A HUGE sigh of relief... I passed!!!!

[flopkins]

Just passed my qualifying exam this morning... hooray!!! A month of studying and it came down to a few hours in front of a committee of five professors... grilling me about my research proposal... what a relief it is finally over!

I am still recovering... by catching up on the last month of pricescope that I''d missed!!!!! I was on a self imposed ban on PS until I passed, and I am SO HAPPY to be back!!! I can''t believe I missed so much! You all were VERY busy while I was buried in books!

 

[MissAva]

Congrats!!!!!!

 

[Kaleigh]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay for you. I was wondering where you have been. That''s great news!!!!

 

[HOUMedGal]

YAAAAY!!!!!!! Congratulations!

 

[Erin]

Welcome Back flopkins !!!

 

[sevens one]

Awesome!
Way to Go

 

[fancyrock]

Congrats!!! It''s over... it''s finally over... you may relax now and catch up on your "reading" here at PS.

HAPPY READING...!!!

 

[flopkins]

Date: 9/20/2005 6:58:40 PM
Author: firerock
you may relax now and catch up on your ''reading'' here at PS.


HAPPY READING...!!!

[/b]

Yes, I think I''ve been online for the last... oh... say... 2 or 3 hours doing some catch up!!!! I must say, it''s much more pleasant stuff than reading scientific papers and learning ugly fluid mechanics equations!!!

 

[canuk-gal]

Date: 9/20/2005 7:02:11 PM
Author: flopkins

Yes, I think I''ve been online for the last... oh... say... 2 or 3 hours doing some catch up!!!! I must say, it''s much more pleasant stuff than reading scientific papers and learning ugly fluid mechanics equations!!!

HI:

Congrats--is this for MSc or PhD? Yes, fluid mechanics would seem to lack "bling"!

cheers--Sharon

 

[Patty]

Congratulations and welcome back!!

 

[AChiOAlumna]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

What a relief to have that all put behind you now!!!!

 

[belle]

congratulations flopkins! welcome back.

 

[LadyluvsLuxury]

Flopkins what a great accomplishment! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

 

[FireGoddess]

YAY for you! It''s such a huge accomplishment...the most stress I''ve ever had in my life was taking the qualifying exam...defending my thesis was cake and roses compared to qualifying exam hell!

Welcome back!

 

[Demelza]

FireGoddess, what do you have a PhD in?

Congrats, Flopkins! I chickened out before I took my quals and ended up changing fields altogether. My sister is in the process of studying for hers. I admire your dedication.

 

[Blue824]

Woohoo! Congratulations! Glad all of your hard work paid off!!!

 

[FireGoddess]

Date: 9/20/2005 9:46:54 PM
Author: Demelza
FireGoddess, what do you have a PhD in?

Congrats, Flopkins! I chickened out before I took my quals and ended up changing fields altogether. My sister is in the process of studying for hers. I admire your dedication.

Molecular Virology/Microbiology PhD. Always loved learning about all those little bugs that get us sick. So tiny...so deadly.

 

[Blue824]

Date: 9/21/2005 12:40:18 AM
Author: FireGoddess

Date: 9/20/2005 9:46:54 PM
Author: Demelza
FireGoddess, what do you have a PhD in?

Congrats, Flopkins! I chickened out before I took my quals and ended up changing fields altogether. My sister is in the process of studying for hers. I admire your dedication.

Molecular Virology/Microbiology PhD. Always loved learning about all those little bugs that get us sick. So tiny...so deadly.

Seriously? That''s so cool! I''m always impressed with people that get their PhD''s, it takes some major hard work, dedication and determiniation to do so successfully...
I''ve thought about going for mine, but I have to learn German...and that is a major deterrant to me!

 

[FireGoddess]

Thanks.

You definitely have to love everything about it because it is very taxing and trying at times. I spent most nights and weekends in the lab. Heck, I''m there right now and I''ve already got my degree! I also think it''s about coming into your own and going through this whole transition of starting out pretty darn sure of yourself, becoming aware enough to realize how much you DON''T actually know, and then climbing back up and out from that place armed with greater knowlege and experience to figure out how to formulate good questions and devise ways to get at the true answers.

As for learning German though...that''s a tough one! I had to learn new vocabulary...but not another language!!!

What field requires that you learn German?

 

[flopkins]

canuk-gal - this is for my phD. I am now an official 'phD candidate'! Whatever that means...

As if I haven't spent the last 3 yrs of my life trying to work towards my phD!

Firegoddess- lucky for me, our dept doensn't require a true thesis defense, we just need three signatures and an exit seminar.... hehehe... I feel like I'm going to get away with murder!! Well, maybe the murder of millions of cells...

Demelza- getting a phD is not for everyone... you need to be truly.... crazy! Believe me, there's so many times I daydream about what I could be doing instead of working in lab all day... and the one motivating factor for me is simply the satisfaction that I will finish! but it's certainly not for the money, that's for certain!

Blue 824 - I admire anyone in the letter and science fields - everyone always says to me oooh, bioengineering, that's so hard, etc.. I tell them, well, for me, writing a 20 page paper on [fill in some social science topic] is like torture!!! I wanted to study abroad in college but didn't, simply because I was too lazy to take a foreign language!!!

 

[abradabra]

Congrats, Flopkins---that is such a major accomplishment, I hope you are really proud of yourself because you deserve it!

I''m sure you''ll do fabulously in completing your dissertation!!!!

How are you celebrating (besides hanging out here, of course)?

 

[Angel7]

CONGRATULATIONS!

 

[flopkins]

abradabra-
Last night, I went out to dinner w/many of my labmates/fellow grad students and friends, and afterwards we went to a local bar... I think I had two sake shots, a pear cider, and an irish car bomb... and whew, that was enough for me!

It was so nice to go out and feel social again!

Tomorrow I leave for Philadelphia for an old roommates wedding!! That was my original post-quals vacation trip, but it''s going to end up being a partial working trip too, as next week I have a conference to go to, and I dont have a poster to present as of yet!!

So if anyone sees a frantic looking girl on a plane to philly tomorrow from SF, hunched over her computer... that''d be me, doing my data analysis!