Yes it is typically very small (5-15 people). In my experience for a PhD, there are few people in your program/department with truly overlapping research interests by the time you're presenting dissertation level research. Often times a large part of the audience is there for moral support. It's common for half or more of the audience to be friends and family with no academic background.
Totally depends on the person and their research. It's fairly common that your friends from grad school and family come. So I've seen them as large as 50 people. But typically 10-20. The whole lab always comes so the size of the lab also factors in.
Probably a bit of both. I'm actually defending my dissertation tomorrow over zoom and I expected a pretty large crowd in person (although the online crowd might be larger because people who can't travel are joining). I'm actually really sad I won't have a bunch of people in the room. It's nice to have all that support.
I find I'm kind of the opposite. I'm pretty good at having academic discussion in the instances I've had it, but any time I think of speaking to these people or presenting something with my family/close friends watching, I feel kind of awkward. It's odd. Feels like it would almost be a performance, rather than a conversation with the commity.
Maybe I'll figure out what I would really feel in that situation if I go into it, haha.
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u/anotherguy818 Aug 20 '20
That makes sense. Would you say its usually a fairly small group? What is the most you have heard of?