[TheSownRose]

My deadline is in two weeks. The university recommend having it ready for binding and handing in three days before the deadline. In comparison to most of my classmates, I'm slightly ahead in that I have a complete draft with just editing and a few minor tweaks left. Basically, I'm exactly where I think I should be with it, possibly a tiny bit ahead.

However, my parents (who are generally great, but lack any experience of how higher education works) think it should be ready to hand it now and are under the impression that everyone else is like that. So, in order to allay their concerns, I'm taking a survey of when people actually hand their dissertations in.

You don't need to reply (although it would be great if you did), but voting in the poll would be a great help. If you're still doing your dissertation, please reply/vote with an honest estimate of when you expect to be handing it in. Thanks.

[River85]

Three days before the deadline but I'm weird. In my experience from the last few years, the day before (or day itself) is common. I watch the people still printing their dissertation off (yes, still printing it off, let alone getting it bound) five hours before the deadline, with bemusement.

[Flo[ProActiv]]

I handed mine in 4 days before the deadline, partly due to the fact that I had friends coming to visit, and partly because I hate doing things last minute - even if I hadn't had people there, I still would have handed it in 3+ days before hand.

[breakout]

I handed my project in nine days before the deadline. This was unusual - I was the third person in Life Sciences to submit (we had to do it in person and sign a book for proof).

For my Masters I submitted five days before the deadline. But that was a Sunday morning and you just posted it through a letterbox.

Like the person above, I did feel slightly smug about it when watching the stress-filled queues on the deadline day.

[River85]

Also it's been my experience (at Durham, philosophy specifically) that supervisors often want a final meeting with the student three or four days before it's handed in and may be unable to check the final dissertation this point, so if the student wants to hand it in earlier than two or three days before the deadline, it means losing their final meeting with the supervisor (well, techincally the student can attend, but it's a bit a pointless if the dissertation has already been submitted). By the time this meeting has taken place, the student has made final corrections, and printed the dissertation off, there's only two or three days before the deadline.

I think having it read to be bound three to four days before the deadline is a good guide so don't be too worried, thinking most hand theirs in over a week earlier.

[rockrunride]

I don't have a dissertation, but my ex HM (and close friend) did an all-nighter typing his up on the last day. One of my current HMs had hers more or less finished a week ago, deadline next Monday. No surprise that the latter wants to go into academia and the former doesn't!

[------]

A week, I think.

[TheSownRose]

(Original post by River85)
I think having it read to be bound three to four days before the deadline is a good guide so don't be too worried, thinking most hand theirs in over a week earlier.

I'm not worried; at this rate, it should be ready a few days beforehand (which is what I thought was about right, based on what the university recommend, I'll be seeing my supervisor for the final meeting a week before the deadline and how other people seem to be progressing), but my parents worry about me failing spectacularly - glad I can tell them that actually most people don't hand it in a fortnight in advance.

[itzme]

I was thinking of handing it in on the day!

[Laurah5498]

I want mine printed and bound the day before and I'll probably hand it in on the day.

I have another essay due in the same day as my dissertation so I'll have to have that done too!

[somethingbeautiful]

I've got another 4 weeks and I have got most of it done already but I'm going to keep working on it for all the time we've been given - may as well make use of it! So I'll probably hand it in on the day, or possibly the day before.

[TheSownRose]

(Original post by somethingbeautiful)
I've got another 4 weeks and I have got most of it done already but I'm going to keep working on it for all the time we've been given - may as well make use of it! So I'll probably hand it in on the day, or possibly the day before.

This is the approach I take with exams (unless I know that I just can't do any more) - it's not like I planned anything else for that three hour slot, so I may as well spend all of it getting the highest mark I can. I'm there right up until the last minute and I'm sure my class think I'm slow, but I nearly always write down a few extra things late on and get a few extra marks for them. Combined, those extra things probably pushed me from a 2.1 to a 1st in my second year.

Coursework, though... I hate things hanging over me, so they're generally ready to go a few days before. Plus, I am spectacularly unlucky with technology, so I could nigh-on guarantee that my hard drive would crash or my printer would fail or some other equipment/circumstances would conspire against me if I tried to hand it in on the day.

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

2 hours before the deadline. I would have handed it in later than that to brush up on the editing (in retrospect, this would have been a good idea) but I was pretty much out of it and very hysterical...

[somethingbeautiful]

(Original post by TheSownRose)
This is the approach I take with exams (unless I know that I just can't do any more) - it's not like I planned anything else for that three hour slot, so I may as well spend all of it getting the highest mark I can. I'm there right up until the last minute and I'm sure my class think I'm slow, but I nearly always write down a few extra things late on and get a few extra marks for them. Combined, those extra things probably pushed me from a 2.1 to a 1st in my second year.

Coursework, though... I hate things hanging over me, so they're generally ready to go a few days before. Plus, I am spectacularly unlucky with technology, so I could nigh-on guarantee that my hard drive would crash or my printer would fail or some other equipment/circumstances would conspire against me if I tried to hand it in on the day.

Haha, ditto on tech failures. I'm so petrified of things going wrong with my dissertation that I've backed it up on 3 different computers, a dongle, and sent it to two different e-mail addresess. I think if I hand it in on the day I will make sure it's printed and bound at least the day before.

[Norton1]

Where is the fifteen minutes beforehand option? I printed it an hour before the deadline and had to do a light jog down to the binding place. I highly recommend this method.

[Deathly_Hallows]

I would hand it on the day, but I would have it ready to be handed up a day or two before.