It can stand for a lot of things, ABD . . .

. . . according to Wikipedia:

• ABD, the stock symbol for ACCO Brands
• Association of British Drivers
• ABD, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Darwin TV station
• Aberdeen railway station in the United Kingdom
• "All But Degree", slang for a Candidate of Philosophy
• ABD, IATA airport code for Abadan Airport in Abadan, Iran
• "Amerika Birleşik Devletleri", the Turkish acronym for the United States of America
• Already Been Done
• Av Beth Din, referring to the Chief Rabbi of a Jewish community
• Aged, Blind, and Disabled (ABD) populations

But for me, today, it stands for

"All But Dissertation", a graduate student who has completed all the coursework for a Ph.D. but not the dissertation

I spent the week of October 15 (afternoons) writing answers to questions submitted by most of the professors I've studied under for the past three years; and yesterday I met with my dissertation committee to be asked questions -- some easy, some hard, some embarrassing as I fumbled ungracefully for any answer -- about those exams. After a little over an hour, they politely asked me to step out. I barely had time to reflect on how it might have gone when I heard Dr. C. saying "Okay, come back in" but he was smiling and holding out his hand: "Congratulations". I felt as if I were moving in a dream, watching them sign the paper that would notify the Registrar that I was now, officially, a Doctoral Candidate. Dr. Fenstermaker, head of my committee, kindly asked me to sit down for a moment. He said he knew I had been nervous but I had done well and this 'rite of passage' was over.

I hadn't slept at all the previous night and felt curiously keyed up and bizarre, so that it was hard to take it in. But somehow in the past hour, everything I'd been leading up to for three years here had come to a culmination, and I was on The Other Side -- now a doctoral candidate (not a student) and privileged to write a dissertation.

Dr. Martinez remarked in a kindly fashion afterwards that I looked stunned. I'm sure I looked positively poleaxed. It's unbelievable to have something concrete and official after all this time and all those student loans.

I am really, really grateful to my committee -- apart from being brilliant academics, each and every one makes me feel very supported -- I can tell they want me to succeed. And they seem enthused about my area of interest.

Onward and upward! A happy day for me indeed.