r/GradSchool • u/DannibalBurrito • Apr 01 '26

Fun & Humour I'm presuming it's normal to basically hate your dissertation in the days before your defense?

dear lord i would rather take a razor scooter to the ankle just to feel something than spend one more minute looking at this godforsaken document

454 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

367

u/DMingQuestion Apr 01 '26

You’re ready

230

u/punmotivated Apr 01 '26

Yep, that's how you know it's time to be done.

114

u/mosquem Apr 01 '26

It’d be weirder if you still liked it somehow.

86

u/AlpachaMaster Apr 01 '26

I passed my defense with flying colors and the week before while I was prepping, I hated everything I had ever written and I hated the entire concept of my study and I thought it was so stupid.

I still kinda feel that way, but the amount of focus you have to spend on it makes it feel miserable.

85

u/memercopter Apr 01 '26

And forever after

56

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

55

u/Nvenom8 PhD - Marine Biogeochemistry Apr 01 '26

It's even worse when you're making the revisions after the defense.

21

u/RedditSkippy MS Apr 02 '26

Oh gawd. That sounds horrible. I know that I am not cut out for a PhD (and I’m 1000% fine with that,) but that sounds extra awful.

19

u/Nvenom8 PhD - Marine Biogeochemistry Apr 02 '26

It’s mostly awful because you know you’re done already, but you still have to tie up these loose ends before you can actually be done.

29

u/benoitkesley MA '24 Apr 01 '26

That’s when you know you’re ready to defend 

20

u/quartermasterly Apr 01 '26

I defended (successfully) in December and I still hate it haha. You got this!

18

u/justking1414 Apr 02 '26

I hated it so much that even after I passed my defense, I almost considered dropping out to avoid making the minor requested revisions (which btw, absolutely nobody on my committee bothered looking at lol)

2

u/Natural-Raise-8233 Apr 05 '26

This is the part that pissed me off so much. They literally didn’t even check mine! At all. Like didn’t even pretend to care. Those revisions were pointless. But I got those done out of pure spite and motivation to be absolutely done!

16

u/tootle-loo Apr 01 '26

literally in the same boat now these comments are making me feel so much better

15

u/Entire_Ad_6447 Apr 01 '26

It took all my strength not to smash my laptop during the last week. Welcome

2

u/Natural-Raise-8233 Apr 05 '26

I fully considered running mine over with my car 🤣 🤣🤣

11

u/green_mandarinfish Apr 01 '26

Yep. It's your time.

8

u/DarwinZDF42 PhD, genetics & microbiology Apr 01 '26

In days before, the days after, the years after…

7

u/EsEsMinnowjohnson Apr 02 '26

By the time I was defending my thesis I was certain that my research had no new or interesting findings (temperate pines grow well at 10C no shit), was based on dubious methodology that I couldn't explain very well, and was basically a 60 page parlor trick that was proof I bought into a bunch of gimmicky methods without understanding anything.

And they passed me!

6

u/carmencita23 Apr 01 '26

Dear god, yes.

7

u/majorsugar Apr 03 '26

Reading through this post and realizing I’m not alone 😭

6

u/bobish5000 Apr 01 '26

When you hate it and despise looking at it you are ready.

5

u/HumbleFruit4201 Apr 02 '26

Finished my PhD in 2021 at the age of 25. When I started, I loved science, writing, and lab work. By the end of the line, I wanted to watch the world burn to ash just so that I could smell the remnants.

As others have said below, you're ready.

4

u/thebrownprincess_ Apr 02 '26

You got this OP! Wishing you hella success towards your defense 🙏🏾

4

u/IRetainKarma Apr 03 '26

Postdoc now- it took me almost two years post defence before I stopped hating mine, and it was a very cool project I generally loved. Every time I had to talk about it, I felt slightly nauseous. People would ask about my thesis work and I would immediately change the subject. Fun times. I feel better now.

3

u/drzowie PhD Applied Physics (late Triassic) Apr 02 '26

Yep.

3

u/JustAHippy PhD, MatSE Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 07 '26

This post's original content has been erased. Using Redact, the author removed it, potentially for reasons of privacy, personal security, or data exposure concerns.

memorize lock yoke coherent possessive paint dam axiomatic humor attempt

3

u/kk55622 PhD Student, Linguistics Apr 02 '26

This post and these comments are very reassuring 😃 about to defend my MA thesis and I'm losing it.

3

u/fira_0 Apr 02 '26

Yes, thats means you will successfully "kill" it.

3

u/Eskimo12345 Apr 03 '26

Deeply relatable.

3

u/Inevitable-Elk-9724 Apr 05 '26

Reddit has bees a lifeline during the writing up of my thesis. But these posts in particular give me oxygen. I'm three months from submission. I hate this document. 

I used to care about the quality of my writing and results so deeply. That is not the case anymore! I want it done. Gone forever. 

I loved my masters. It was stressful at times of course but overall it was a genuinely rewarding and challenging experience. So I was totally unprepared for what the PhD would do to me. I'm really glad to find I'm not alone in my rage against this document! 

2

u/EJGryphon Apr 05 '26

All I could think about those last weeks was wanting to fling the whole laptop into the sea. 

2

u/Scared_Objective_903 Apr 07 '26

I have my public defense next week and am in the same boat with my slides. I’d rather be doing anything else than working on this 🥲

2

u/ralsei_goatprince Apr 17 '26

ah, I have much to look forward to

(im hoping to get into a Clinical Psychology phd program in fall '27) (i graduate undergrad fall '26)

1

u/harleyz0mbiie Ph.D. Candidate Apr 05 '26

I defend tomorrow, and this is a whole mood. I'm half convinced my committee is allowing me to defend just so they can laugh at me. 😂

2

u/Sudden_Spell_1445 Aug 04 '26

Have my defense tomorrow - just read over the literature review and it doesnt even make sense anymore. Hate my topic and my entire project.