How to deal with an advisor who doubts timeliness of completion

[hejduk]

I recently defended my proposal, however, I have some significant edits to complete. I expect that these edits will take 1-2 weeks to complete, 1 week for IRB, 1 week for data collection, and then writeup the results by the beginning of August. 

 

Here's the catch: my advisor seems to think that I won't be done by August. My other committee members think I definitely complete everything by then, but ultimately, the advisor is who has to sign forms, etc. 

 

My advisor has doubted my ability to complete things in a short time frame before, so do I just push ahead and work as hard as I can, and prove him wrong by getting things done in a timely manner?

 

Quite frustrated, and would love some advice on how to handle the situation. I'm thinking of preparing a timeframe on a 3-month printout to provide a visual reference for how long each part of the process will take, with completion in August. I've proven my advisor wrong before, and I have the faith of other faculty that I can complete, so why not try? (if you're wondering "why not just take another semester", I desperately need to get a job, and "move on" in my academic life)

[TakeruK]

I mean, it's not like your advisor will purposely *not* sign the form if you do have everything completed for graduation right? So, I think that it's always important to consider your advisor's experience and take into account that he/she thinks that these things might take longer, but ultimately, I do think that you should just push ahead and finish it on your timeline!

[fuzzylogician]

^This. I think it's worth taking the time to consider why your advisor thinks you won't finish on time, in order to identify places where you may not be giving yourself enough time to complete a certain task. But given that the rest of your committee believes your timeline can work and that you've proven your advisor wrong before, I think the best course of action is to just do it again. I'd suggest staying in touch with your advisor on a regular basis in order to avoid any sudden unhappiness with what you're doing that may come up too late for you to finish on time. As long as the communication is there and unless there is any reason to think your advisor won't sign off on your work if you do finish, then I say go for it! 

[themmases]

My IRB is considered faster than average, and I can't think of very many edits I could make, submit, and count on them documenting approval of in 1 week-- that might be a reason for your advisor's skepticism, and that doesn't really reflect on you. You might want to talk to your advisor to see what specific parts of your timeline are problematic.

 

I don't see any reason not to try to finish things quickly if you can do them well, though. Even if you are unsuccessful, you'll still have the best possible head start, right?

[mandarin.orange]

I think you've gotten great advice thus far -- particularly Fuzzy Logician's point to not just blast through it on your own and/or work in isolation, but keep checking in with advisor as you make progress, to identify what's s/he doesn't like and what could potentially slow you down.

 

My advisor has recently expressed similar skepticism: was leery when I scheduled an earlier-than-ideal defense date (I did it anyway, and passed), and told me my publication timeline in my proposal was "too aggressive" and made me change it. It's only galvanized me to do it anyway better, faster, harder. Although now I wonder, was this a psychological trick...?

 

And agreed, I've lost count of how often I see peers decide to "take another year" or "take another semester" for the sake of bettering their projects, to make up for getting behind, changing proposals entirely mid-stream, etc. Well, sometimes external reasons prevent that and we HAVE to be done, and on time, or just can't bear to be in school any longer.  

[juilletmercredi]

My advisor frequently thinks things will take far longer than they do, primarily because he takes a very long time to do things that I could do rather quickly.  (I typically finish things more quickly than people expect, though).

I think the best idea is to write up that timeline and show it to him, then discuss in a brief meeting.  A face-to-face meeting in which you respectfully ask and address his concerns may have a big impact.

But are you saying that you think you can go through the IRB process in one week and do data collection in one week?  Or are you saying that you think you can make the edits to the section of the proposal that concern those things?  If it's the latter - then that's likely true depending on how extensive the edits are.  But if you think you can get through IRB in one week...I do think that's quite unrealistic.  I also think it's unrealistic to expect data collection in a week, although that also depends on your project.