Life after prelim

I've now had about a week to digest the fact that I passed my prelim...woohoo! I took it last Friday (Jan. 23rd) after preparing for over 2 months, although I've probably been unofficially preparing for it for a little over 4 years. Before I get into my prelim experience I'm going to answer the two questions that everyone asks me when I tell them I passed my prelim:

Q1: What is a prelim?

A: It's where you propose your dissertation and in the case of my department it's also where your committee tests the limits of your general knowledge surrounding your field. Just about anything is fair game from knowing the history or important scientists in your field to actual technical knowledge. Ultimately the prelim decides whether you can continue in the PhD program.

Q2: So what will you do now?

A: I need to finish up my research and write my dissertation...I still actually have a lot of experiments to do. I should be done in December, by the way.

Now onto my personal prelim experience....

I was incredible nervous beforehand, although according to Justin I wasn't really showing it. It's weird because I pretty much knew I would pass, but there's always that bit of doubt of what if I fail, or worse get deferred (i.e. they don't decide either way and it usually means you have to do something extra like write about Carl Woese). Actually I think most of the stress I felt came from fear of the unknown...I had no idea what it was going to be like and I knew my committee could make it very painful for me if they felt like it. Luckily, it went really smoothly and was almost dare I say...easy. I gave my presentation (the abridged version since two of my committee members could only stay for two hours), I answered some random-ish questions, and then it was over. They sent me out of the room while they made their decision...I couldn't hear what they were saying but every so often I would hear them laughing I was correct in thinking the laughter was a good sign since I passed. :) Of course, the best part about the whole thing is that I might be able to get a job at a local biofuels company...how awesome is that? :D

So now thing are pretty much back to normal. I'm relieved to be done and happy to have some free time in the evenings again. I feel like I have some extra motivation to finish now since I've proven myself and could have a job lined up for when I'm done with the PhD. It's nice to know that there's finally an end in sight.