“There comes a pause, for human strength will not endure to dance without cessation; and everyone must reach the point at length of absolute prostration.” — Lewis Carroll
Yesterday was supposed to be my first day of my fourth term. At the last minute, however, I made a serious decision: I decided to sit the Fall term out and resume my program for the Winter term that starts in late November.
I have a number of reasons. There were a few details that I hadn't had tie to get in order before the start of the term. I haven't filled out a FAFSA for this academic year yet, for starters. Without them having my current financial aid information, I'd have had to come up with the tuition money another way, and that would be challenging and inconvenient. I also hadn't ordered my books yet, and while it doesn't take that long for them to come, even if I get them sent from the library, it's still something that is ideal to have in order before the first day of the term.
Another matter is that I have an external reviewer from whom I haven't heard in some time. The doctoral committee structure for my program is that I am assigned a committee chair, and then back in my first term I recruited two external people to review and approve my dissertation chapters as I go through the program. I need to follow up and check in with them both, as well as my committee chair, and especially try again to get some comments on my draft of my first and second chapters from the external reviewer who hasn't been in touch.
I also have additional things going on at home. My twelve year old son came to live with us over the summer and I'd like to have the time needed to help him get situated at his new school. He's taking eight courses this year when he's used to taking six, and one of them is Mandarin Chinese, which sounds like it may be challenging. Meanwhile my wife is starting law school, and that's a big adjustment for all of us. I'm excited to keep making progress with my program, but having more capacity to be useful at home seems like it would be a good idea.
However, just because I'm not enrolled in courses this term doesn't mean I can't make progress on my dissertation. I have the comments from one of my external reviewers about my chapter one and chapter two that I still need to incorporate. I can also put together a draft of my chapter three — the two courses I just finished both included a number of assignments that are designed to fit into that forthcoming chapter. It's one thing I continue to appreciate about this program that the coursework assignments are specifically designed to be relevant to the dissertation.
The process for changing my plan was very easy. I simply called my academic advisor and she sent me to a short online form to fill out. I did so and got an email from the Associate Dean that included a link to click on to confirm my change of enrollment. Now that that's done, I fill out another short online form to re-enroll for the Winter term. No fees or nonsense, it was very straightforward.
Next up, speaking of the FAFSA, how much should college cost, anyway?
Image courtesy of adobemac