Jude defends tomorrow. If it goes well then she's Dr. Jude. If it doesn't then she's back to square one with a a whole hill o' razor blades to climb. I have to say that the US PhD. system seems far more rigorous than the UK version. Heresy I know but she had to take two years of graduate classes in some pretty hardcore methodologies before she was even allowed to start thinking about what she'd do and the pressure to publish and appear on public stages has been constant and intense.
The actual defense is a mixture of public forum and private torture. So I'm going to head up and watch the presentation / opening questions before being kicked out while they grill her in what I'm thinking of as the Mastermind specialist sunject round. After that round they kick her out and deliberate. This can take anything from 10 minutes to 4 hrs.
My contribution to the preparation has been minimal. I've taken pictures (like the one above) for the powerpoint slides (20 in the presentation, 43 prepared in case of questions), I've slouched off with the dog to provide 'alone time' and I've plied with wine when I thought it neccessary. And at every step and stage my conviction never to follow the PhD. path has grown stronger. It takes a certain type of person here and I'm not that type of person.
But it's 8.28 and my train is at 8.42. I must dash. Have a great day all.
1 comment:
more rigourous... oh i dunno... we know someone over here who took 9 years to get his phd... ;p
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