Bombed My Defense!

Dear Labby,

My thesis defense started out fine. It was the usual seminar (with my husband, our five-year-old daughter, my parents, and my in-laws all sitting in the back) followed by some easy questions from the audience in this “public” part. After a short break, the committee convened and things went downhill in a hurry. The extramural member went first and had huge issues. I did my best to answer her questions, but I was clearly in trouble. None of the intramural members of my thesis committee came to my rescue, and this added to my angst. They had been so supportive all through my thesis research odyssey and now were so silent. After this horrible nadir, they did ask me some questions, which I handled fine, but I was still shell-shocked. At the end I was asked to step out and when called back was told that I was a “near-fail” but that a few key experiments and a significant rewrite could salvage my thesis.

Obviously I am setting out to do this. But the experience was humiliating. Will I forever wear a badge of (near) failure, like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter? Maybe that’s apt because I am so embarrassed that my face has been pure λ = 650 nm ever since.

—Sandbagged

Dear Sandbagged,

Wow, you were indeed sandbagged. Why didn’t the external examiner bring up these issues with your adviser (and you) after first reading the thesis? And were the issues she raised ones your thesis committee had failed to bring up earlier? In any case, it may not be productive to seek an explanation for this puzzling attack. Instead focus on the most important aspects: you, your angst, and moving beyond this.

Thesis revisions are typical, so that is no stigma and you can relax. You will revise your thesis in response to valid points made, but you will never wear a scarlet letter, because the thesis defense records will be buried in the archives of your institution. Even if the new experiments and thesis revision knock you out of a planned spring 2016 graduation, many institutions allow a student still revising his or her thesis to “walk” at graduation. Soon you will move on to a postdoc position and this experience will fade into your past.

To lift your spirits, you should read the account of another PhD student who failed his defense (a “real fail,” until a key experiment was repaired). His name may be familiar to you. Labby encourages you to read his account1 and suspects you will feel much better.

 


 

Reference

  1. Alberts B (2004). A wake-up call. Nature 431, 1041 (doi:10.1038/4311041a).

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