It sounds like there's a PhD in the near future. Good luck with that!

Sadly not as near as I wish, because I still have to do a year long clinical residency before I can graduate officially. But having all my other requirements done will still be huge!

Good luck! You can do it!

Good luck from me too..... make us all proud...

It never crossed my mind that there might be fields where there was something else to do after the dissertation! I'm mostly acquainted with engineering PhDs where the only thing left to do after the dissertation defense is to pick up your diploma. Obviously medical fields are a longer haul than others.

I think we're the oddity because our training model is a lot more like an MD than most PhDs. It's the norm for clinical psych (in fact it has to be this way for licensure), but even within the graduate school itself, it's an oddity -- all the forms I've been doing for my defense are designed for people graduating immediately after. It's kind of a bummer, because I keep getting things like cap and gown order forms that I won't be able to use until next year!

Can I ask what are you training for?

I know nothing about higher education lol. But as I read something about "my defense", I figured it was about law school, and law school reminds me of my favorite tv shows called How To Get Away With Murder". (It's awesome BTW).

I'm (almost) a medical psychologist, which means that I do behavioral healthcare for patients who have had a serious illness or injury. My sub-specialties are stroke and traumatic brain injury, although I see a fair amount of other chronic illnesses as well.

This is why she's the best person to ask about medical problems. She's really close to having a PhD in medicine so she knows stuff that the rest of us can't begin to guess at.