earn my masters degree

I heard back from our secretary, and apparently, she got the runaround from West Lafayette about the submission of my Plan of Study. She sent it in May, ‘Too early.’ She sent it in August/September, ‘Too late.’ Poor woman can’t win. It’s cool. This affords me more time to study, meet with each of my committee members on a regular basis to discuss the nuances of the exam, and most importantly, SLEEP!!!! YES!!

I thought about what it meant to get my master’s degree after technically 4 years, as opposed to the 2 that it should have taken. Considering my coursework, it really amounts to 2 1/2 years… I thought about timetables, and stress and how long it’s taken me, and how I should ‘be done by now,’ and how I felt like this degree meant that my life could officially ‘BEGIN.’

And that’s just not really the case. My life has continued along with this journey, and this degree is just a piece of the puzzle. Not the whole picture. There’s a lot of breathing room in that realization.

It’s just the hoops I’ve had to jump through to get to the point when I can say that I’m officially DONE. And it’s all been worth it. The student loans, the thesis project attempt, the change in committee members, the extra classes, all of it.

It doesn’t hold me back from finding a good job. I can always travel back to take the exam if that’s the position I’m in. I got this. I just have a little more time to prove it.

So, in the end, I will take comprehensive exams in March, and truly, really, actually graduate on May 16th, 2010.

I contacted the dept. secretary about my time & location for the exams next week, and I get this:

Hi Amy. Yes, the exams are scheduled for the 13th and 14th however I just received your Plan of Study back from WL and they changed your graduation date from Fall 2009 to Spring 2010. Yours was not the only one returned this way so I need to find out why they are doing this. If we cannot get WL to agree to change the graduation date, do you want to wait until spring 2010 to take your exams or still take your exams next week but have the degree post as a spring graduation? – Liz

WTF?!

I’m slightly terrified to take the exams next week anyway. Is this a sign?

If in fact that I’m not walking until May, I’ll take the exam in March. Buys me more time to study (and practice writing the exam itself), and rework papers for conference.

This sucks.

I freaked out over nothing, actually.
I was under the impression that my three committee members would be testing me on ANYTHING from each class… not a couple of articles.

That’s it.

One week to study and end up with nine articles’ worth of information crammed in my head.

I’m a good writer, and I care passionately about the issues I’m studying up to write about, so I know everything will be just fine.

At this point, I just want to get it over with.

I’m not a slacker, but I guess I should have contacted my committee members and advisor again months ago. So far, everything’s cool with 2 out 3 of my exam questions. I know what I’m doing, but I ought to have handled all of this stuff much earlier. Yes, work was insane over this summer into fall, but I could have taken the two minutes it takes to email these people and make sure everything was cool a while ago.

Maybe I was so scared that I stalled. Now I have two weeks to prepare to write three four page essays (handwritten- Yes. That only translates to two pages typed) over three 90 minute segments.

It’s not that serious, but I feel like an idiot who should have been more on top of things.

Oh, and I sucked it up and paid the bill.

Fine.

At least in two weeks, this will all be over.

I have to leave work early tomorrow to meet with one of my committee members to go over the articles for her question of the exam. She’s ‘not sure we can do this in time.’

WTF?

Paperwork is cool. Everything’s fine.

I’m scheduled to take the exam October 13 & 14.

(Dies)

So my committee members are all up to speed that I’m taking the exam, which consists of three questions based on four readings (articles or chapters) from each class. 12 possibilities, three final questions.

I had all this worked out in May, and my plan of study was filed back then with the department secretary. I asked her if I should meet with my advisor to work out the details for my exam (after the aborted thesis plan.) She told me that no, I file everything with her. So I did. Four months later I find out that my advisor didn’t know that I’m taking the exam… in like three weeks. What. The. Fuck. I wasn’t told that the secretary didn’t (wasn’t going to? I don’t know) tell her boss, the HEAD of the DEPARTMENT what I was doing, when I assumed that he was to sign off on the paperwork that I filed FOUR MONTHS AGO. I was registered for the exam back on the 4th of this month. I hope he knows now.

I better not be screwed and forced to wait until March. This kind of sucks, kids.

I got a bill for the aforementioned exam course which carries zero credit hours.

$181.62 for a graduation candidate fee? For real?

You are now registered for CAND 993, Grad Exam. You will receive more information about exam dates and location soon.

Oh, Jesus.

Organized? That’s a relative term, of course.

I printed out all my responses from all three classes. I have three final papers to include, and I will work on expanding two of them to submit for a conference. I don’t know which one, since I have no idea what’s coming up this fall and in the spring, but that’s yet another thing for me to find out.