As a senior graduate student, you might face a situation where your advisor is not on the same page as you about graduation. The recommended approach, in this case, would be to tackle the problem step by step, and not all at once.

It may very well be that the last person to get on the same page is your advisor. In this case, please know that yours isn’t the first or the last professor to be a pain in the ass when it comes to graduating. It is a well-known phenomenon. If this is your biggest hurdle, you are not alone.

In fact, that is the best advice I can give.

Internalize that you are not alone and there are other people in this world who can help and influence your situation, directly and indirectly.

Everyone has a boss and everyone is answerable to someone, even though this stuff is fuzzier in academia. Still, note that people do care about their own reputations and what their colleagues think of them.

Turn to your committee members. This is where it is so important to have good relations with everyone on your committee. Make sure to foster relations of mutual trust and understanding with your committee members.

You will need them when your advisor is being unreasonable. There is also the department, and people who are helping to run the program such as the program coordinator. Go to the department chair, if you have to.

Again, this is where I hope you know that being well connected beyond your research group is of utmost importance, no matter how confident you feel about things in the initial years of graduate school. Shit almost always goes down when it comes time to graduate, and you will need these other people to support you.

Most importantly, do NOT lose hope, faith, or the will to live. Minimize encounters and engagements that demoralize you.

If your advisor is demoralizing you, acknowledge it, and strategize to mitigate their negative impact.

Instead of wasting time arguing with or getting stressed out by your advisor, focus on getting EVERYONE ELSE on the same page first.

Build your case for graduation and step by step everyone will get on the same page.

I hope this helps and stay tuned to more posts, podcasts, and videos to help you graduate.