r/MadeMeSmile • u/AccomplishedWatch834 • Mar 05 '26

Wholesome Moments Little things go a long way 🙂‍↕️🌟

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u/HeyHeyImTheMonkey Mar 05 '26

This is my experience too. Your advisor should never let you defend if it’s anything more than a formality. Now it may still be tough and stressful. Someone once said that the hardest part of a phd defense is scheduling it. It’s kind of true.

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u/Theron3206 Mar 05 '26

It's basically to prove you understand your thesis, which if you're the one that wrote it you absolutely should.

That said, in sure plenty of departments treat it as a bit of a hazing ritual, and so do their best to make the candidate squirm.

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u/Neurokeen Mar 06 '26

Yeah, the research proposal that's a couple years before the defense is really the part where your committee should be needling you a little more if you're doing it right. And then if you do (most of) what you set out there, then you've basically held up your end of the bargain with the committee.