Dr. Steve Tippins helps graduate students finish their dissertations on time by setting clear goals, identifying roadblocks, and balancing academic work with family life. He pushes back against horror stories about endless dissertations, saying those aren't the norm when you work with him.
He demystifies things because you hear so many stories about the dissertation chair or the committee. Everything is just coming out. A lot of times you have all this negativity swirling in your head and he sort of demystifies the process. Just recently, someone had said it took them 7 years to complete their Ph.D. That was not my story. But if you're working with Dr. Tippins and you say to him, oh, I heard this and I heard that, okay, but that's not the norm. And there may be other extenuating circumstances as to why that situation occurred. That doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be your story. Here's how we stay on track. What do you want to accomplish? When do you want to be finished with this? What are some of the things that are a roadblock? Help you to think through, you know, a lot of folks, it's just you have to balance your family and friends and all these relationships with this journey. When you hit maybe a roadblock or things may be interfering with the process, he helps you to think through in terms of, okay, what are some of those obstacles? What are some of the ways that you could look at, you know, addressing them?
