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Why is the end of a PhD maintained as such a stressful and panic-filled process?
Aligned with what Dagon said, there is no particular incentive driving for it to be otherwise.
Somewhat more cynically, I have observed that it is very much to the professor's advantage to be able to credibly assert that you are "still N months away from graduating", where N is whatever number they feel like using in that moment to manipulate you to whatever ends they wish. Maybe they want to dissuade you from taking an internship. Maybe they want you to focus more on your research and less on your courses. Regardless, it seems the universal state... (read more)