The Endless Dissertation

Author(s): Adapted from a scenario by Todd Riggs, MIT'92

You have been pursuing doctoral studies in Engineering at X U for six years. You chose to do a thesis with Professor Z, despite having heard Z characterized as a "slave-driver." Although you found Professor Z to be an exacting supervisor, and the thesis work was challenging, the two of you developed a fairly good working relationship.

You completed course work eighteen months ago, and have since been working solely on the thesis. During this period, you have submitted each chapter of the thesis to Professor Z; Z suggested incremental revisions in both the methods and the writeup, which you have carried out. You now believe the original goals that the two of you agreed upon have been completed and you submit the final draft to Z.

Professor Z responds that it is unsatisfactory and asserts that you must not only revise the thesis document, but do additional work on the experimental apparatus and collect substantially more data. You feel that the additions that Professor Z has demanded go unreasonably beyond the original scope of the project and will require another eighteen months to complete.

What can/should you do now?