Final year dissertation disaster

[GatherlyGal]

DC is in their final year. She has autism and has struggled a lot. She IDs as trans and life has been up and down and quite hard at times for about the last 6 years.

Uni has been going great though and all on course for graduation this year. Except as it turns out she has not done her dissertation. I had concerns at Easter but she brushed them off and told me she can get extra time it'll be ok etc.

It all came to a head this week when she handed in her final course work and essays leaving just the dissertation and she had to face the fact she can't do it.

She is very independent in many ways and not great at letting us in when she needs support. She's been lonely and isolated this year (girlfriend is on a year abroad) and I think she may not have been going into Uni much but I don;t know. She has high marks in all other work but will not get the dissertation done so no degree.

She's got a meeting next week with her tutor but I don't know what the options might be. I'd like to be at the meeting (if she will allow and she probably won't) but she's worked hard and done so well and I just don't know how to help to get her over the line so she can come away with a degree.

Any suggestions at all on what options might be or how I can help her very very welcome.

I did all-nighters with dd who is probably ADHD. Effectively idea bouncing and body doubling.
So despite not having a degree myself can confirm a dissertation can be written from scratch in a week.
Dd managed one mark above a fail, fortunately the rest of her work for the previous three years was very high so she received a 2:1
I think she was just completely overwhelmed.

Contact the university department today and ask if she can still apply for extenuating / mitigating circumstances or whatever it's called there. If so then put that form in and she will be able to do it without the mark being capped when she's ready. But it will help to apply before the deadline and time is of the essence now.

It’s a tricky one given her diagnosis. That said, she can’t not have known about the dissertation and unless she’s struggled for the whole of the last year, she should have done at least some of the required work.

I always remember one of my lecturers setting work at the start of term and telling everyone not to leave it until the last minute. She was very clear that if you went to her unwell 11 weeks into a 12 week term and asked for an extension, it would be granted if you could show what you’d been doing in the preceding weeks. If you rolled up at the final hour with sweet FA, then it was tough!

Only you (and she) can know the nuances and whether it’s ability/commitment/
diagnosis/laziness/anything else under the sun that has caused this. It’s also worth keeping in mind that she won’t be spoon fed how to write a dissertation. That’s part of the point!

Its not a good idea for her to do a masters if she hasn't been able to complete this.

I am a fellow last minute merchant. Five days of sheer panic scribbling got me exactly 60%. Which was stupid
on my part as I did well in my finals and it pulled me down overall but I just couldn’t face looking at the wretched fucker. I am allegedly NT. I can imagine any measure of ND would lead to a lot of additional psychological difficulties in organising oneself if there’s minimal supervision. ND and long projects can be a really bad mix.

Your DD sounds like she’s done well overall and it’s just this last hurdle. I feel sorry for her, it’s all very well people giving out the tough love here but they don’t know precisely what has led to this and what she’s facing internally. Also, it’s her first bash at this. Don’t write off an MA, obviously it depends on the subject and the format but I got a distinction in mine because I chose the right post-grad (something I cared about).

Of course if she just can’t do it she can’t but as many have said here dissertations aren’t that long and can be fired out in a very short amount of time - ie. If they’ll let her do it over the summer. It may well be that the idea of tackling it has now grown horns and a tail and that prospect is way worse than the reality of actually writing it. It doesn’t need to be many, many weeks of work (assuming she’s done the necessary like research, labwork etc, if not that’s clearly an additional issue). Do you know where she’s at with it? As in, does she know what she’s writing about and has she the material to write it up?

Yes quite I am aware of all that. With DD I am usually treading a very fine line of supporting while encouraging independence. She is very smart but finds some things extremely difficult. It's not always obvious which things will be difficult and she's not great at communicating until its all gone to shit as it has here.

She has had some fairly extreme mental health issues in the past and is, generally doing so much better but I can't know what she doesn't tell me and of course there's no communication from the Uni.

I just don;t want her to waste 3 years of hard work and a lot of money by not coming away with a degree because we can't find a way though here.

This is really helpful @desperatedaysareover . She's put it in the "too hard" pile and concentrated on everything else.

The challenge now is that she actually traumatised by it and can't face it. As I understand it all the research and planning is done but she had to make lots of last minute changes and it's tipped her over the edge into some kind of breakdown.

I have had students who struggle with their dissertations. The main reason they struggled was because they:

• didn't attend any of the research methods seminars
• didn't respond to my invitations to a supervision (multiple times) or cancelled appointments
• didn't trespond to emails enquiring after their progress including information about well-being support
• didn't offer me a piece of draft material for feedback
• didn't start their reading and research in a timely fashion
• didn't listen to me, or respect my experience, that if they trust the process, and do the work bit by bit (our students get scaffolded support which averages out to a meeting/seminar/supervision fortnightly) they will produce a decent dissertation

If I totted up the hours chasing avoidant students ... hours I could have used for students who treated me respectfully & turned up. Including those with learning accommodations (which I assume your autist DC has?)

So, you know, it's not always "lack of supervisor support."

Your DC is best advised to:

• see someone at their Student Guild/Union for advice
• get to the Well-being/Counselling service
• take a university advisor to their tutor meeting - at my place a parent would not be allowed - has to be a "member of the university"
• request an extension - this will mean they won't graduate in July, but can eventually graduate
• commit to supervision - although who'll be available over the summer is tricky - it's about the only time we can take substantial annual leave
• accept that there'll be a cap at 40% of the mark

Is she at the stage of not even logging on because the whole thing fills her with terror?

Loads of good ideas here, can I add that if she gets a future hand in date that she works out how many words per day will fulfil this? Knowing you have to do 200 words per day until a certain date is a big mental shift and of course when you’ve done 200 words it might be okay to do another 20 or 100 etc.

Plus, discourage the Masters for now.

Does she need it or she wants it?

So - how about breaking it into manageable chunks - 30 mins map out her conclusion 30 mins for her intro - rinse and repeat, make it more accessible for her to think anoht

and of course get her to speak to the course supervisor etc

The Masters is off the table until she can find a way to get the degree! And if she needs support for another year to graduate then she can't do it unless she can support herself.

It's too late for that this year. Whether she can do it over the summer I don't know.

Can she not do this remotely from home?

One thing that has stood out for me in this thread, is you're saying that you want her to get a degree. But does she, really want to get a degree herself? Because behind all the diagnoses and allowances, mistakes and worries, she may actually be self-sabotaging because she doesn't really want to continue.

This
I also work in HE and actually run our dissertation module.

She needs to contact the welfare services at her uni. With ND I assume she has some kind of support plan in place. This will often allow for extensions.

In terms of the request for extension highlight the mental health stresses and the fact that she is at burn out level. She should get an extension to either the summer or she may choose to do the dissertation module as a repeat without attendance next year.

This is the best advice on the thread - she must go through official channels to apply for her circumstances to be taken into account for an extension or repeat attempt. And she must do it straight away.

She has an appointment for next week with Learning Support and the deadline for submitting extenuating circumstances is in a couple of weeks so I think she's doing the right things.

@Flyswats she has got great marks in everything else and completed all course work and exams this year so I think she really does want to graduate!

I’ve not long since graduated from a nursing degree and quite a few of my cohort failed the dissertation portion- they just resat that module and graduated a bit later then the rest of us. I work alongside some of them now and it hasn’t made a jot of difference!
But I’d be slightly wary of your DD embarking on a masters whilst she’s struggling- the academic expectations are higher than an undergrad and you need to be far more self motivated.

Tbh it doesn't sound like a good idea at all to pursue a masters if she has totally not done her dissertation.

Masters is a post graduate degree, these qualifications are all about being able to independently study and research your chosen topic - exactly what the dissertation requires. If that's been the bit she has really struggled with she's unlikely to be suited to masters study!

I totally agree that she needs to think seriously about masters level study. More independent learning and higher pressure deadlines and word counts does not sound like an ideal pathway for her.

It’s true you don’t get good support. When I did my degree fifteen years, at supposedly a “good” uni too, I got very little support. But then when you think, a degree is mainly independent study.

My dad was in hospital during my final year and I found deadlines really hard. I honestly thought about chucking the towel in, resitting the year etc. I had two days to do my dissertation. I had a big sleep, lots of coffee and caffeine and pulled two all nighters to complete it. I got a 2:1. The way I saw it. I could pull out all the stops and see what I got. If I failed I’d resit the year. Resitting her dissertation she will be capped at the lowest pass grade. This can really affect your overall degree with it being your dissertation. It can be done!! She can be burnt out after it’s handed in. Some tough love is needed.

If she has not missed the deadline and has some work done she needs to contact the research supervisor and the assessment office together with disability support immediately. If she has evidence from gp of current mental health issues she will most likely be granted an extension, probably until December. If not she needs to hand in what she had done. If it is a pass it is good. If a fail the resubmission is capped at 40. If she does not submit without extension it will be a non serious attempt/ non submission, will get a 0 and usually no further attempt without appeal.
People have stated how they have given there offspring a lot of help. That seems counterproductive to me, if someone can’t manage their own degree are they really achieving their dream?

I wrote my dissertation in 3 days with the help of pro plus and energy drinks. I got a 2:1. It’s doable if not ideal

She needs to ask her supervisor for the opportunity to get either more time due to her autism or re- submit, so a later date graduation. In her next meeting.
Now, both calm down, have a cup of tea and:
A) Has she done the work? Either lab work or pure literature research? So she is struggling with putting it together? But she has the pieces of the puzzle, so to speak. Then it is likely that her supervisor and the wider team will give her some guidance. There will be past dissertations as examples. You could give her a hand maybe. Or someone with a related degree/ job.
I would encourage her to take with her whatever she has done so far to the meeting.
B) If she has not done the bulk of the job then she will have to either try for later graduation or next year. It is really all about starting it. Pushing through and then it starts taking shape. It is the mental block of seeing a blank page or struggling to join it is a flow, with full purppse and sense what can make people freeze.