Thursday, February 02, 2006
Why?
Why is the one hard and fast deadline for dissertations the format check? You have to have the dissertation submitted for this at least 5 weeks before graduation. You can wait to schedule your defense just a few days before graduation, but all hell breaks loose if you miss the formatting check deadline. Just tell me why this suddenly the most important thing at this point? What if your committee requests changes at the defense? (But wait, you've already been through formatting check--what if the additions/corrections change the format??) I just don't get it. . .
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6 comments:
Huh. Wasn't a big deal for us. In fact, I don't recall a format check.
Our format check isn't a big deal--but we have a hard and fast deadline too. We don't even have to turn in a completed document. They mainly look at margins and the front page stuff--shouldn't be anything that impacted by your later revisiosns. We unfortunately do have a hard defense deadline too which means you have to defend about two months before graduation to graduate that semester! But hey, I don't really get much of this process so I'm right there with you.
My mom runs the Thesis & Diss office at a university. Some universities choose to have standards so that all T&D look more or less the same, thus the format check. What you probably don't realize is that there are some abyssmally clueless people out there who will use the weirdest formats and be so sloppy that things like their figure numbering isn't right and their references are all misnumbered, etc. It takes a little while to go through each thesis/dissertation, and when the office is getting a few hundred each semester, almost all invariably turned in at the last possible moment, they have to have some hard and fast deadlines if they want to be able to make the publication date. It's generally assumed that once you know the proper formatting, you'll continue to do so up until the final submission. I think many offices will check at the final submission too. It is pretty annoying to get held up by formatting after all the excitement and pain of finishing and defending.
Thanks for the info, Sheepish--it all makes sense. The thing that really puzzles me at my university is that this formatting check is the ONLY hard and fast deadline--no one ever verifies that the defense paperwork is turned in before you "walk"---the only date you must meet to keep your name on the graduation list is this format check. That, as the final check for if someone will really be finished, is bizarre, in my opinion.
Yes, same at U of Hometown. And it must all be done in person, that is, drop it off in person, wait a few days, pick it up in person, print it on fancy really expensive paper, bring it back in person. Makes it tough on someone like me on internship out of town, but thank goodness, I have jumped that hurdle! And congratulations to you for being close enough to be concerned about that deadline!
dice_singer
Because all things dissertation must be:
1) retarded
2) labor intensive
3) stressful
4) retarded
It's, like, a rule or something.
SuperB
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