I haven't seen anyone mentioning this scary thing, true when I was at a top-10 university: No significant-enough publication, no Ph.D., even after years of all

I haven't seen anyone mentioning this scary thing, true when I was at a top-10 university: No significant-enough publication, no Ph.D., even after years of all-in work and an accepted dissertation are done. Things might have changed, but this is up there with foreign language requirement in terms of fine print nobody reads going in.