Hello there,

I am pursuing my phd for last 3.5 years and still i cannot see / have glimpse of light for end of the tunnel! I have last 6 months left to complete it.

From the beginning I was very skeptical about my phd topic. And my ability to contribute proactively in the field of my studies. I cannot complain about the work environment or my supervisor, as both are at there best, as a phd student could ask for. But lately even my supervisor seems to have given hope on me about my phd completion. And, my research is not enough for submission.

I always tried to keep motivation running, so i don't run away from what i have started. But from the begining and every now and then I feel like I should just quit and do something else. Is it common among the phd guys/girls to have this problem. if so, then how far you have gone with the your gut to quit or to try to complete!

Lately, these thoughts are eating me up and affecting my health drastically (I was athletic and now zero-sized from weight loss) I have been to therapist to deal with anxiety and depression, but unfortunately that did not help. I very much desire for phd but cannot imagine quitting it without completion!!!

Any opinions or advice are welcome and much appreciated!

Hello,
It seems that those "symptoms" are spreading among us all "the PhD students". I have to complete writing up in less than five months. I have been in a similar situation like yours recently. I went through a hard time of despair and frustration. But I kept pushing myself on, and I decided to "try" to stop thinking about how much time is left and how much work is yet to be done. I realized that what has passed (in terms of effort and time) is worth sacrificing what is yet to come.
So keep pushing yourself and don't quit. We will be able to finish and succeed.
All the best.

This is a question out of curiosity, but I've noticed that many students only have X amount of time to complete their write-up before submission.

Is it common for many PhDs to not write during the PhD but rather, just near the end? I ask because I was writing up as I was going along. By the end of my third year I had pretty much written everything up and revised a few times, and was in final revision mode, in which I had an additional 6 months to do so.

I'm just curious as to the system or circumstances that have left you in this unfortunate position. Is it the nature of the PhD that you're doing (such as experiments?) or the structure of the program, or lack of adequate supervision? This is by no means a form of judgement! I'm genuinely interested in the difference and wondering whether tailoring such programs need to be made for specific areas to allow more time for writing up for those in perhaps hard sciences or similar disciplines.

I think it depends on the PhD. For example, many molecular biology students can't really write up until they have completed three years of data collection and analysis because the thesis is being formed as the results are being generated. It's not a case of year one, chapter one; often three data chapters are being formed simultaneously. I'm 3.5 years in and still have 1-2 months data to collect. I have 2.5 chapters written though.

Yeah I'm ecology and in the same position as Treeoflife - all my field data took 2.5 years to process and my experiments were done in my 2nd and 3rd years so there was no data to work with until half way through third year and the rest at the end of third year. I have 3 chapters written but 2 still to go with around 4 months left and lots of revisions still to do! It's just the way some projects go. Other people in science have different experiences as some have data from the word go, it just depends!

I can understand that you are not being judegmental
[quote]Quote From awsoci:
This is a question out of curiosity, but I've noticed that many students only have X amount of time to complete their write-up before submission.

Is it common for many PhDs to not write during the PhD but rather, just near the end? I ask because I was writing up as I was going along. By the end of my third year I had pretty much written everything up and revised a few times, and was in final revision mode, in which I had an additional 6 months to do so.

I'm just curious as to the system or circumstances that have left you in this unfortunate position. Is it the nature of the PhD that you're doing (such as experiments?) or the structure of the program, or lack of adequate supervision? This is by no means a form of judgement! I'm genuinely interested in the difference and wondering whether tailoring such programs need to be made for specific areas to allow more time for writing up for those in perhaps hard sciences or similar disciplines.[/quo


It depends on each one's circumstances. In PhD the path is not identical for everyone as in school years or Bachelor degree. Many things can pop up along the way, change of topic, delay of funds, extra responsibilities, issues or disagreement with supervisor, full-time work, etc..

It depends on each one's circumstances. In PhD the path is not identical for everyone as in school years or Bachelor degree. Many things can pop up along the way, change of topic, delay of funds, extra responsibilities, issues or disagreement with supervisor, full-time work, etc.

Keep pushing yourself. I've had all of the same feelings that you've expressed. I am graduating in July 2015 and I could not be happier. It's worth it!

In my case I procrastinated a lot when I should have been writing. So even if did all the other research tasks, I left writing till last minute. Unfortunately, think not all of us PhDs are that all organised and consistent...

No. I suppose completing a PhD is not only a test of our abilities to research (which are tried and tested) but also our abilities to organise (which unfortunately... are not).

It's interesting how the PhD is much longer on the Continent, and I really feel that 3 years is not long enough - but that's the way it's organized! You do have to keep the project moving along, and limit the size of the project appropriately - I was going to add in certain things but it wasn't possible (or necessary). It leaves something for postdoctoral research!