Advancing to Candidacy

Today I defended my dissertation proposal. This defense also served as my candidacy exam. Everything went very well. My committee all had excellent questions and suggestions for improving my project. I'm very pleased that these five particular professors could be on my committee. Each of them is an expert in relevant aspects of my project. I thought that my defense was largely an amiable and productive conversation. They said that I could begin collecting data. This means that I'll begin videotaping the class I'm teaching on Monday. This also means that I am now a PhD candidate. I'm getting closer!