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[tijuanafina]

THIS is one of my pet peeves..  We had a crew at UT who waited to defend.  "I'm waiting for the right job..."  This would have been okay, but they sucked up resources grad students on a conventional timeline could have used.  Only one got a good job. 

Weren't they still graduate students though, with as much of a right to be there as those on a "conventional" timeline?

Why did the system at UT allow them to stay past their expiration date, if that's what they did?

[oldfullprof]

Aid was supposed to stop after six years, but each of the crew had a powerful sponsor-- not the same faculty members, at all.  So they got assistance out to eight or nine years, sometimes.  They also "put on airs" about this-- it wasn't my imagination.  There was an "I'm a star" vibe going on.  One was a minor star who got a job at a secondary R-1. 

I finished in four, but I admit I came in with a masters in hand.  I was out as a full-time adjunct at a masters comprehensive after three years.

[tijuanafina]

Got it.  There are a couple of those alongside me.  They have prevented me from teaching my own lecture for two years now (I've been told by the dept office admin), are heading into 9th years, and see themselves as superstars too!

I'll try to get out (and into a job) as quickly as I can.

[seniorscholar]

We do stop the money at the end of the fifth year, but will permit people to have one or two courses as an adjunct if they're really working on the dissertation, not just stalling. Very rarely, people are allowed to defend and then, by the connivance of the committee, the paperwork is not signed (since they must deposit within 30 days of successful defense) and the process picked up a semester or even a year later. In my personal knowledge (my own department and one or two others), this has happened only in the case of people who are waiting for a visa or green card, and may even have a job waiting when the #$%%! paperwork is finished. The one whose committee I was on, the first grad student we'd had from mainland China, back in the 80s, simply didn't finish the dissertation but held a job translating for the Feds (as you know, people without a visa other than a student visa or a green card can't hold paid jobs [unless, it appears, the La Migra badly needs their skills]). One day the student's green card appeared; the next day the completed dissertation was in everyone's campus mail; a month later the defense was held and the successful new PhD went off to begin a TT job at a state university in another state.

[oldfullprof]

TJF-- No, do what's best for you, given your current circumstances!

[onewaystreet]

My pet peeve is when people take a year of dissertation fellowship knowing full well that they will be ready to defend before the fellowship year starts or just a month or two into the year.  Then they defend in, say, October, but don't file until the following Spring so they get their full money's worth.  Or, perhaps a little more subtly, they sit on their work for the first semester, use the time to get other stuff done, and then turn everything in and defend in the Spring.  Either way feels very unethical to me. 

[seniorscholar]

My pet peeve is when people take a year of dissertation fellowship knowing full well that they will be ready to defend before the fellowship year starts or just a month or two into the year.  Then they defend in, say, October, but don't file until the following Spring so they get their full money's worth. 

Which is why our applications for the university-wide grad school dissertation fellowships require the candidate to submit a detailed schedule for what will be finished at what date, and also require that the supervisor's recommendation letter must include specific agreement to the dates involved.

[tijuanafina]

Here is an update - waiting to hear back from three interviews, defense scheduled for Spring. 

If I defend I have to file within the term, so there is a time limit.  But I also become a "non-student" officially, and am therefore not eligible for any PhD covered things (guaranteed TAship, library access, health insurance, etc.).

In the Fall, if nothing comes of this job search, should I defend in November so I can write on my CV "PhD received"?  Will that make me more attractive during the job search in the 2013-14 season?  Or can I write something in my letter that makes it clear why I am staying and that I basically have the PhD in hand, or would that make me look like one of these people the other poster said ("Taking up resources,etc").

Thank you.

[egilson]

One thing that I've not heard suggested, and that was suggested to me when it looked like I might have an additional year of funding, was to get the dissertation ready to defend and file and then spend the time up until that defense producing work for publication. That way, you can go on the market with "Dissertation to be defended X November 2012" and "Article 'This Came From My Brilliant Dissertation' accepted for publication in PrettyNice Journal" on your CV.

[ruralguy]

If I were you, OP, I'd forget about the "piles" (nonesense anyway----some schools don't hire ABDs and some do. There is no universal rule.
Though you'd certainly have to get the phD quickly enough). Also, don't try to strategically schedule things. Just write. When it looks as if you will be done, schedule the defense date qand plan to revise and get the final sign off quickly.  Then you can worry about how to tell employers about it.

[tijuanafina]

If I were you, OP, I'd forget about the "piles" (nonesense anyway----some schools don't hire ABDs and some do. There is no universal rule.
Though you'd certainly have to get the phD quickly enough). Also, don't try to strategically schedule things. Just write. When it looks as if you will be done, schedule the defense date qand plan to revise and get the final sign off quickly.  Then you can worry about how to tell employers about it.

Well I am finished basically.  I'm strategically trying to balance staying alive by having a job and making myself more attractive to the few jobs out there.

Many people on search committees on here have talked about the "piles" - It seems a lot more likely for people to be more attractive to "done" applicants than "abd."

[ruralguy]

OK.

You seem to be leaning toward delaying strategically, so just do that.