached in my life because of its poorly defined nature. It’s hard to outline a proper set of steps to get to the end, because research work is by definition exploring poorly understood areas of knowledge. In my case, that’s meant a whole lot of dead ends as my model systems have failed and my hypotheses have turned out to yield uninteresting results. I’m really hoping to generate some positive data this year, and I have a tentative goal of collecting enough data this calendar year to write up a research article. I’ll be using this blog system to keep up to date and chronicle my progress. 4 months ago

I’ve been encouraged in this goal by a suggestion being made by an Academic. The timing isn’t right for the moment, but this time next year, keep an eye out for an update! 6 months ago

Finally emailed the head of the research group I want to join. Let’s hope it goes well. 6 months ago

in my third year now. My PHD has tw parts, one is the critical, of hich i just need to redrft: two weeks solid work, maybe

the creative… uh, i still have about sixty percent of he first draught to write!!! How dd this happen? i know th answer is fear: I would school anybody reading this, and myself to get the F on with stuff: panic will not help you.

xx 7 months ago

7 months ago

maybe sometimes more education is not the answer. for numerous reasons i’ve decided against this for now, the primary being that i won’t have anything peer-reviewed by december when applications are due. will i ever again ascend to the heights of the ivory tower? i hope so. but for now i’m letting this go and clearing my mind. enough striving for now. 9 months ago