My advancement to candidacy exam was today. It was at 1 pm, and I didn’t know what to do with myself the entire morning beforehand. Checked my email (to make sure I didn’t have any last minute no-shows by anyone on the exam committee), considered reading a new paper on my proposal project (but didn’t), then decided to practice my talks on a walk around campus (which turned into just a long walk). An interminable amount of time later, the clock hit 1… and one committee member was missing. Just as I went to check my email for any message from her, she walked through the door.
1.5 (surprisingly quick) hours later, and I’m a candidate for the Ph.D.! I remember finding that process weird when I first entered graduate school. “You mean I’m not even a candidate for the degree until I pass a test halfway through grad school?” Until then, I just held some vague title of graduate student, not to be confused with being a master’s graduate student.
Time to resume life again! I’d put many things on hold while preparing for advancement over the past month. Things such as research as well as keeping in touch with some folks. The extreme moments aside, the preparation process was actually enjoyable. I prioritized sleep (for memory’s sake), I cut out sweets from my diet, and, most importantly, I felt like this was the time to learn all I wanted without feeling pressure to deliver (research) results! While I did work on evenings and weekends (whenever I had free weekends, outside of outreach events), my life felt more balanced, as I had no qualms about taking “me-time” when needed.
Going forward, I’m glad that advancement has helped me (1) strongly develop this arsenal of knowledge, of both my research area as well as the drug discovery process, (2) gain much confidence as a scientist and as a communicator, and (3) break the trudging cycle of the daily grind to renew my interest and spark in science. Advancement was a tough process, but undoubtedly a beneficial one!