When will you graduate?

I thought an appropriate first post would be the answer to the question I hear most frequently. Since I completed my master's degree in August 2002 the standard answer has been "two years." That was wishful thinking on my part back in 2002, probably an accurate answer had I been a super motivated grad student in 2003, and now more than two years later it seems that it is a good approximation. I finally have a topic for my dissertation that has been partially blessed by my advisor (Dr. Lawrence Rauchwerger, who will be referred to as Lawrence in future posts). I hope to do my preliminary exams and dissertation proposal in January when Lawrence returns from his sabbatical. Once the proposal and prelims are complete all that remains is to do the work set out in the proposal and write the dissertation. I think in order to do what I think will be a good job with the topic that I will take two years. Yes, I hope to finish college in two years.

Now I've just got to get busy so I'm not explaining why I'll be graduating in two years come 2006.