Thanks for the info, everyone.

I don't have any paper trail of this, so I guess I need to send him an e-mail, in case I need it later for admin. Luckily my supervisor is aware of everything, if I need some kind of "proof" that I did try to make him aware of the deadline etc.

What is just so exceptionally frustrating is that I did in fact, as Wowzers mentioned, offer to make arrangements to submit late. This is quite a mission at my uni because technically you have to let a committee know NOT to appoint examiners etc despite your previous indication that you intend to submit on time. Now my examiners have been appointed and my grant provider has been notified of my "intention to submit" - processes that wouldn't have happened if he was just honest with me and said that he wouldn't be able to get to it. Late submission is a big deal at my uni - there is a "penalty fee" and I won't be allowed to submit until November, meaning my viva will be next year - and I start a new job in January, meaning I will have to ask for leave and travel back to my uni to do the viva. I told him about all of these implications when I said that we need to decide beforehand whether I would need to submit late so that I can make the necessary arrangements. Now everything is a complete mess.

The worst part is that I just heard that he gave feedback to another student last week Thursday - meaning that he is reading students' work, just not mine.

Hi everyone

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

To respond to ToL and Eds, and link to Bilbo's - I can't wait until Friday to submit because we have to first submit to plagiarism detection software (it can take 24 hours to generate a report) and then the report must be "analysed" by your supervisors before they can sign off on your dissertation. Then only can I print the final copies (I have to courier 3 - two abroad and one local). And to do this on the last day of submission is asking for trouble - the systems are bound to be jammed because everyone is submitting etc. But I guess I can wait til Thursday and see if anything happens by then - it just seems so pointless, because as all of you pointed out - I can do much in the last few days, even if I did get his comments today or tomorrow. I wish I could just go ahead and submit, but my supervisor asked him whether he would agree to this and he said no. I will have to find out whether I can submit without his approval, although I was told last week that he needs to sign all documents and reports etc.

Sorry if my thoughts are coming out a bit jumbled, but I am starting to feel completely frantic about this.

I guess the first thing to do is to try and speak with my main supervisor to figure out what the game plan is, although he told me on Friday that he can't do much more than he has already done.

Hi all

A while back I posted in "1 month to go" that I submitted my "final" draft of my PhD to my supervisors for examination approval. My main supervisor got back to me within a week with final comments and suggestions. I addressed those while waiting for my other supervisor's feedback. The co-supervisor then unfortunately had a death in the family and was absent from the office for a week. I went to him to offer my condolences and told him not to worry about my work right away, there was still time and if need be, I could make arrangements to submit late. He reassured me and said he was going to read my work in that week. That was about 3 weeks ago (6 weeks in total after I submitted) A week after that, my other supervisor went to speak with him and said that time was running out, would he be willing to let me submit it without his final comments and he said no, he was getting to it. Every week he promises something like "by next Wednesday at the absolute latest" but then that goes by without a word, leaving me with the awkward task of approaching him to find out what is going on. It has put a lot of strain on what has been a great working relationship, to the extent that there is some animosity between us. I have no idea what to do next, since we can't keep nagging him (and it hasn't helped anyway) and he seems unconcerned that the deadline is fast approaching, my entire life has been on hold for 3 weeks, I spend every day waiting for his feedback, I can't make any plans to do anything else because IF I receive the feedback I will have to work on it day and night if I want to have any chance of submitting it on time. I don't want to sound insensitive to his circumstances, but this has been HELL.

Any advice, please?

Hi Caro!

Welcome back! I can hear it's crunch-time for you - best of luck! I know you will get through it, although I know it is super tough to be under that much pressure. Feel free to vent here - that final month is INSANE! But it's definitely possible - I still can't believe how much I got done in the last month...

Thanks for the suggestion on submitting without waiting for my co-supervisor's comments. I didn't realise this was an option to be honest. I will definitely look into it, because that might solve my problem - of course his comments would have been helpful and would probably have improved my work, but at this stage it is more important for me to actually graduate on time. I'll let you know what happens. Do you think this is offensive to supervisors or is it generally accepted?

Good luck to you, just take a deep breath and try not to get too overwhelmed.Keep us posted on your progress!

Hey Wowzers
Interesting question. I followed method (a), but not by choice, my supervisor insisted on it. Turned out really well, because your understanding grows as you write the other chapters and in the end you only revise once, instead of redrafting maybe 5 times til you sup is happy and then again at the end to reflect your new insight. I also benefited from the lexicon I picked up when preparing my other chapters, to explain my ideas more clearly in earlier chapters. I think it is easy to lose momentum if you re-do chapters instead of moving on. Although, just a word of caution - it's no excuse to be sloppy early on - you won't have as much time or energy as you might think to fix it in the end, so good solid research, properly written up and edited will help you a lot in the final stages of finishing up. Also, I don't think you can expect your supervisor to spend time on sub-par work - he/she shouldn't have to read first rough drafts of your ideas. Other than that, if you know you won't get lazy at the end, and will be able to force yourself to work on something that is not your strong point, you sound like an ideal candidate for scenario (a). Let me know how you get on. :-)

And another update: this time with bad news. I have done all my corrections as suggested by my supervisor, I have been done for about a week, waiting to hear from my co-supervisor. Now I find out that someone in his family passed away and that he will be going overseas for the funeral etc. While I have so much sympathy for what a difficult time this must be for him, I also realise that this effectively means that I can kiss my chance to graduate on time good bye. I have to say that it's difficult not to be disappointed when I think of the many all nighters I pulled to make the deadline, and now it was all for nothing. Well, not nothing, but it still feels like a major let down. I know this must sound incredibly selfish, and of course I won't give him a hard time about it, but this could potentially have serious consequences for me. Anyway, so just as I said last time - just when you think you're "done", you're not.
Good luck to you guys!
xx

Hi all

Another quick update for those who are interested.

I received feedback from one of my supervisors already, still waiting on the other one. The comments aren't too bad - some language errors and typos (English isn't my first language) and then some suggestions to clarify/expand/etc.My conclusion chapter needs the most work, but that hardly came as a surprise. My supervisor thought it should be doable in a week, but it is taking much longer. But since I haven't heard from my other supervisor yet, it isn't a problem.

I have to say it is getting quite hard to summon up the will/energy/enthusiasm to keep going back to the document to try and improve it, and it is making me miserable, but because I know the end is in sight, I somehow manage to work a few hours a day on it. Looking forward to a proper break when I submit it officially to the uni.

My advice to those who will start finishing up soon is to get it as close to perfect as you can on your own, because going back later the fix a myriad of small things is quite depressing. It takes much longer than you might think. Also, the formatting at the end takes quite long - and prepare for some catastrophe there - almost everyone I know had some technical problems with graphs, appendices, table of contents etc. I had to redo my page numbers 7 times!

I was also told to leave at least a week just for the actual submission - I had no idea things would take so long. My point is that at this stage it is a little disheartening when you keep thinking "I'm almost done" and then there is something still standing in your way. Even when it is just a small, easy task, at this stage it feels insurmountable! So if at all possible, leave enough time and don't think you're done when you have a completed manuscript...

I really hope to be "done" soon! :-)

Good luck everyone!

Thanks so much! :) Excellent news, Tree, and well done! Keep us posted on your progress regarding the examination process - all the best!

At my uni we only arrange a viva date after the examiners' reports are in - and these typically take 6-8 weeks to compile. We have a non-examining chair on our panels who receive the reports and set up the viva. The candidate is only notified after a date has been agreed on etc. I hear the norm is about 10 weeks after submission, with around two weeks "notice" to prepare.

I did it! I submitted my first full draft yesterday! It is only submission to my supervisors, so it's not the real deal yet, but I was so stressed about making this deadline - can't believe how quickly the month flew past. So happy I made it! I didn't do everything I planned on, but in the end I'm glad I prioritized and got the important stuff done. And luckily I can do another round of language editing before I submit to the uni. Thanks to everyone for your kind words of encouragement and I hope you all are making good progress. xxx

Hi Grumpy!
Well done for getting to this point!
Every project is different, but in our department it is pretty standard for (full time) students to submit about 6-8 weeks after they received feedback on the full draft. The only people who take longer are those who need to do more substantive work or who need to do major restructuring. Clarifications, small re-ordering, grammar etc can be done in a few weeks if you work hard. I am aiming for about 4 weeks after I receive feedback, also for a 100 000 word thesis, but my supervisors have seen previous drafts of almost all of my chapters, so I don't expect any *big* surprises in terms of feedback. The point I'm trying to make is that it's really good to have a tight deadline because otherwise you might become obsessive and try to make it PERFECT. I'm not saying your thesis shouldn't be as good as you can make it, but at some point you should let it go. So your time-frame sounds doable to me, especially if you can do it (mostly) full-time.
Good luck and keep us posted!

Hi all!

Just a quick update on my progress - I have 1 week left! Thanks Wowzers for sharing your writing strategy - seriously impressive! I agree that sometimes too many breaks can make you lose your train of thought, but I have found it an incredibly useful tool to help manage my procrastination habits. Sometimes (not often) I would become completely engrossed in something and work on it for a few hours straight, but mostly I do little bits and pieces. One bad thing about this is that I have A LOT of editing to do - when you're working on small sections of the dissertation at random times, you don't notice repetition as much - which means I am now cutting out large sections of work. But hey, at least I got those ideas on paper and can now move things around. Basically that is all I will be doing this week - along with double checking some of my references and improving (or at least trying to improve) the general "flow" of the argument. Despite my panic a month ago, I will at least have something semi-complete to submit next week. I didn't get every little thing done that I wanted to, but hopefully I get some constructive feedback and can finish this up asap - I need my life back!

Good luck to you all!

Hi Hoxton
I felt the same way when I just started - I'm quite a go-getter, and felt like I was being held back/not encouraged and also wondered whether my supervisor only wanted me to succeed on his terms. I was so eager to go out there and seize all these wonderful opportunities that crossed my path, and his reluctance and disdain etc really got to me.
Three years later I am incredibly grateful for his guidance, because I now realise that your reputation in academia is everything - it's basically all you have. I think he was protecting me from my own enthusiasm for two reasons - firstly, as everyone said - to keep me on track. (I'm due to submit my dissertation in two weeks, and I would never have been able to stay on track to finish in three years if I got side-tracked) Secondly, I realise now that I was a bit ignorant about some issues in my field, and that I would have been haunted by sub-par work for years to come if I collaborated with people at that stage. There is some merit to keeping your nose down and paying your dues for a while at least. And now that I'm almost done, he is definitely more supportive.
Every situation is different, but I thought you might like to hear how a similar situation turned out.
Good luck!

Hi guys!

Just checking in to find out how you are coming along? Caro, how is he data analysis going?
Nautilus, have you heard anything re your extension?

I have a week and a half left - where did the time go?! I had a slow week for the most of last week, but I'm feeling pretty motivated again - hopefully this is the final stretch. I have loads of small things left to do, but I'm pretty much getting to the point where I feel I will send it off with a "come what may" attitude.

Good luck!

Hi Nautilus!

I think "knowing what to do" is an important half of doing it - it sure beats having no clue. You were lucky to get an extension, though! But it sounds like you've made good progress.

My deadline is to submit my thesis to my supervisors for approval, but I won't have a lot of time for their corrections to meet my uni's final date for submission, so I have to get it as closed to finished as I can before I submit to them. It's gotten to the point now where I look at certain changes and just think "nah, would be nice, but I don't have time for it" so I'm just doing the essential stuff... Or at least, I'm hoping some of the suggestions are non-essential. =) I figure I can always come back to it if I have time left at the end of the month... Not likely, I know!

I guess I could ask, but it seems a bit vague... Maybe I will do what I can before I submit to them, and then see where things stand after I get their feedback.

Good luck, hope you have a very productive day!