Failure points

Let me open by acknowledging that I do not yet know for sure that I passed the Q. I'll be pretty surprised if I didn't, but the decision is the faculty's, not mine. That said, let's suppose I passed the Q. What now remains between me and a PhD?

1) The admission to candidacy (also known as the "A" exam). This is an oral exam where you pitch your thesis idea. This doesn't intimidate me in the least. I pitch project ideas all the time at work. They typically carry 7-digit price tags. Selling a research direction which will cost the faculty exactly zero dollars and zero cents doesn't seem like much of a stretch. Sure, you still need to make sure it's worthy stuff. My point is that I'm used to having to justify my work. And I don't mean vague ideas about work. I'm a consultant. If I don't justify my actual work in very specific terms, I'm fired. Period.

2) Finish my credit hour requirements. Since the faculty seems willing to transfer all my Masters credits from Cornell, this will basically happen at the end of this term. I'll probably take one or two more courses along the way simply because they are relevant and/or interesting, but I could actually finish out on just thesis research if I wanted to.

3) Write a dissertation. This is a ton of work, but, that's all it is: work. I'm used to work.

4) Thesis defense (also known as the "B" exam). I'm sure it happens, but I don't know anybody who failed their thesis defense. If your adviser is at all competent, you shouldn't get past the previous step until this one is a gimmie.

5) Address issues from defense. Again, work, except this time it's particularly well-defined work. There are specific issues that you need to address. You address them. Not a problem.

My point is that, while thousands of people abandon the quest while "ABD" (All But Dissertation), the reality is that, for someone like me who generally doesn't quit simply because something is long and difficult, the Q was the failure point in the whole PhD operation. Now, it's just a lot of work.

It's time to get to work.