Summer 2013 Challenge

It’s that time again! It’s the Summer Dissertation Challenge. Our online challenges span 6 months each: Winter Challenge [January – July] and Summer Challenge [July – December.]

Welcome to the Dissertation House On-line, Summer 2013 season! This page will be active from July 2013 – December 2013.  Congratulations to all of our new PhDs who finished those dissertations last season!  (See our “Alumni” page!) We have online participants in the Dissertation House (DH) from several states in the US and countries in the world. Those “DHers” who participate in person come from universities throughout Maryland, with sponsorship from the National Science Foundation’s PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP), and funding from the graduate schools at UMBC, the University of Maryland College Park, and the University of Maryland Baltimore – The Founding Campus. Through the PROMISE Pathways initiatives, all doctoral students within the University System of Maryland have a special invitation to join us online, and you have opportunities to join us in person if you register in advance.

Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale is your “Head Coach.” Dr. Carter-Veale will be conducting “in-person” Dissertation Houses at UMBC and the University of Maryland College Park in July 2013. Our pre-registered participants from campuses in Maryland are required to blog in daily during their time in the Dissertation House, and are encouraged to continue blogging until they finish their dissertations. Whether you are in a doctoral program in Maryland, or pursuing your PhD at another school outside of Maryland, YOU are invited to join us, online using this page,  from your location, from any state in the U.S. or any country in the world.  Take the challenge to finish your dissertation! Just do the following:

1. Go to the comment section below and introduce yourself (name, school, department.)
2. Tell us what you are working on and what you plan to accomplish today or over the next few days.
3. Blog in daily, preferably twice a day (morning and afternoon/evening) to report your goals for the day, your daily accomplishments, and your goals for the next day.

Our graduates and participants pushed (and we do mean that they pushed through adversities, complications, and issues) to finish sections, get chapter approval from advisors, complete drafts, pass proposals, pass defenses, and turn in their final documents. These grads are now professors, working in non-profits, industry, and have had postdocs throughout the global academic community (e.g., France, South Africa, Egypt.)  For those of you who have joined us in the past, you can join us again if you are still working on your document. We’re here to cheer you on! This page is dedicated to all of you who will be spending the next several months working on your dissertations. This page will be open from July 2013 until December 2013.

Join the larger academic community of dissertation writers across the globe.  Start posting your goals for the next six months here. Don’t work alone, you have an online community. You don’t even have to use your real name.  Focus on completion.