[mcv]

Struggling with this is exactly why I never quite finished my degree. All the papers where I had to choose what to write about, without having an immediate topic I just had to write about, never even got started. Thesis is an even bigger project. Dropping out and not having to do it anymore felt like a relief.

[thaumasiotes]

At my university, a thesis was one option. You could substitute a middling GRE score.

American universities are pretty keen to graduate you if that's plausible at all. See also: remedial classes.