PhD Advisors Set Deadlines No Student Can Meet
11 posts across 2 communities since Jul 2026; 82% from r/PhD.
“I'm a final-year master's student, and I've been working on my thesis for the past two months. My supervisor expects me to identify the state of the art in my research area and figure out the entire methodology on my own. I don't have a problem with working independently. My…”
“I only have two final requirements to finish my PhD: My final defense A publication in an indexed journal But I can't get through the final defense because my adviser is so hard to please. I've been revising my manuscript for several years now, but each time I would revise my…”
“So, as somebody who just finished their PhD (yay), I'v been thinking about something that bugged me my whole study, and is bugging me still. Motivation vs deadlines... As an example, advisor deadlines and submission dates tend to hold, but the in-between ones (finish the lit…”
Multiple posts detail the intense pressure and unrealistic deadlines imposed by PhD advisors, leading to frustration and burnout. Students are struggling with data analysis demands and navigating supervisor expectations regarding publications and contract lengths.
SOURCES (11)
“So, as somebody who just finished their PhD (yay), I'v been thinking about something that bugged me my whole study, and is bugging me still. Motivation vs deadlines... As an example, advisor deadlines and submission dates tend to hold, but the in-between ones (finish the…”
“So like two months ago my advisor was waiting on me to send a final draft of one last paper and said I should be ready to defend around this time (end of September/early October). We never talked formally about planning my defense/organizing my thesis except that this paper would be my final chapter—I didn’t even know the thesis itself was supposed to be compiled/reformatted and sent to him before scheduling a date. I just saw that the committee was supposed to receive it 2+ weeks in advance, an”
“I’m looking for some advice/perspective from other PhD students and academics because I’m not sure whether I’m being unreasonable about this. Context: it is a PhD in health science in NZ. I’m at the final stage of my PhD. My thesis is essentially finished and, from my perspective, is at submission standard. I’m confident there aren’t any major red flags or substantial pieces of work left to do (and been told the same by senior academics who have reviewed it) However, I can’t submit without my ch”
“location: UK, field: molecular biology (not going to be too specific) Hello so for context: I started my PhD 4 months ago. It is in my dream niche area of research and I’m very grateful. I did stuff in the area more broadly before, but did not work on exactly what I work right now before. The PhD is flexible in the way that I can design my own project, which has become incredibly difficult. Get back to that later. Now, I was excited to start and gain some new skills, especially fluorescence micr”
“My PI tasked me with experiments that are for 3 different projects. I have help from the lab but at the same time everyone is busy doing their own experiments and work. Meaning I’d be doing about 3 different experiments during the day while also doing data analysis and drawing up the data. To broaden the load I pushed one of the experiments back a day causing for the overall results to 5/7 completed by his deadline but I’d have it done the morning after. Its a deadline he set, nothing needs to b”
“I'm a final-year master's student, and I've been working on my thesis for the past two months. My supervisor expects me to identify the state of the art in my research area and figure out the entire methodology on my own. I don't have a problem with working independently. My issue is that I feel like I'm doing it without any meaningful guidance. In every lab meeting, he mostly sits back and asks me what I've learned from the papers I've read. I explain my understandin”
“I mostly need to write this down because I am freaking out. My defense date was officially set last week. I now have 11 weeks to finish writing my thesis. I have assured my supervisor and the head of our lab that I am writing but I am behind. They've reassured me this is a normal thing to feel. I feel like I'm lying to them. I have done some writing, but I don't know I would classify most of it as proper thesis writing. I have documents for each of my chapters (four total) with varyi”
“I only have two final requirements to finish my PhD: My final defense A publication in an indexed journal But I can't get through the final defense because my adviser is so hard to please. I've been revising my manuscript for several years now, but each time I would revise my work based on her feedback, she would change it again the next time we meet. I've now reached my burnout point. Should I now quit? I'm already near the finish line but I don't have the motivation and ene”
“"It shouldn't take you long, just click a few buttons."I love my PI, but I am convinced they haven't touched a piece of modern software or stepped inside a working lab since 2008. They genuinely think complex data processing happens via magic wand.I'm currently staring at my monitor, fueled entirely by iced coffee and spite, wondering if I should write a script or just fake my own death.What is the most wildly unrealistic deadline or request your advisor has ever given you”
“I recently submitted my thesis (Neurobiology, Germany) and am looking to move to a France to be with my partner and therefore looking for jobs here (academia as research engineer or industry), while I wait for my defense date to be announced (it can only be set 3 weeks after the reviewers (my supervisor and one other prof) submit the thesis review). Context: My supervisor and I had agreed on collecting data and publishing two papers during my 3-4 years. We managed to publish one paper. Due to gr”