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TGR

Posted on 09/03/201003/20/2011 by Backpacking Dad

As soon as I get a couple of signatures on a piece of paper I will have TGR status. TGR stands for “Terminal Graduate Registration” and it means I have completed all requirements for the Ph.D. except for the actual dissertation. It means no more units, no more classes, no more deadlines. It also means the department doesn’t have to cough up tuition money to the university since I won’t be enrolled in anything.

My life won’t be any different, really. I’ll still have a dissertation to write, and a certain amount of funding time to finish it in. But there’s a certain autonomy and respect afforded the TGR students. Like they basically have Ph.Ds already; that there is just a formality in the way. It’s a lie, but it’s one I’m looking forward to living for some reason. It feels like one kind of pressure is gone, even though the real pressure-source remains.

Go me. Backpacking Dad, four-fifths of a doctorate down. Now the hard part.

15 thoughts on “TGR”

  1. Melanie says:
    09/03/2010 at 10:25 PM

    Congratulations!

  2. Laura Lohr | My Beau says:
    09/03/2010 at 10:27 PM

    Congrats! That is an incredible accomplishment!

  3. Crabby Mommy says:
    09/04/2010 at 1:05 AM

    Great job! Soon enough you will be BPD, PhD.

    Now quit making *llama eyes* and get to work on that dissertation!

  4. Heather says:
    09/04/2010 at 3:54 AM

    Congrats! That is truly an accomplishment!

  5. Melanie says:
    09/04/2010 at 8:42 AM

    you deserve big congrats for that!!!

  6. Niki says:
    09/04/2010 at 9:25 AM

    Woot! Hey, the diss is no big deal. just thousands of words…on the page….oh, man. I think I might just stay ABD forever. But way to go, raising your kids and completing your coursework. Bravo!

  7. McMama says:
    09/04/2010 at 4:45 PM

    I thought that was called ABD. :D Congrats!

  8. Karen6460 says:
    09/05/2010 at 6:47 AM

    With the way you're able to write, I can imagine that dissertation will be a snap for you.

  9. Phenry71 says:
    09/05/2010 at 11:26 AM

    Congratulations. Lots of schools refer to this point as ABD (all but dissertation), but I like your college's acronym better because you can almost say it TiGeR. I earned my Ph.D. 8 years ago. It was a 3 year program (that's what the brochure advertised) that took me 5 years (average time for completion at the time was 6 years). My fellow doctoral students and I joked that it was like a prison sentence — 3 to 5 years. Once you were ABD, you could sigh, see the light at the end of the tunnel and know that it wasn't an oncoming train (or at least that was always our hope). Good luck with the dissertation. Remember, it's just a paper :-).

  10. Marinka says:
    09/05/2010 at 6:56 PM

    I heard that the dissertation usually writes itself. Not true?

    1. Backpacking Dad says:
      09/05/2010 at 7:03 PM

      No, that's true. There's an app for that.

  11. Rachael1013 says:
    09/06/2010 at 11:14 PM

    Congratulations, what an achievement!

  12. Rita Arens says:
    09/09/2010 at 2:02 PM

    I thought it was ABD? Have they gone and changed all the acronyms since I canceled my subscription to the Chronicle of Higher Education?

    Either way, congratulations, dude.

    1. Backpacking Dad says:
      09/09/2010 at 2:08 PM

      Yeah, just a school specific term.

  13. Maria says:
    09/25/2010 at 9:38 PM

    The condition is in fact terminal

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