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.

The Secret About Your Defense

3 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief motivational video, Dr. Steve Tippins reassures doctoral candidates that dissertation committees are generally inclined to pass them once they reach the defense stage, having already reviewed the work and provided feedback. He advises treating the defense as a conversational exchange rather than a hostile trap, emphasizing confidence and genuine engagement. Tippins warns against over‑preparing on superficial aspects such as slide fonts or memorizing statistics without understanding their meaning. Instead, he encourages students to demonstrate ownership of their research, articulate its relevance to the field, and discuss it with curiosity rather than defensiveness. He concludes by offering a link to a free dissertation community for further support.

Chapters

You must know this one thing before going into your defense to help you reach success, and that is that by the time that you go into defense, your committee already wants to pass you. Phew! They've already read your work and they've already given you feedback. So if you've made it to defense, it means that they believe that you are ready. So if you can approach defense not like a trap but a conversation, it will help you feel so much more confident throughout. Too many students forget that and they over-prepare on the wrong things. They spend hours adjusting fonts on their slides, but then they don't really think about the why behind their methods. They memorize every statistic, but then they freeze when someone asks, so what does that mean? If you can show your committee that you own your work, you understand its place in the field, and that you can talk about it with curiosity and not defensiveness, you have already won. Comment help and I will send you the link to our free dissertation community. You've got this.