Post Prelims Joys

Well the prelims seems to have been a very good thing for me. Professors seem to take me a lot more seriously. I think there are really just two milestones in the life of a PhD student. The first is the Quals exam, and the second is the Prelims Exam. The defence actually marks the death of the PhD student. Or rather I should say that it marks the rebirth of the Graduate Student as a fully functioning member of society.

Before the Quals exam a graduate student is treated like a baby no one wants. The student moves from project to project working with seniors (if he is lucky to have a senior enough professor to have enough seniors in the group) or just working on endless list of ideas that your professor gets. Once you are done with your quals you get enough respect that actually people start listening to you. But after the Prelims you are at a point where you can actually see the end of your graduate life. That is the point when you clearly see the golden cup of Thesis Defence. Before the prelims you can see the halo around the cup, but the actual cup cannot be seen due to the fog of research. But once the prelim is done the Cup can clearly be seen, you only need to walk to it and pick it up.