endgame: stand and deliver.

so yesterday was the defense. all of the committee arrived on time, including the cognate member [1].

there was a large audience, too. the 20 seats in the room were taken, and 5-7 more stood or sat on the wide window ledge (in the back of the room).

admittedly, i hadn't expected this. many people had told me that they would attend, but i thought they were saying that for support. they all came, after all!

there were a lot of questions, so it actually felt like a defense.

i suppose it is a good thing. it was pointed out to me that questions indicate that some people are indeed listening and that they understand you well enough to ask their questions.

on the other hand, some of these were questions like:

"does the module have torsion?"
whereas i couldn't remember what torsion was; it was mildly embarrassing.

also, apparently i was working with a different notion of rank than what most people do. so i was asked, "wait. so you mean that the module has rank at most N?"

"er: it's not a free module," i replied.

they added, "you can define rank just with linear independence."

"oh," i noted.

anyway, i was nervous and i went over my allotted time, and barely gave any intuition why my main result makes sense.

then there were even more questions.

when it was over, we left the room so that the committee could make a decision.

.. a few,
LONG
minutes
later ..

the committee members walked out of the room,
each shook my hand,
and i became a doctor.


there are thesis corrections still to make, but it's done. the forms are now at rackham and it's a matter of paperwork.

[1] according to rackham graduate school rules & regulations at the U of M, a dissertation committee must include one faculty member outside of your home department. interestingly enough, the rules allow for one committee member not to attend your defense as long as it is not the cognate member.