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Well done Globe Trotter for finishing your last chapter.  Once it is written there is the usual tweaking, editing and defining to do but not long to submission. I think we all have worries over whether it will be good enough for our sups and our viva but it is what it is!  I was petrified about the sups feedback on my final draft even though they had all read the ongoing chapters. The sups that commented were really complimentary and constructive in the minor comments made so I was really chuffed!  One sup has not even given me any feedback at all so I had to submit with feedback from just the other two. I think the worries we all have over being good enough is typical of a PhD journey.  The whole journey is about answering questions that ultimately lead to more questions being formulated and so there is never a finished product. This therefore fuels concerns over adequacy of the thesis.  I have had to accept that my questions have been answered but there is another big can of worms opened for the next student to fulfil. My journey has ended with the start of a new PhD journey!

I hope you get some constructive feedback soon as I have to admit feeling a bit 'lost' while waiting!

thanks Dunni. The truth is I am really terrified. My supa wanted me to get out a specific results using the model. However, it seems that the model doesnt work very well in the final chapter so i have just written what i have done and what doesnt work. he doesnt knowthat yet. I hope he will be ok with it.

it is really rubbish. we start the phD full of optimism but when the supa isnt supportive, u lose you confidence and in the end end up like me where my emotional state is depdent on my supa. It is terrible

Hi Globe_trotter, I know exactly how you feel!

It's totally understandable how your emotion could become dictated by your supervisor's feedback. We feel our lives depend on it. However, don't forget that in the end, it is not your supervisor that decides whether you pass or fail, it's the examiner who decides on that.

It is always wise to listen to your supervisor's advice, but it's far healthier to remember that your life and career does not depend on your supervisor alone :)

By the way, I didn't get any feedback for my last 3 chapters either. I think they see us writing the last few chapters, and think 'ah well, I'll just wait till they give me the whole thing', so I wouldn't take this too personally :)

Hey ladies, was just wondering how everyone was doing :)


Dunni, have you heard anything about your viva date? - have you chased up the admin people about this? I only ask because I found out this week there were some BIG crosswires between admin office that I was getting blamed for, which was delaying a lot of things.

Slowmo and Fm how is your draft coming along?

Ady, did you get useful feedback off your sup?

Keanbean, how are you feeling? Hope you're not putting yourself through so much pressure now.

Hey Pink

Still waiting for feedback from supv; we are not meeting 'til early June. He is going to read it and give me a 'referee's report'. I don't mind robust criticism as long as there is a few chinks of light in there. Plus my husband keeps saying "maybe he'll say it's grand" thus inadvertantly adding to the pressure. As a result with every passing day the thesis is getting worse and worse in my mind. This is a strange sort of limbo situation. I obviously can't work on it until I hear my supv's verdict but I feel like I should be doing something. I have been proofing my bibliography for commas, italics etc but have only found a few errors so it hasn't taken me that long. Plus motivation is zilch.

My daughter made me two cds last night, full of my guilty pleasures, ie lots of poodle rock!! Too embarassing to go through what's actually on them on them but save to say that I am now off for a drive ;-)

How is your own work going; are you happy with your thesis?

Ady - I can totally relate. I am also waiting for feedback on my draft which i will get early June and every day I feel as though my thesis gets worse in my mind. I also noticed a couple of typos which I know is normal in a draft but I keep berating myself for them and thinking my supervisors will be really unimpressed!

I have been trying to do little bits of editing and apply for jobs but I feel like I should be doing more.

Hope you get feedback soon and that it's what you are looking for.

Hope everyone has a good weekend (up)

Yes, funny enough Im waiting for the full report from my supa in the next few days. Hes already bounced some comments back to me and there are a few things I should try in th mean time. Nothing major. Still Im scared as hell if theres something he doesnt like. Of course we shouldnt go through life feeling this way when situations like this occurs but I feel this is a unique situation where our lives are on hold. Hopefully this only happens rarely and after all this PhD non sense i will go back to that confident assertive self!

Hi summer submitters, it is so good to see some completed drafts in this thread.  Well done to you all, you should see this as a major achievement. Waiting for sups comments is so disheartening as it is easy to imagine the worst, ie rewrites, more research etc.  In most cases a few alterations are likely at this stage, especially if each chapter has been seen by your sups already. I found the wait just awful, the light at the tunnel is a flicker but will it go out just as you start moving towards it?  In the meantime, I sorted out my filing (electronic and paper), checked around for any new refs, did some reviewing of my thesis for errors, got the submission paperwork done, checked out where to get it printed and bound (costs, timings etc), read a couple of viva books and made notes for my thesis and subsequent viva prep. So I tried to keep busy but also had a breather for my poor grey matter!  I was lucky that one sup read it over 3 days so I had some very small comments to address. My uni sup took 4-5 weeks to read and very constructively comment.  My 3rd external sup has never come back to me with any comments despite a few prompting emails to which I got the 'I have just started reading' answer! So hang on in there, it is a very difficult limbo phase.

I am in yet another limbo phase of waiting for a viva date still.  So submitted 1st April and am not going to get it in within 90 days. It seems that my internal examiner has not yet received my thesis although my sup got his within a few days of submission.  Not sure where it has gone currently, but clearly a viva date cannot be set until the examiners have seen the beastie! I hope the external has received his......??  My motivation has reached rock bottom and I haven't really done any work on it in over a week now   :-( I need to keep refreshing myself in the subject area for the viva but it is hard to do so.  I am moving house (and relocating to south UK) in August so really don't want a viva then. Will try to call the admin office this week if they are not on hols.  I mean, do I have to supply another copy of the thesis, and seriously, where has mine gone to?

Dunni - that sounds so frustrating. I hope it doesn't take too long for them to get it sorted.

Just wondering - for you how long was it between getting comments back on your first draft and final submission?

Hi Slowmo, my very first draft of the thesis went out to sups on 25th dec 2010. My final draft was sent to them beginning of feb. Further sups and proofreading comments were all in by mid march and submission occurred on 1st April 2011. So really it was about three months from the initial draft to submission. Also note that I am working part-time so I only study about 15-25 hours a week. Oncce the first draft is in, it shouldn't take long to submission provided your sups don't take too long over commenting, mine took 3 days and 5 weeks.

Thanks Dunni, that's helpful to know.

They have both said two weeks and usually give me feedback when they say they will so hopefully it will come back to me next week. I just need to submit before the 18th of July or I'll have to pay more fees so fingers crossed. The have both seen almost every chapter more than once so hopefully there won't be too many changes to make - touch wood!

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Hey All

Have been in Paris for the past few days with all the beautiful people (;-), the women in front of me def had had a face lift!!) at the French Open tennis in Roland Garros; saw Nadal, Sharapova, Soderling and Li Na, very enjoyable and for the first time in yonks didn't think about my PhD - well not much anyway! However on the drive home the doubts starting seeping through again. What if my feedback is a directive to return to the beginning, what if my draft amounts to nothing better than an extended 3rd year undergrad project :-(?????????? Also travelling to Paris necessitated naviagating through the airport. For most of you this means organising passports, tickets etc. For me, it means encountering people I used to work with, all asking how I am getting on, calling me 'Dr.', asking questions about future plans - 'so are you going to be lecturing then...?' The pressure was a bit overwhelming!

Checked my email to see a message from my supv about another prof who would be interested in discussing future collaborations with me. That's good, right???? However, my reflex reaction was 'OMG, I have nothing to say to this person'. Am I never happy???

Dunni, re: another post, self-funders are no way stupid, even the word 'stupid' was a rather stupid word to chose for the original question, I thought. You are really close to that finishing line. I can't believe a copy of your thesis has been mislaid by admin. Is chasing this up not in the remit of your main supvervisor either to tell admin to reprint or for him/her to contact the member of the viva panel who didn't get a copy and request they accept a pdf? Surely it can't be totally up to the student to sort out themselves? Did you send it via the internal post of your uni or by Royal Mail yourself. Can either chase it up for you?

Good luck all - Slowmo and GlobeTrotter, you guys sound close. My supervisor hasn't seen some of my draft before which is why I am expecting difficult feedback.

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Ady, a trip to Paris with the lovies sounds fab, I am very envious!  My post submission was two weeks away at my parents with the bambinos for some respite while hubby was away working, not quite the same relaxation as your trip. Glad you had a fab time and some much needed time out.  Those niggling doubts will be with you until after the viva i am afraid. This is what I am going through still.  I think your sups feedback should be fine especially if they have already seen some of the chapters. They will have a feel for the standard of your thesis just by those chapters they have already read.  But I know how on edge I felt waiting and waiting lol. In the meantime, let the brain have a rest and perhaps work on some menial tasks instead.

I have spoken to the academic office who don't give too much away.  They confirmed receipt of the theses back in early April but one may have got lost in their internal mail system to the internal ex. They suggested that they have photocopied the chairs bound copy in previous occurrences (no confirmations here at all about mine lol) And the chair has a non-bound photocopy.  I did offer the PDF just in case as printing would be far easier. Either way the external has suggested some dates in July but the internal cannot match them.  Some more dates in July are being offered by the internal.........I guess I will hear about this soon then (maybe). Am thinking about getting some more viva prep done if dates are being suggested.  Don't want to peak to soon but will kick myself if I don't have enough time. Either way the outcome has already been decided and as a 'self-funder' I shouldn't think too highly of my efforts .  :p (Sorry that was a little dig at a previous thread by a naive and pretentious post).