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This is correct. When I was a Ph.D student I was told that it was very rare for someone to fail their thesis defense, because their advisor will not let them de
by derf_ 11y ago
This is correct. When I was a Ph.D student I was told that it was very rare for someone to fail their thesis defense, because their advisor will not let them defend until they know they are going to pass. It does happen, but it takes a special kind of effort and means your advisor screwed up.
- mcguire 11y agoOh, yeah. If you fail at your defense, your adviser is going to be permanently embarrassed. As in, not being able to show his face in the faculty lounge embarrassed. Universally mocked. I personally had to go through the proposal phase twice and that was bad enough.
- wsxcde 11y agoOne more amusing anecdote about "failing" a defence. I was told this happened in the EE department at Princeton. There was a student whose defence wasn't going well and the committee’s consensus was that the more work needed to be done. But if the student actually failed the defence, special university regulations would kick in for the second defence which would likely make it impossible for him to defend. Not wanting to do that, the committee came up with an ingenious loophole. Apparently the committee is allowed to take coffee breaks. So they decided to take a coffee break - for two months - while the student went back and fixed up his thesis and managed to defend once proceedings resumed after the "break."
- kobayashi 11y agoThat is absolutely phenomenal. Any sourcing on this, so when I repeat it it's not just a case of "somebody wrote this online"?