It's gettin' hot in herrre...
Where to begin? I still haven't finished my thesis. Not from lack of effort, mind you, but I've been burnt out for quite a while now. In five years of graduate school, I've taken two weeks of vacation. I'm tired. And even though finishing graduate school is quite the incentive, it just hasn't been enough to neutralize the absolute apathy I have towards this research endeavor.
But I'm cutting this really close:
Perhaps I'm still in denial, but I refuse to let this bureaucratic stuff get in my way. If it stops me from finishing, fine - I'm so ready to walk away from graduate school, anyway - and I SO want to yell "I QUIT" at someone it hurts.
Right now I'm listening to: Amnesiac, Radiohead
You can keep the furniture
A bump on the head
Howling down the chimney
Release me
Release me
Please
Release me
Release me
But I'm cutting this really close:
- Orientation for 3rd year starts June 29th.
- My surgery clerkship starts July 5th.
- I couldn't get my committee in the same room together for my (hopefully) third and final thesis committee meeting until this Thursday, June 16th. And even then, one of them is unavailable until after June 20th.
- I still haven't submitted my official dissertation paperwork to the graduate student office because I've been waiting to meet with my committee. But this paperwork has to be read by my committee before I submit the paperwork, which is then submitted at least three weeks before the defense. THREE WEEKS?!?! There's a chance I won't be able to defend before I go back.
Perhaps I'm still in denial, but I refuse to let this bureaucratic stuff get in my way. If it stops me from finishing, fine - I'm so ready to walk away from graduate school, anyway - and I SO want to yell "I QUIT" at someone it hurts.
*******
Right now I'm listening to: Amnesiac, Radiohead
You can keep the furniture
A bump on the head
Howling down the chimney
Release me
Release me
Please
Release me
Release me
posted by Mikey at 5:21 PM
6 Comments:
Everyone feels like that.
(including those writing theses)
Scream all you want.
Stop screaming, then go in and talk to someone like Greg and (especially if he tells you things you don't want to hear), double-check the fine print.
It's never a good idea to antagonize your committee, but if you must submit a sloppy thesis, go ahead and get it submitted by whatever deadline. You can always fix things with the revisions.
Also, I'm not sure how it is, but see if you can defer your defense date. Not that you want it hanging over your head, but perhaps as long as it is scheduled, some requirements may be met.
I imagine your main problem will be the financial stuff - will they keep charging you grad school tuition until you defend your thesis, or does it just have to be submitted?
Think about it: Gavin thanked his friends in the lab for all those fun hours playing video games on the lab computer at the seminar he gave the morning before his defense, in front of the entire department. His advisor didn't want him to pass.
He's got his Ph.D.
Quit worrying that this is not the quality of work you would like it to be and start thinking in terms of what you can do to just get out!
Thanks Lia
I suspect things will play out in the way you described. Everything will turn out fine, I think.
:)
I also submit to you that since you're going back to third yr. medical school, you have more wiggle room with which to work. If you need to reschedule/push back clerkships, they can just eat into 4th yr. elective time. So if you need an extra 4 -12 weeks, you can get them; talk to Doug. But that's only if the perfectionist in you needs your thesis to be just so. If I get a vote (and I know that I don't), I'm with Lia - half-ass it if you need to... just get it finished. You've done your time in Purgatory.
I think the amount of wiggle room is determined by a certain individual in the GMS office who we'll call Billie. I think that I'm on the best possible terms with Billie, that being that she doesn't rip my head off when I open the GMS office door. However, because my first clerkship is surgery, it's difficult to get those extra weeks - would've been easier had I gotten one of the shorter rotations first (family, pediatrics, psychiatry, or OB/GYN).
But, yeah, after hearing from you and Lia, and remembering what Bill said (about never reading his thesis ever again), I think at this point I should just run through the wall and be happy with what I put out - and it doesn't necessarily have to be half-a**ed.
Thanks!
My motto throughout college was "A done paper is a good paper". I don't see why that can't work here.
I think I'll keep this comment Anonymous :-)
I know who you are. And it could take mucho beer to keep me quiet ;)
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