So, I defended on Thursday, and usually students would be almost done, some minor revisions of the dissertation and paperwork filling out. No, not me. My advisor had a cow when she read my dissertation (the night before the defense), and grilled me on it during the defense. So, those are two ethics breachs, unspoken though. The advisor should help the student with the dissertation, and provide guidance. The advisor should not grill the student on things that she should have brought up beforehand.

ANyway, i survived, and have spent the last three days rewriting (cutting the dissertation in half), and working on the blessed paper. So today i plan to submit the dissertation to her and see what she says. I may have to get an override from the Dean, but I will try this first. If the committee approves the defense and dissertation, the dean can sign off on it w/o the advisor's approval. I feel that the dissertation I submitted to the commitee was solid, and no other committee member raised serious objections to the dissertation. Half actually read it, actually two out of five (not including the advisor).

I don't want to burn bridges, but my advisor is being unusually difficult for both me and my fellow student who is also graduating. Anyway, after three days of 8-10 hours in front of the computer I'm exhausted. I am still optimistic that this can be done, but it depends on the advisor; if she is super critical there is no way I can get her approval of the dissertation. I *so* look forward to leaving the lab. This whole experience has pretty much killed my enthusiasm for science, hopefully it will recover. The new lab sounds promising.