ABD = All But Dissertation.

The statistics (in the US) shows that one third of the students who enroll in PhD quit before their general exam and another one third drop out without submitting their dissertation.

I am sure that there are many Nepali students in the US who are ABDs (There are students from other countries as well). Some of them are happy with that status not because they can not graduate but because there is no job waiting for them. As the time passes, frustration will start to bother them.

It is really nice that ABDs have a place--sajha.com--to express their feelings and experiences. One of the best ways for them to sustain positive attitude is to chat with other fellows on the same situation. For that matter, Mr. Snowfed-River gets credit for starting this thread.

I suggest Sajha.com that it provide a separate section just to discuss student issues so that these discussions do not get lost among some "not so important" issues.. I appreciate Sajha.com for its service.