Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone has been in the position of being given an extension for their master's dissertation when they've been due to start their phd? If so did this effect you at all?

I've had a horrible summer and wrote the the head of the school to explain and ask if I could have a couple of weeks to make sure my write up is good. I've lost about a month and a half of dissertation time and things are still not ideal for getting things done but am almost there. The head of school granted me the extension but that gives me another 2 months (as its a standard extension for dissertation). I did ask if this would affect my starting my phd but he didn't acknowledge it :s

My problem is I'm not sure how to approach it with my supervisor who is excitedly emailing me things to think about before the start of term. I'm going to get it done within 2 weeks of the deadline but don't want to start on a bad note!
The phd is in my current university and they've been aware of the issue in the past. Sadly this just coincided with my dissertation and should be much better in 2-3 weeks.

If anyone has any advice I'd really appreciate it :)

*Bump* - Anyone?

======= Date Modified 23 Sep 2012 00:23:35 =======
Hi G-,

Um don't actually have personal experience of this but it is probably similar to things that might happen when starting a new PhD part-time and working in a professional capacity. Supervisors do sometimes get a bit excited and give you tasks straight off-and forget that you might be working in blocks not working continuously as in a full time PhD on a stipend.

My approach with my own supervisor (who is great but I am her first PhD student so she is learning about how to supervise-as much as I am learning how to do a PhD) initially was to acknowledge what she was saying, but then go home and just blast my way through whatever admin task deadline I needed to meet for my employer. Once I had put that to rest, I would spend a day or two looking at her ideas so that at the next meeting I could discuss things -very generally. The first couple of meetings with a supervisor, I found, had me really just wandering all over the place with only half a clue really (!) and she dealt with that really well. Probably many of us find that we only really start working out where we are, a few months into the PhD anyway.

So my advice-with caution, based on very limited experience of your specific situation- is to bore through your dissertation and get it done with then in 3 weeks time (I think was your planned timeline for finishing dissertation?) look at what your new supervisor is saying, and expect to just nod and take notes for a meeting or so until you can get a bit of a handle on it. Cheers and good luck with the completion and the new beginning:-)

PS: I meant to add also, that once you have finished the dissertation and after getting to know your supervisor better, you can then let them know that you were doing this so weren't as organised as you normally are. Sort of in retrospect. If you have an understanding supervisor, then they will be very supportive and won't think anything further about it-they certainly won't think any worse of you.