Originally Posted by
grumpy
Sorry, ccompiler, but phantomap has a valid point.
There are generally two broad categories of reasons that a student doing a thesis will run late: excusable reasons (eg family concerns, sickness) and inexcusable reasons (eg spent too much time partying).
If the reasons are excusable, the educational institutions are usually pretty reasonable if you explain the situation .... generally speaking, educational institutions want good students to pass, so they are helpful in cases of genuine difficulty.