I am happy because today is submission eve 8-)(up)

I am happy because my flatmate just surprise delivered a delicious and nutritious home cooked meal to my office to see me through to the end of another 14 hour day. What a hero. (up)

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Good to hear how everyone is going and especially glad to hear things are looking up for you pink numbers.

I now have four days to go and I am actually now feeling at peace with my thesis, which is a great feeling! In the next four days I just need to make some really minor changes and formatting and lots of proofreading and then it's ready to be served up to the examiners (hyperventilates).

Very excited but also still quite stressed. i don't think I'll relax until it's bound and all the forms have been signed!

Hope everyone has a good week (up)

I totally agree - superwoman or what?! Over the past 6 weeks of the final write up I've struggled to even cook myself decent meals and keep up with my own washing, never mind having children to attend to! I am in awe of people who complete PhDs with these extra responsibilities.

I am happy today because I am one day closer to submission.

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Hi,

I don't have time to read all of the posts but I just wanted to put in my two cents worth. I think it is possible to love and hate your PhD at the same time. Two feelings can coexist and I think this is also something that shifts over time. Also - I think the healthy way to deal with this is to express these emotions rather than suppressing them.

Also I think that for some people doing a PhD can cause negative emotions if they say are on limited funding and not being bankrolled by their families and with few savings from previous employment because they are young. And they are yet to start a career and so are anxious about that too!

I think it's easy to say 'love your PhD' depending on where you are in the process. When you are in the final few weeks of write up, or perhaps in the middle of write up then I would like to hear back from you as to whether you still love it so much at that stage ;-)

Hi all,

I am submitting my thesis next week and I'm pretty excited, albeit a little anxious about it. At the moment I just want to work on it all the time because I know I've only got one week left to make it as good as it can be and I don't want to look back and think that I didn't make the most of that time. I am still making time to go to the gym and have a coffee with people at least once during the day. I am feeling really guilty though because I haven't caught up with friends and my girlfriend in particular keeps asking me to have a night off and is very disappointed when I say I can't. I had a night off to catch up with her on Monday and we met for coffee today but she wanted to do something tonight too and I had to say no. I feel as though she thinks I am being melodramatic but it's the last week and I just feel like I have to keep going. I just wish I didn't feel so guilty! My flatmates keep asking me too and don't seem to understand why there is still stuff left to do because I've 'written it'. It's like they see it as a goal number of words that must be reached and then it's done!

Does anyone else have these issues in the write up period? For those who have finished - did you manage to make much time for other people in the last week? I'm not sure whether I am just being selfish and over the top. I honestly don't know how you people who have kids manage to get it done!

Oh congratulations! I am so, so, so pleased for you! Brilliant news. It sounds tough but you rocked it - well done! Hope you can do something fun to celebrate :-)

Hi Dunni,

Best of luck for tomorrow! I will have everything crossed for you. I think you should listen to eye of the tiger on repeat in preparation, haha. Good luck.

As for me I am in zombie land but submission next week is going to happen. My thesis was read yesterday by someone who helped me a lot with fieldwork and she gave me some really lovely feedback. I am feeling semi ok about it now, but my conclusion still needs final bit of work which I will do tomorrow.

Good luck again - look forward to hearing how it goes (up)

I just wondered if this is normal. I am going to submit my thesis in 10 days (squeal) and very few people have read any of my chapters apart from my supervisors and a couple of friends who have proofread. Anyway someone who was heavily involved in my research has asked to read a draft of it and I am meeting her tomorrow. I can totally understand that she wants to look over a draft of it before I submit (my research is in quite a politically sensitive area) but I am really excruciatingly nervous about her reading it. It's not that I've said anything that I think she will hate, I'm just kind of worried that I haven't really done to topic justice and that she will think it's rubbish! I've actually noticed that I'm really funny about who reads it. One of my flatmates was looking over my shoulder while I was editing the other day and i actually had to tell her to stop because it was freaking me out!

Does anyone else have this strange protective 'don't look at my child like that' thing going on with their thesis?
:p

======= Date Modified 29 Jun 2011 04:42:37 =======
Hi everyone, and welcome Determined Daisy :-)

I am also having a lot of anxiety and sleep problems at the moment. I am submitting in two weeks and I know it should feel amazing but really it just feels quite terrifying. I have got to the stage where I actually can't go to bed until i have totally exhausted myself and then i sleep on and off waking up in a panic every couple of hours. The other night I actually dreamt that I was watching a particular chapter being marked and whoever was marking it was not impressed. In the dream I was shouting excuses at the marker but they couldn't hear me. I swear this thesis has hijacked my entire brain!

I am also a bit delusional in that I have basically decided that my supervisors are just letting me submit because they are so thoroughly sick of me. Deep down I know that is irrational but at the same time I can't stop thinking it! Yesterday I met with my supervisor and she laughed and said "you are not going to fail, there is no way you are going to fail" but I still keep freaking out. I keep telling myself that they wouldn't let me submit if it was an embarrassment of a thesis because that would make them look really bad too (and really they are lovely people so it would also be rather out of character!) It's kind of just like I don't quite feel ready to let go of it yet. It's scary!

Anyway - sorry for the negativity. I just had to get that out of my head. I hope everyone has a good week and gets lots done.

Ooops, I just found this http://www.postgraduateforum.com/threadViewer.aspx?TID=11648#repliesTop

It seems that it is hugely variable. I really hope they are over estimating the four months and it will be more like three at the most. Wishful thinking!

======= Date Modified 25 Jun 2011 02:24:31 =======
Hi all,

I just wondered how long the period normally is between submission and viva. Is there an average timeframe or does it vary significantly? My university have only just introduced mandatory oral exam for PhD's (I'm not in the UK) and I have been advised to plan for four months or more! To me this seems like a HUGE amount of time to wait, especially for international students.

Maybe this is just the usual amount of time though. How long does it take in your experience? It's hard because as they have only just introduced it here, I have no one else to ask because I'll be the first in my school! (sprout)

Pink numbers,

That is so terrible you are having to deal with all of this right now. Tell your ex husband to sod off until you have submitted. He can wait. Also echo what others have said about finding out whether there might be some uni accommodation available short term that is a bit cheaper.

I'm not sure what the feedback said obviously but everything else on top of that may be making it seem worse than it is. You have worked so hard and you are very much almost there now. You can do this!

I hope you get things sorted out. I would say somewhere to live at least in the short term = 1st priority and then thesis and then silly selfish ex-partner.

Take care and remember to come here to vent. Thinking of you.

Definitely leave them in. I have 'see you next tuesday' in a couple of my quotes, along with various other words.

I came across this recently in an academic book. Two very well respected academics had written exactly the same paragraph in their books - word for work. No reference at all. I assumed the first one must have actually written it and then the second one wrote it down somewhere, forgot to write the reference beside it and then assumed they had written it themselves. So shoddy!