I'm on probation. Sort of. All my committee members have signed the form except I'm not allowed to turn it in until I've revised my slides and sent everyone a copy of the revised version. (I'm not considered a candidate until the form's turned in and processed.) Because they didn't like the format of my presentation (i.e. it's still too much at the level of a beginning graduate student and not enough at the level of a scientist). On the plus side? They like my experiments and my data. Given that those two things are what we are generally supposed to be marked down on, I conclude I pretty much suck at presenting stuff. (Which my PI sort of agreed and suggested that I volunteer myself for the seminars and lunch-talks.)
In case anyone is wondering: yes the questioning was gruesome and yes we did use up all 90 minutes.
I was given a deadline of exactly one week for revision. At least one of the committee members has promised (read: warned me about) more comments following.
So now I'm eating ramen, because somehow over the years Oodles of Noodles with veggies has turned into my comfort food of choice. (Oh my god, stupidest way to delay ever. I'm surprised that I haven't started crying yet.) I mean I sort of passed, the people congratulated me and everything...but I really hate the "probation" label (which granted is a term I assigned to myself, but it's technically true).
2 comments:
Ohmygosh, Susan!!
I don't really know what to say :( I can't say a whole lot since I wasn't there, but perhaps you're making this out to be worse than it really is. It sounds to me like you did a good job-- you got the committee's signatures, and people were congratulating you! And you shouldn't be using the term "probation" to describe it! They just wanted you to revise some things.
I mean, you've already accomplished so much-- you've already taken your candidacy exam, and for someone who got their BS fairly recently, this is already quite an achievement! And presentation skills aren't everything. What's important is that you know your stuff, which you do. So chin up-- everything's going to be alright :)
(And if it makes you feel any better, I managed to pretty much embarrass myself through my utter stupidity in front of my cohort today :X Oh the joys of being in grad school)
Oh, Susan, what Anna said! Focus on the positives, because there are a lot of them. I know criticism and (kind-of) rejection can be brutal, but you really did do well. You got the signatures! That revision won't be a problem. You can do it <3
p.s. Sorry this comment is so late and you're probably asleep now and not seeing it anyway.
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