I finished my dissertation in December, I graduated in May, but today, I really and truly actually finished my Ph.D. There's one last step you have to go through and that's to get the graduate reader's approval on your dissertation. Your committee is in charge of making sure that your content is accurate and that you indeed created new knowledge to contribute to the field and that you know what you're talking about. After they approve it, the graduate reader works with you on margins, headings, citations, style (APA or MLA, etc.) and details like that. It took me about 11 hours to get all the work done. But at last I got it done and received this email.
I emailed the final version to her Monday night and so decided that Tuesday I could do fun stuff on my "to-do" list (update the blog, organize top dresser drawer, work on Christmas card,...). One of those was to put my diploma in the really cool frame that Mother and Daddy gave me as a graduation gift and hang it on the wall. I didn't really think much about it at the time, but how appropriate that she got back to me so quickly to say that this last round was good and that I was officially done . . . on the day that I was officially hanging my diploma on the wall!
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Jill Kleister"
Date: September 11, 2007 3:23:07 PM EDT
To:
Subject: Overall (May 07) - approved!
Hello Theresa,
I have finished reviewing your dissertation, and I am pleased to inform you that I have approved your document for publication on the UNT Libraries Web server, and with ProQuest. I have attached a copy of the final approved PDF, for your records. The transcript block has been removed from your records.
Congratulations on your most recent achievement, Dr. Overall, and best wishes for your future endeavors!
Sincerely,
Jill
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J. S. Kleister
Graduate Reader
Toulouse School of Graduate Studies
University of North Texas
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