Relative to a Degree

733.9 pages. That is how much I had to write in the three years I spent on my Master of Divinity degree.  Just think, what if I would have used that time for Good instead of thinking about Evil?  (Just kidding!)

I finished my final paper last Sunday and will get my degree this coming Friday.  Actually, I will not get it then because I decided after all this time that I did not want to spend those hours at a ceremony.  I have not liked my past two graduation ceremonies, and this one did not look any better.  Thankfully, the Disciples Divinity House will have our convocation service on Thursday night.  It is a worship service, where we honor graduates and the passing of the year — but more importantly, we still worship!  ‘Tis much better than a graduation ceremony, if you ask me!  (Plus, I don’t want my transition ritual from the UofC to be the bagpipe ceremony — instead, it will be my Ordination on July 18th.)

After finishing my last paper, I decided to organize all of my digital files from my degree and figure out how much work I’d done.  Here’s the breakdown of words written, how many double-spaced pages that is (assuming an average 350-words/page).

PDF

The chart at the bottom shows how much was assigned, how much I wrote, and when I wrote it.

Many M.Div. students at the University of Chicago Divinity School live with this story.  The school has a policy where students have up to a year after the class finishes meeting to turn in any work without having an “I” (for Incomplete) show up on their transcript.  After the year, they can still get the grade and turn in the work, but the “I” will show up.  Thankfully, I never took beyond the year to finish my work.  But, every spring quarter I was struggling to finish a previous paper.  This spring quarter, I wrapped up 2 previous assignments and my senior thesis.   So, even though I was relatively close to writing around the amount assigned, I still had an extra 57 pages to write by the end of my final quarter.

The two lines did cover the same amount of work; my work was integral to the work needed for my degree.  (Get it?  Area under the curve = integral).  Jokes as that mean that I’m pretty exhausted, which makes sense every time I look at this data.  I’m tired for a reason!  733.9 pages.