David A. Wheeler’s formal education timeline

The timing of my formal college education can be a little confusing, and some public information seems contradictory. Here, I will try to set the record straight.

One general complication is that at George Mason University (GMU), if you complete the degree requirements in December, it takes time for them to confirm this, so the degree is not formally granted until January in the following year. As a result, there are two validly-different years that can be cited for all my degrees. Even more confusingly, GMU only had ceremonies at the end of the Spring semester at this time. That means that, for all my degrees, I completed the work in one year, offically received the degree in January the next year, and had a ceremony in the May timeframe.

My PhD process was a little unusual, and I unintentionally gave wrong dates when asked about them during my PhD public defense (I swapped ending dates and starting dates). That added even more confusion to a confusing situation, sorry.

So, here are some key dates in my formal education:

Technically it took about 14 and a half years to get my PhD (Fall of 1995 through January 2010). That is certainly not the longest, for example, a Peter Miller took 40 years to receive his History of Consciousness Program Ph.D. from University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) (he entered 1971, and graduated 2011).


Feel free to see my home page at https://dwheeler.com. My page on the trusting trust attack may be of interest. You may also want to look at my paper Why OSS/FS? Look at the Numbers! and my book on how to develop secure programs.

(C) Copyright 2012 David A. Wheeler.