Getting Ready to Graduate: Step 1 Completed

Finally managed to hand in my thesis to the graduate secretary after much fustration over a missing signature on a silly form. At UoG, there is a form that needs to be signed by all committee members before the thesis is handed in. The form simply states that each person has read the thesis and whether or not it should be defended.

The catch is that the thesis can be defended regardless of whether your committee agrees with you. With one of my advisors teaching in Iowa and currently on vacation, we thought that an email would sufficient. In the past, she and my supervisor assured me, that was always possible. The graduate secretary said she would look into it. Unfortunate for me, the secretary went on a week long vacation right when I was supposed to be handing it in. When she gets back, I'm informed that an email won't cut it anymore, and so I'm stuck waiting as my advisor does not have access to a fax machine for two weeks. Lovely.

The rest of the stress is because there is only a narrow time frame in which I can defend. My advisor begins teaching during the last two weeks of August and the thesis defense cannot occur until at least 3 weeks once has been submitted to give the examination committee time to read. On top of this my supervisor is away on vacation, leaving everything up to me. Ugh.

The good news? I finally managed to submit the thesis this afternoon!