Echoing what @Nelmania and also empathizing as a former academic thinking fondly (or not so fondly) on my own thesis, I hope it goes smoothly and is completely stress free 
I look at timing as something completely flexible. It could be next week or next year. There’s lots of time to figure it out. And I want it to be something that’s not a burden on anyone, not a serious commitment. Just a way to have fun and experience the game a bit differently from a solo campaign. Which is why if anyone want to play the whole game before diving into multiplayer, or they just want to save it for multiplayer, anything goes from my perspective.