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.

Why do straight A students struggle?

14 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief motivational video, Steve Tippins Ph.D. explains why students who have consistently earned straight A's often find dissertations especially challenging. He argues that the shift from a predictable pattern of praise to a cycle of detailed feedback can feel like failure for those unaccustomed to critique. Tippins reframes this feedback as an essential part of the curriculum that trains independent scholars, emphasizing that it is not a sign of failure but a learning process. He concludes with an invitation to comment the word “help” to receive a link to a free dissertation support community.

Chapters

Straight A students struggle the most with dissertations. If you have been getting straight A's since middle school, you are used to a rhythm, right? Submit, succeed. But your dissertation is totally different because instead of getting praise, you get needs justification. Reframe Chapter one. Alignment is still off. There are no gold stars and there are no clean A's, Just round and round and round feedback. So you might be feeling like I have never failed before. Why am I failing now? But you're not failing. This is just how the process works. Feedback isn't proof of failure, it's actually the curriculum. It's training you to become an independent scholar. So if you are on the dissertation journey and you want support, drop the word help in the comments below and I'll send you the link to our free dissertation help community. You've got this.