estimated reading time: 6-7 minutes
Last week on Dragon Ball Z…
I talked about two career updates - completing a university wide piano event, and getting accepted to perform at a keyboard pedagogy conference. My personal life was fairly quiet, and I didn’t have much to share there.
Well, the turns have tabled. Or whatever the saying is. So right now, I’m in the Nashville airport waiting for my flight home to TX, where I’ll be spending the rest of this month, and July, before going back to OR in August. (I have an hour before boarding, so forgive any errors, I’m just trying to get this out ASAP).
Let’s get the career/school updates out of the way first.
I finished my academic year just two weeks ago. And I’m totally on track to graduate next year, which is a year earlier than the program suggests. DMA programs can range anywhere from 3-7 years, with my university being in the transition stages of switching from 4 years to 3 years. As far as I know I’m the only current student projected to graduate on the 3 year timeline, so I’m happy about that.
I also completed and passed my DMA comprehensive exams, which is the last major step before advancing to candidacy. This is a bit confusing to explain to those who aren’t in academia, but I’ll break it down as simply as I can.
In order to advance to candidacy (sometimes called ABD, or “all but dissertation”, you need to do the following:
-finish 81 credits of coursework (done)
-finish 2 out of 3 degree recitals (done)
-pass this exam (done)
The only reason I’m not a candidate yet is because I have ONE more required class to take in the fall before I am officially considered one. So it’s definitely one of those “on paper, it says no, but basically, yes I’m operating as a candidate.”
So what’s the big deal with comp exams? Well, it’s a two part exam. The first part is an 8 hour written exam where they stuff you in a tiny office with an old ass desktop with no internet, and you’re expected to just churn out information with formal essay writing language. I wrote 12 single space pages (6889 words) in 7.5 hours. The second part is a 2 hour oral defense where the faculty menacingly grill you and make you do a presentation on a topic of their choice (the topic is given a mere 72 hours before you present, but I only had 48 since they sent the prompt while I was mid exam).
Safe to say, my brain was COOKED and I was shaking in my boots but I passed, and I’m so happy that’s over.
Remember my first conference performance that’s happening next month in Chicago? I submitted a proposal for a conference in November in Rochester, NY and got accepted as well! This will be a solo presentation that’s 90 min (45 min presentation + 45 min discussion), and the topic will be the subject of my research so I’m basically fast-passing the hell out of my research. I don’t technically need to start researching until next January. Because of this, I have to start my research like RIGHT NOW.
There’s other stuff on the horizon but that’s all the fancy stuff out of the way.
Let’s talk personal updates.
I went to Crater Lake for the first time and that was very awesome (will post pics on IG soon!)
I took a trip to Tennessee and spent a weekend with friends in a cabin. It was fun. Mostly. Hahaha no but for real I had a good time 🙂
Happy to be going home soon, not happy to be entering TX heat. I hate it. But the summer will be my time to catch up on writing, practicing, and more. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss practicing. (I haven’t touched a piano really since comp exams and my jury).
Farewell for now cowboys and cowgirls and cow folks,
Helen
