Breaking into the Academy: Okay, getting back to task

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As a fourth year doctoral candidate, in addition to having completed comprehensive examinations and prospectus and working on the dissertation, my thoughts are also turning towards the job market and securing that first academic position. This purpose of this blog is to chronicle the trials and tribulations of completing my Ph.D. and finding that first job.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Okay, getting back to task

Well, it has been a while since I have had the time to really put much thought, effort, and energy into writing on this blog. I should note, as I did quickly in the previous entry (see Quick Note), I am now a doctoral candidate and, officially, "all but dissertation" - as is implied by the ABD portion of the mkbabd in the URL for this blog.

Anyway, I have had a busy Fall semester. At the very beginning of the semester I submitted my written comprehensive examinations and then successfully completed my oral defense the middle of September (see Theory Question, Foundation Question, Practice Question, Methodology Question, and Well, I Passed). I had one course left to do, which I completed this semester, the capstone course to the qualitative research certificate program.

To distract me a bit, I attended the annual meeting of AECT (see First Impression of AECT 2005 - Continue to Disappoint, Second Impressions of AECT 2005, More Internet Woes, First Real Day, Second Full Day, So, what value do you find in this blog?, Post-Mortem on AECT, and Final Thoughts on AECT 2005 - I promise) and the annual Virtual School Symposium (see First Day of the Virtual School Symposium, Start of the Second Day of VSS, Assessment of the Virtual School Symposium, and The Notes from Mark Milliron's Keynote).

Once November hit, I had to get serious about my prospectus (having only completed a single draft of chapter one at that point). But over the next four weeks, with the help of my two co-chairs and my senior mentor doctoral student, I was able to complete the written portion of my prospectus to the satisfaction of my co-chairs and it was sent out to my committee and then defended the day before I left for Toronto (see Snow that Fell in Toronto During Our Visit for some notes on our trip thus far).

Over the Christmas holidays, I'll try and post an entry about the actual defense and the changes that were made, along with including more information about my proposed dissertation study (both here and on my research blog - i.e., Virtual High School Meanderings), and get back to chatting about the job search some more (including my first academic telephone interview), as I am engaged in that process as well.

Tags: graduate student, graduate students, graduate school, higher education, education

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