PhD and Palmetto Bound: Part 1

I'm back, and I'm bursting with exciting news that I've been holding back until I got official paperwork confirming it so as not to accidently e-screw myself: 

I am is moving out and moving on to Columbia, South Carolina in merely one week!

Why, you ask?

Well, that's why I've had to wait until now to share. I am going to be starting grad school in the Doctorate of Political Science program at the University of South Carolina this fall, and have been hired as a research assistant this summer prior to even beginning classes (!). A.k.a., I'm off to start a Ph.D in Political Science, and formally begin a career in academia. It all came about in a very unusual, unexpected way, which is why I am just now getting the official acceptance papers instead of the usual March/April receipt. 

As Simon Cowell would say, I'm being "indulgent", but I mostly just want to document this time as I prepare to  move and begin what I hope will be a fabulous new chapter. I also want to record for posterity, right here on the interwebs, the amazing, divinely orchestrated timing of every.single.aspect of this process.  

So, from the top: How it all got started...

 Back in April, I had the amazing opportunity to present the results of my undergraduate senior thesis at a mack-daddy conference in political science academia, the 68th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Political Science Association (colloquially known as "Midwest" or MPSA, for short).  Most UG presentations are held in giant "poster sessions", which remind me of a glorified science fair without the baking-soda-and-vinegar volcanic eruptions. That alone is a very exciting and educational opportunity that (in my opinion) far too few undergrads are even aware of, let alone take.  

But 90% because my thesis advisor and mentor gets pretty invested in students who care, and also because she is relatively well-known within her subfield; and 10% because our research was actually pretty pioneering and exciting, she submitted our paper for presentation on a panel - with *me* as first author. While that may sound obvious on the common-sense face of it, since I did write the vast majority of the paper (let alone design the surveys, code the data, and beat my head against the brick wall known as an IRB), granting first authorship to an undergraduate is relatively unheard of in academia. Next time you read a research-based book  or academic article, take a few moments to actually read the acknowledgements (or in the case of an article, the "special thanks" or foot/endnotes). Here you will find a list of varying length comprised of the names of students, with a clause or two describing their contribution to the project. If that. Now: THAT is where I would normally be listed, if I was even mentioned, as my advisor would have given me my grade, sent me on my merry way, and submitted the paper herself. So it would have been more than enough to simply list me as *an* author, but first? That's, um...awesome. 

And that alone would have been enough; but no. Our paper was I got to GO to Midwest, and she let ME give the ENTIRE presentation. ON A PANEL. WITH HER PEERS.  If you read this and know otherwise, please shoot me an email and correct me, but based on an entirely unscientific poll at the conference itself, an undergraduate 1)first authoring a paper 2)submitting to to a conference 3)attending said conference and 4)presenting the results 5)on a *panel* is completely unheard of, and has at least never occurred at Midwest.  So not only were the people in/on my panel impressed, pretty much everyone I met was impressed, at least by how I got to Midwest, but most also by the research itself (and, to be honest, the near-pathological dedication to the project on the part of yours truly, as I continued work on it for nearly a year and a half after I formally graduated, for nary a dollar or a credit hour. But that's another story, and one that causes most non-academics to begin glazing over in less than 3 minutes).  

One such "fan" is the mentor of MY other mentor (we'll call him Dr. Mentor, as he is the husband of my thesis advisor and original mentor [Dr. Thesis Advisor], and taught my research methods class in undergrad). So this fan is essentially a "grand-mentor", if you will. And he is pretty much one of the foremost experts in judcial law/courts research in the U.S. He is also a professor at the University of South Carolina (where Mr. Mentor got his PhD). Got that? Good. So, Dr. Thesis Advisor was super slammed and overcommitted for this year's conference, so Dr. Mentor kindly let me tag along with him for a fair bit of the conference.  Once such tag-along was to an informal reunion lunch between Dr. Mentor and several of his old grad school colleagues, their students, and Dr. Grandmentor.  

As luck would have it, Dr. Grandmentor spent nearly 2 hours talking almost exclusively to me about any and everything grad school, and encouraged me to stay in touch after the conference and come visit USC this summer. Dr. Mentor spoke with Dr. Grandmentor about me at length after lunch, and told me at dinner that evening that I had earned from [Dr. Grandmentor] in 5 minutes the respect it took [Dr. Mentor] 5 years to obtain. I was absolutely stunned. 

Dr. Grandmentor and Dr. Mentor both attended my presentation; I was now exponentially more nervous, knowing that even if I had impressed Dr. G at lunch in 5 minutes, I could just as quickly humiliate myself if I presented poorly. Thankfully, growing up giving speeches in which my objective was to make grown men in tuxedos cry like children, simply regurgitating the same research that I had been obsessing over for 18 months felt like child's play. Everything went smoothly, and Dr. G (along with a few others I met later) remained impressed.

I flew home, high on dreams of academia and a much-needed boost of interaction with nerds like me, and emailed Dr. G shortly thereafter. As nice as he was, I also knew he was a "mentor-y" type, and didn't know how much stock to put in his seeming interest. Was he simply trying to stoke the fires of academic ambition in a young student of a friend and colleague, or was he genuinely impressed with me and genuinely interested in having me enroll in his program? After a few days of e-silence, I didn't get my hopes up. Then he emailed me back, apologizing for the delay (it was finals/grading week), instructing me to assemble my application over his upcoming absence, and asking how soon I could come down to meet a few of his colleagues and tour the campus upon his return. June 4th, I went down for the day, and stayed on campus until nearly 6:30 talking and touring and generally getting excited.  At such a late date, there were several hurdles to my formal admittance to the program for the fall, but we came up with a few options, and back-ups for our back-ups, so Dr. G went ahead and hired me as research assistant for the summer, starting in early July. 

...

Stay tuned for Part II (in which the details get sorted out and I freak out trying to get ready to move) later this week, and intermittent updates as I use my blog to stall-with-an-illusion-productivity while I should be packing. I get my port flushed Monday, and I have my fingers crossed it won't be all clotty and difficult and 3-hours-long-process this time. Then Thursday I'm going up for a clinic visit (I made it a whole 3 months! woohoo!). Then Friday, Jul 9th, 2010, I will move to my apartment in S.C. and officially progress from my big-toe-splashing into ankle-deep adulthood. I then hope to be able to back-fill my blog with stories of all of the crazy goings-on over the past few months, as well as a few deeper, brainier posts that have been sloshing around in my noggin for a while. Until then, love to you all and thanks for keeping me on your blogrolls ;o)