Congrats!

D passed his comps last week! It's the last major hurdle before writing his thesis and doing his thesis defense. In his department, the purpose of the comps is to see whether the student has the background knowledge and a clear idea of where he/she wants to go for his/her thesis research. D had to write a paper (which ended up being 60 pages) and do a presentation for his committee. Then they asked him questions and made their decision. The nice thing about the long paper is that much of it will probably end up being recycled into D's final thesis. The professors commented that he's a good writer. Props to our liberal arts undergrad experience!

So, timetable for all this? He can probably be finished in 1 1/2 to 2 years. But, since I get a sizable amount of loan forgiveness if I stay and teach at this school for a total of 5 years, we'd like to stay 3 more (including this one). Luckily, D's advisor just got funding renewal for another 3 years, and D has already talked to him about staying until that funding is gone. It makes a lot more sense for his advisor to keep D than to train a new grad student for just 1 year of work.

D's stress level is thus much lower at the moment, and he is right now in Philly at a conference. He presented a poster on Monday and is hanging out and hopefully making contacts for the rest of the week. He's back on Friday night. Once he gives his departmental seminar next Monday, we will be out of the woods stress-wise for him. This is good, since I'm rapidly approaching the end of the trimester and I get a feeling it's going to get nuts around here.

Must go and get ready for the school day. TTFN!