Steve Tippins Ph.D.Helping doctoral students get their dissertation accepted, succeed in their careers, & change the world | Academic Career Advisor | Dissertation Chair & Founder, Beyond PhD Coaching | 35 + years of experience.

Client Testimonial

7 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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In this testimonial, the client explains how their mentor/consultant significantly aided their dissertation journey by preparing them for committee interactions. The mentor clarified the distinct roles of the dissertation chair and committee members, helped the client maintain an effective relationship with the chair, and provided insight into the committee’s feedback. Additionally, the mentor conducted research on the client’s institution when needed, asked probing questions about the committee’s structure and feedback, and encouraged the client to formulate follow‑up questions for the chair, ultimately enhancing the client’s confidence and strategic approach to the dissertation process.

Chapters

What I can say that was even most helpful for me as it relates to this would be the committee's feedback. He helps to prepare you for what may happen with the committee. He helps to guide you in terms of, again, that effective relationship that you need to keep with your dissertation chair. He helps you to understand what the role of the chair is, what the role of the committee is, and then he will, you know, what school are you affiliated with? If he knows of them personally, he'll speak to them. If not, he'll do a little bit of research to understand where you're coming from. He'll ask you different questions about the committee, how are things going, what have they said, what is structure, what is the feedback that they have actually given you so far, what do you think about it. It also helped me in the discussions that I had with him, helped me to think about questions that I also may need to follow up with my dissertation chair.