To my revising comitee 5 days before the deadline ( since the rules say that I have a maximum of 3 months, I supposed to be done by Dec 30th). I defended and passed with minor corrections, almost 3 months ago.

Both of the revising members said that they may take longer to read the changes, and my university is closed. Do you think this deadlines are that hard?. Specially including the holidays?.

I have sent e-mails to the school of graduate studies but they are all gone (the term ended in Dec 20th), and probably won't heard from them till Jan 3rd.

There is still a chance that one or both members don't like the changes (My thesis commitee had 2 mayor concerns, a) related to the colloquial way I wrote my Thesis, b) I needed to add another chapter), so it may take effectevily longer than 3 months but less than 4.

I never heard anything reltaed to failing a thesis post-defense (with corrections), so as you can imagine I am very anxious about this.

This are my worst holidays ever.


Happy holidays for all the forum!

Well, my institution works differently, you pay fees till your thesis is completely done (my supervisor said that since I extended 1 extra year from the original funding, he won't pay any extra month). My Uni claims it is because since I am doing corrections, I am still using all the University dependencies, computers, books, etc.

As for the corrections, they really had problems with my writing style, so they didn't point anything in particular, but rewriting some chapters, improve ideas and conclusions, etc. They can't put every single detail in paper.

Thanks for the advice thou.

The problem that I have is, that my correction sub-comitee in principle can reject my corrections, and make me take the defense again if they are not satisfied with the quality ( I did my PhD in a top 15-World-ranked University and it is all about reputation for them, although I would rank them way lower in terms of teaching abilities...). Unfortunately my sub-comitee is formed by perfectionists, that have fame of taking long time before publishing (even their students suffer the same). Which tells me that it is likely that they will make my life miserable. In fact, during my defense they were pretty tough ( I have no idea how I survived)

I don't think is particularly a problem of PhD, is the whole culture. This are times in which depression is one of the biggest diseases.

Now, I think we are far more overespecialized and competitive than a century ago. I don't want to be mean, but it was easier to be Einstein 100 years ago, than today. Today an Einstein would take longer to be produced (if ever) because all the basic science is already understood, so in order to get into a position of originality, your really need to understand the whole feel, therefore taking way longer than times in which "nothing was yet invented".

It is difficult to be original and make out thesis cause a mayor impact, so we should learn to nurture ourselves and don't take the problems so personal. Which eventually leads to depression. As long as your work ethics is fine and you work hard, you put yourself in a position to reach success, however success does not only depends on you, but sometimes culture makes us believe that your success or failing are all dependent on you, very deterministic way to think.

The basic knowledge is saturated already. I agree that these days PhDs, at least in science should be more practical, and paper orientated. It its very unlikely that someone would have a major discovery during its PhD. I wish I was born in the 19th century....

Communication is always important, even if you "think" what others ( supervisor, comitee, etc) think about yourself.
Try to make clear that you feel the time is not enough, maybe you can get some positive feedback if people finds you going insane.

Thesis, at least the draft you submit to your comitee members need to be just clear enough (nowdays with so many helpful software it would be a shame to make grammar mistakes, so fix those first) and serious enough. Try to write your thesis in the most clear way, not like a journal paper. Your results, and logical conclusions are the things that matter the most. Only if your comitee members are not busy (quite unrealistic) they would read the whole thesis. I bet some of them would read few pages of your introduction and then skip it fast. They know they will probably ask you to make some corrections anyways, it is almost granted, so you take that time to edit once more, without the stress of the viva ( although in my case is a little bit more complicated than that, check my newest post)

ASK FOR HELP, don't isolate, you'll be surprised of how many people is willing to help you. Ask peers to read your thesis ( it also helpful for them).

I was given 3 months after I defended, but my supervisor wanted me to do more research. I am done with that, but now it looks like my sub-comitee wanted me to go deeper into and correct the writting style of the whole thesis. I only have 3 weeks left, what do you guys think I should do?. Do these deadlines tend to be very rigid? . Well, it is in my benefit to finish it asap, as every extra month means one more month of tuition fees to pay, but I still have savings for another month, and I really need more time (2-3 weeks), so far I am still working as hard and stressed as before my defense....man, this is getting a nightmare that never ends.

What do you guys suggest?, any one with similar experiences? (maybe with minor modifications, mayor corrections, etc).

Cheers

So I am in my last year (6th), before I had 0 (zero) publications. Now I am gonna publish like 4 big papers.

Cause of my bad record, and those wasted years, I had very little motivation and I exposed myself very little to the world. I haven't gone to any conference in 2,5 years!!!.

However, the scientific contributions of my papers are quite important on my field (physics) and are a step forward in many other similar fields.

My institution is quite important and well-known. My supervisor is fairly known however I am his first grad student, he his quite young.

What I would like to ask you, is about realism of my career future.

Since I have been exposed so little (my research never included collaborators, just me and my supervisor) to the community, I didn't feel like applying last year, and I was considering to leave Academia. However, I was very scared that I wouldn't even manage to write my thesis as I had very little progress. That all changed when after trying many things I found a scientific breakthrough in what I am working and gotten quite important results. My supervisor is encouraging me to stay in Academia, he says that I should at least try a postdoc.

But applying off-season is tough, and he doesn't seems to be helpful in finding jobs. He said he would give me an awesome recommendation letter, but due my lack of contacts my other 2 letters would be very superficial, by 2 members of my PhD comitee.

So my question is, yeah, I may get a postdoc somewhere in the world (I don't think it would be in a top institution thou), but it is worth of trying?. I feel that I am in a stage I should have been 3+ years ago. Now I have to start from zero again, going somewhere else, building my career from scratch, etc. It seems that at this rate I would be able to apply for permanent positions in a long, long time, and the anxiety that I have accumulated all these years of being poor and isolated is making me consider that I would better be off of Academia, as the idea I have of successful academics is of people that know how to do networking, and people who were publishing papers an giving presentations at quite young age. I am pushing 30 and I am very burnt out. I would say I am a reasearch late bloomer.

I do think I have the skills to do all the networking and presentations I need, and I do have some good analytical skills, but I have been trough such a bad long time (3+ years feeling down, unsuccessful, stressed) that I tend to see my future very pessimistic, like never finding a TT and so. I am gonna get my PhD for sure, but I am quite tired to feel always worried about getting a permanent job. My personality has been quite linked to my research, now I am quite happy, but I have been depressed longer than I have been happy.

Is it realistic to build a career being absent from the field from so long?, should I leave?.
I do love what I do, but I hate being poor, careerless, and not being able to do other stuff in my life.