Graduate students often miss graduation deadlines because they don't work backwards from their target date. You need to know your submission deadline and latest defense date months in advance, then align everything backwards to avoid scrambling at the last minute.
What administrative work often trips students up at the end?
Probably the biggest administrative thing that can trip people up is not understanding the due dates. For example, oh, I want to graduate in May. Well, okay, but in order to graduate in May, when do you have to have things turned in? If you have to turn them in by April 15th, when do things have to be defended by? So you have to start working backwards, understanding all of the due dates Which means, oh, I can't defend any later than March 15th if I'm going to meet these dates.
