"I will not go for a doctorate, because it would be of little help to me, and the whole comedy has become boring." Albert Einstein, January 22, 1903.
Albert Einstein's Dissertation Comedy
1905 has been called the "miracle year" due to Albert Einstein racking up break-throughs in physics quicker than he could publish them. It was also the year of his doctorate. He submitted one of his papers, The Theory of Relativity, and it was rejected. This was already his third attempt, two prior to that also having been rejected.
Einstein realised the conservatism of his professors and "played it safe" with a nice experimental paper with lots of complicated maths and no novel theories. This suited them better but they still rejected it for being too short. Apparently, he added one sentence, resubmitted it and it was accepted. It took him five years to get his doctorate.
For more on Einstein check out: Einstein 1905: The Standard of Greatness by John S. Rigden