Destination Dissertation Defense

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This is intended to be an encouragement for hubby who started on his PhD in philosophy in the fall of 1997. I decided last spring/summer that he would finish writing and successfully defend his dissertation by the end of this summer.

He got some work done last summer ending with a total of 103 pages. Unfortunately almost all work ground to a screeching halt with the beginning of the fall semester and teaching and grading duties. Hubby only managed to bump the page total up to 117.

Now that teaching and grading responsibilities for the semester are pretty much over with it is dissertation crunch time! I've cooked up a schedule for him to make sure that he puts in some hours every day on his writing. Check back daily/weekly (I haven't decided yet how often to tally up the page total) to see how things are going.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 05, 2007 10:47 PM

    It took me 6 years to finish my Ph.D. working on it full time. We had to give 20 hours a week for our stipend but it was usually research in our advisors lab so it was not a bad deal. The mean time to complete a PhD at Iowa during that time was 7 years - so I don't feel so bad.

    Tell Hubby to stick with it - it is worth the effort to get past that last obstical.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SamJune 05, 2007 11:35 PM

    We're a bit beyond the average time to complete the philosophy degree at this point though. Hubby can be a real work-aholic when he wants to be (see his blog).

    What's your degree in?

    ReplyDelete
  3. DarkStarJune 06, 2007 8:59 AM

    I decided last spring/summer that he would finish writing and successfully defend his dissertation by the end of this summer.

    I'm sorry, but I find that funny! :) :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. SamJune 07, 2007 8:33 AM

    A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 08, 2007 5:33 PM

    Seven years would be fairly normal in my department. They give funding for five, but hardly anyone ever completes it in that amount of time. There are at least two people in the program now who have been here longer than I have who are still working, so I'm not the longest-running of the current crop, but I'm toward that end. Most seem to be finishing in about six or seven years, I would say (or just not finishing, as has happened with several people who aren't around anymore and don't seem intent on getting the degree).

    ReplyDelete

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