Wednesday, April 29, 2009

It's done!!

Five copies of the dissertation > 1 beer

I just turned in my dissertation to my committee. Six months worth of writing and 340 pages certainly took its toll. Strangely, I still feel like I haven't completed my research. Oh well... now I have two weeks to sit on my ass and make a semi-decent presentation.

One thing I've realized in the last few days is that after 4+ years of research, I'm finally comfortable where I am. I know how things work in my lab. I like the research, and I've got about a million other experiments that I could do. I feel bad that I'm leaving this comfortable nest and moving to the strange, new world of med school. Oh well, if I've learned anything in life, it is that as soon as you get comfortable with something, you move on to something new and scary.

10 comments:

  1. Congrats! And 340 pages? Holy crap!

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  2. thanks, it's a bit misleading though, my program requires references at the end of each chapter, so I have something like 100 pages of refs.

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  3. Dude, that's still 240 pages of non-reference pages. My dissertation also has references at the end of each chapter, and I'm still expecting to have maybe 200 total at the most. I'm still impressed.

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  4. eh, when you don't do bench research, all you could do is just blab on.

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  5. Congrats sir!
    I could never write a thesis. I an attention span of about 1000 words (coincidentally almost exactly how long most of my posts are). I have great respect for those who can though!

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  6. hey, 1000 words at a time, after a few years will be enough for a thesis.

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  7. Yeah, if you think writing the dissertation is the hardest part about graduate school, or that it demands the most of your attention span, you've got another thing coming. :-)

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  8. Dude, that's awesome! Even with so many reference pages, that thesis is a beast. I like it!

    *pulls own down from the shelf* Sans references mine is only 206 pp. Well done!

    And I think that the feeling you describe about the end of thesis research is quite common. I know I certainly experienced it. It is good to move on to new and different things.

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  10. sorry eva, I want this blog to be semi-anonymous (I'm sure the med school will give me hell for the crap I'll say on it). Thanks and your desk will be clean as soon as I get done. The title is long, complicated and unimaginative (I was forced to come up with it in only a few days).

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