PhD Crunch Time!

I am now in the last four weeks of writing up my PhD - crunch time! It’s hard to believe that I’m finally to this moment after so many years of work. As such, every spare moment I have is going towards edits. It’s been a silver lining of the furlough that I’ve been able to use these days to help me in this endeavor.

Here’s how the timeline breaks down… I will submit on December 18th. My thesis (called a dissertation in the US) will go to internal and external examiners for up to three months. Then I will defend my thesis in an intense meeting, called a viva (which will be online because of Covid). It’s likely I’ll be given a month to do some suggested edits, at the end of which, I will receive my doctoral letter. I’ve had amazing and capable supervisors throughout my process, so have every reason to believe this should occur without hiccups. Graduation ceremony would normally be a walk through old campus followed by bagpipes in late June/early July. I don’t know if that will be possible because of the virus, but all my digits are crossed! I plan to purchase some very nice ceremonial robes either way!