Surviving it…thanks to saws and fantasy football

I’m surviving these qualifying exams….they’re definitely tough, but I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Last week was rough but I eventually got to the point where I said “that’s as good as it’s gonna get!” and so I just turned it in and moved on to this week’s part of the exam. I can’t wait to get to that point for this week’s question….but I’m definitely not there yet. This week’s question is all about my dissertation topic, so it’s actually helpful to think through all these things now and to be working on something that I’ll actually be able to use later down the road. My faculty adviser who wrote this question is awesome, that’s all I’ve got to say. Awesome guy.

But what I’ve learned over these past two weeks is

Qualifying exams = 2 weeks of hell

Well, maybe it’s not going to be “hell,” but it’s going to be rough. When students in my department are almost done with their coursework, but before they officially begin their dissertation, they have to take “qualifying exams.” Everybody’s got to do it…it’s one of those rites of passage. Or maybe it’s more like a hazing ritual. Whatever it is, it doesn’t have the reputation of being fun!

Here’s what goes down. Faculty members get together and come up with two questions that the student has to answer in the first week. We pick up those questions on Friday morning and return them the next Friday – 20 page response or less. When we drop off our paper, we pick up another envelope with yet more questions and do it all over again. Evidently there’s a method to this madness, but all I know is that I’ve been dreading this all summer. I don’t like these kinds of surprises — I like fun surprises like “what’s behind door number three?” or “surprise, there’s a $5 bill in your jeans pocket.” Those are the good surprises. Opening up the envelope with qualifying exam questions isn’t!

But anyway, I’ll be plugging away at the first week’s question – which, in a round-about way, asks me to analyze the challenges of policy planning and discuss how to project policy outcomes. Another part of the exam asks me to write an implementation plan for a new policy proposal. It’s a lot of “hypotheticals,” but it’s actually kinda fun to reflect on all the stuff they’ve crammed into our brains over the past few years and show that I’ve actually learned stuff while I’ve been sitting in the back of the classroom. Anyway, I should probably get to work on these questions! Oh, here’s a diagram of what the policy process looks like (in theory), in case you’re curious. It’s over-simplified in a lot of ways, but still helps see that there’s a logical framework behind policy decisions. That is, until politicians get involved!