I think ever since I joined my program, I have put "PhD Candidate" on my CV. Many people will not put that until after they pass their qualifying exam/comprehensive exam/whatever you know it as. Although our department does have a Thesis Masters Program (M.S. versus M.A.), the PhD students have different expectations of them from Day 1, so I feel like I was always a PhD Candidate.
Anyhoo. Even though you come in as a PhD Student, to truly "qualify", at the end of our second year, there is a one-day five-essay exam. You are given a topic list and some of the questions are required and some you are given a choice between two questions to answer. Usually, people say that it was not so bad in retrospect, and they wish they had listened to the upper-level students who said so.
Then in the fall of your third year, you write a grant proposal on what you think you will do for your dissertation. This is helpful to put your whole project in perspective and plan out the next three years. I actually enjoyed this part and rather enjoy writing grants in general (sick, I know). I am lucky, because I have stuck to my proposal relatively closely, but not everyone does, then you have to rewrite. Bleh.
The strange thing is, after that proposal defense, you have no more hard deadlines. You are floating in limbo (or purgatory as I sometimes think of it) until you have enough data, the correct amount of published work, and become pushy enough to get out.
Both myself and the grad student who is a year ahead of me in my lab had a REALLY rough spring after that proposal defense. That was when she most seriously thought about leaving with a master's. That was also right after I had my thyroid removed and I was determined to be healthy. I ate pretty well, got plenty of sleep, took vitamins most days, exercised regularly, and yet was tired alllllll the time. When I found out my thyroid hormone levels were perfect with the replacement hormone and I told my doctor all the healthy stuff I had been doing, she paused, turned her chair around, looked me in the eye, and said, "You know, sometimes depression creeps up on people."
That's it. No follow up. No, "Would you like me to refer you to a therapist to talk things out?" or, "Would you like to talk to me about anything that has been bothering you?" Nope. Nothing.
Now there is a student who is a year behind me in our lab. She finished her proposal late, and I think is now going through that post-proposal slump. She is an international student and had a friend in her home country just pass away. She has not been taking care of herself. She thinks all these aches, pains, indigestion, head congestion, and anything else on any given day are due to allergies. I told her that the spring after the proposal seems to do weird things to people and do not just assume that she can not get out of bed because her allergies are really bad that day.
She has a plan to get to the gym three days a week. Hopefully she will start doing other things to take care of herself too.
Apparently, post-proposal depression is a right of passage. Good times.
I also need to "study" and look up all the scientists who will be at this meeting (two of my old bosses will be!). I know a lot of names because it is an area of research I worked in when I was a technician. I need to work on making my poster relevant to them because I am used to catering to a different crowd. Oiy.
