I'm Done!

Hello Everyone!

I hope all is well! So after 6 1/2 years of higher education and 11 months of thesis-specific research, I have finally become a Master...haha!

Last Tuesday, I successfully defended my Thesis and was able to make the November 6 submission deadline for the final paper. Since then I had a very busy weekend with dog-sitting, Homecoming, and helping my sister and husband at their new house, but most importantly, I was able to sleep! Even though my Thesis is done, there are still many things to do, but I just feel lighter as I take steps towards completing my next goals.

Since one of the objectives of this blog is to provide other graduate students with tips and insight based on my experience of this process, now might be a good time to explain what those final steps of thesis preparation are really like.

The Friday before my Defense, as I mentioned in the previous post, Nancy and I reviewed my presentation. She helped me clean-up slides. images and information, and this pushed me to complete the slides for the presentation early. This was a huge help in relieving much of the stress on the Defense day! To be honest, that day I enjoyed a 6-mile morning run and had time to look and feel refreshed and relaxed before the presentation. The truth is, on the day of the Defense, I feel that all graduate students should be able to achieve this sense of calm. For the first time, I knew what it was like to feel like a "master" of a subject. This is my research and my experience. It was nothing like presenting on a topic for class, which you have spent possibly a month researching. My research is now a part of my life. I couldn't wait to show-off what I had learned and was excited to answer questions.

Once the Defense was complete, and I took a sigh of relief, the real insanity began! I did not find out until that day that I needed to submit my final Thesis (with committee edits) within 24 hours of the Defense! Woah! I guess it was written in the guidelines, but, if you have experienced this or reviewed the guidelines, you certainly know how confusing all the dates can be! The only date set in my mind was Nov. 6- to successfully Defend and Submit my Thesis. So for your future reference, take note:

NC State Master's Students...Your Final Thesis Draft, in PDF format, with Committee Edits...is due 24 hours after your Defense date!

For those of you who are wondering why this might be difficult, you have clearly not prepared a paper according to academic of professional guidelines (yet). I was VERY fortunate to have limited edits from my committee. This was due in LARGE part to keeping them significantly informed throughout the process. However, the hang-ups were on cleaning up citations, page numbers, spell check.... Sure, not much "brain-power" is involved during these steps, but it will suck the energy right out of you when working with a 178-page, 40,000-word document. From my Defense completion on Tuesday at 2pm until Wednesday night, it was pure adrenaline rush! The calm of Tuesday morning was gone and I realized that all this work, and pushing to meet this semester's deadlines, could be ruined by poor judgement in how long "clean-up" would take. And another heads' up, I have very reliable, high-speed Internet and computer, yet upload for the Thesis Draft document took over an hour! So that was time spent staring at the computer screen, pray and begging that it would go through. Some how, some way- with lots of support from Nancy- we were able to submit the proper pdf.

There is one last thing I must clear up. Although I am calling this my Final Thesis....its not...there is 1 more stage. This submission date has put my Thesis (as well as thousands of other graduate students) in the hands of the University Thesis Editor. At this stage, the Committee has approved all edits, primarily regarding content. The Thesis Editor will respond with any punctural, grammatical, or structural errors (NOT content). The absolute final submission date will then be Friday, December 4th (the last day of classes). I will certainly let you know how this stage goes.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement! Please let me know if you have any questions by commenting on this post or emailing me at: autotexdesign@gmail.com