Is anyone else feeling the pressure of the 3 P's?

So, you're finishing the first semester of your terminal master's program and then it hits you...you only have a year before you have to sell your soul to a Ph.D program, because though this degree may be terminal you're hoping that your education sure isn't! And, of course, if you're selling your soul you need to make sure that you make it worth your while. So where your dream program is at UCLA, UC Davis, the University of Michigan, NYU, Emory or where ever it may be, you now only have a year to make yourself worth of their program.

Now, whether you had already realized that or whether reality just slapped you in the face with the cold hard truth, take solace in this breif musical break, to which you will undoubtedly relate.

We're all under pressure; pressure to produce, present and publish. Hence the 3 P's. Presumably this pressure will help us in the pursuit of our end goal: Ph. D.

What if your university isn't exactly helpful in guiding you, either with this pursuit or with the 3 P's? Well I guess then it's up to you. If you find yoursefl in this precarious position, as I did, you might want to check with the rest of your cohort. You might find that they feel exactly the same way. If so then you can all work together (especially if you want to get into different programs for your Ph. D).

A simple search for conferences will get you started, as it did for me and my cohort. In only a few hours I found 11 conferences that we might still be able to present at before the end on next semester, not even touching the call for papers that might come out in the spring. Just a warning though, many call for papers end around this time of year. amound the conferences I found almost half have submission dates that end on or before December 1st (kind of reminds you of Ph. D applications, huh?). Starting your search earlier in the semester is the best thing to do, but its not over until the rejection letter start coming in. You can always submit abstracts for papers that may not be quite finished (or started) as long as you are 110% positive that it selected you can come through with a paper.

Since I have this (albeit small) list of conferences, you can expect a future page containing them as well as any others I come across in the future. Given my field is Women's and Gender Studies, most of the conferences will reflect that, but there will be the occasional psychology conference thrown in there too.  If you come across any that I don't have, I'd appreciate it if you would throw it my way!