What is up with the BS deadlines we seem to get?! First, my supervisor tells me I will be finished by Christmas, then April, and now September with the possibility of going to December.

This is absurb!! I think these deadlines are given to us, so we don't get discouraged and keep moving forward as opposed to wallowing in despair.

Your thoughts?

Well, my supervisors always gave me vague deadlines, but it was me who had to set my own deadlines and meet them. I was on a scholarship though, and not 'funding' per say, so basically, I either put in the effort and got the thesis done before my scholarship ran out, or I had to start paying.

However, I was a social science PhD, so it was pretty much my own project the whole time with my supervisors assessing my work/ensuring I was on the right track...

So what are these deadlines for, experiments or thesis? When does your funding finish? It's really up to you to set your deadlines, but you have to factor in how many results you need etc. My university says that experiments should finish by 2.75 years when you are funded for 3 years, but here I am, 3.5 years and still not finished in the lab. I have made the decision to carry on though, not my supervisors, because I know I need these extra few results.

My supervisors give me guidelines about when certain things should happen for me to stay within my 3-year funded period, but other than that, it's up to me to set firmer deadlines and make sure it happens. I think it's quite common for deadlines to move during a PhD, because there is always uncertainty and factors you can't control or predict, but on the whole I'm glad my supervisors give me their thoughts about staying on track.