Help, I need advice 2

Ross Woods, 2021

Help, I need advice. I am discouraged and frustrated, and I’m ready to quit. I have been working on my prospectus for over a year and I can’t get it approved. I make all the recommended changes, resubmit, and they identify something different every time. What do I do?

[Based on a real case. Details changed and name omitted.]

First, you should have a meeting with your chair. He (or she) is your advocate. It might even be time to change your committee.

There are various reasons why this kind of thing might happen, and you probably won't get peace until you find out what is going on. The most probable problem is that the proposal is borderline in some way and fixes don't help much. Perhaps the supervisor doesn't really know how to fix it. Another topic might be the way to go.

Other possible causes could be:

  1. The supervisor might want a topic closer to his/her interests or expertise.
  2. It might be a kind of power struggle. It is your research so you should be allowed to choose and define the topic. The supervisor might feel the need for control as he/she feels a real or self-imposed responsibility to guard the standards of the dissertation program. This problem sounds bizarre but is actually quite common, even normal.
  3. The supervisor changes his/her mind according to the mood they're in.
  4. The supervisor changes his/her mind according to the things they think of at the time.
  5. The supervisor forgot what they said last time.