Hi leb050. I was doing my masters when I got the studentship offers from 2 universities, in 2004. One was commencing on September, the other was commencing on October. I got both of these offers in April that year and they knew I wasn't going to finish my masters until the 2nd week of August. I hope this info helps. So, you don't need to wait until you finish your studies. But I heard that sometimes universities can add a condition to finish your current studies, to their offer letter.

Luigi, have you applied for a funding separately? Even if the funding comes from the same University, the registry office is only interested in the confirmation of who will be paying the fees. If you have a funding offer from the University (or elsewhere), then this is the confirmation they needed. Just send them the details. If you haven't got funding offered to you, then you are expected to pay your own fees.

DanB., isn't thecoastman lucky that your mother wasn't there...

well, you already gave him the best excuse He now knows that you are a normal human-being and you don't need to make yourself look "right" in order to do your research. However if you feel uncomfortable with the fact that he's seen you on your normal behaviour, then you can always try blackmailing him.

I don't think your English can be an issue, as you've already proven yourself that you can perform well at tele-conferences, which are more difficult than the real conversations in my view. I also agree with sylvester's advice. Good luck.

Thanks. Hopefully the team will also like them so we can use them.

Hi Team... I hope you don't mind. I was trying to escape from work for a few minutes and I found myself making smileys for the forum...

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k248/404_forum/smiley_embarrased.gif

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k248/404_forum/smiley_cheeky.gif

Thank you Ann.
Have a lovely bank-holiday weekend...

Thank you Ann. I have seen the questions in a book, and I started writing with them this afternoon. It seems to work on paper but it feels a bit mechanical. I normally write with the flow and edit according to guidelines. This conference does not have guidelines apart from word-limit and because I have so little time, I can't get myself inspired (some sort of writers' block i guess). Hence, I've decided to use the questions but I am not sure if it's any good. Thank you very much for your good wishes.

I need to write an abstract in order to submit to a conference. The time I can allocate to this task is quite short and I thought I could write it according to Brown's 8 questions. It seems to work but I also worry that I am actually letting my future paper to get adapted to a set of rules. Do you recommend this method?

keehaa, this is perfectly normal. I think this would be a good reason for you to have a look at your initial proposal and reconsider some of the facts. No PhD research (as far as I'm aware) gets complete with the way it was proposed on the day-1. Your work needs to evolve. Proposals are always over-ambitious to start with and they get narrowed down in time. If you look at your past work with a clear mind, you will notice that you can actually focus yourself to one particular bit and eliminate anything that stays outside this frame. This will save you a lot of time. There is nothing wrong with re-scheduling things. This shows the fact that you've considered your options. Sorry for the generic approach. This is because I don't know what your subject is. But this general point can be applied to most research projects in my view. Good luck.

As there is funding such as British Marshall Scholarships available to US students to study at UK institutions, there might be an equal one for UK students to study at US universities. Have you checked the embassy websites etc?

nope

I work from home, so my desk gets messier than it would in an office. Right now, I can't see what exactly on it, because of 1.5-litre empty Volvic bottles, lots of paper and print-samples I received from printers, covering everything else. Well, I can see the monitor, mouse and the keyboard because they stick out from the crowd.

anonGerman, (we need a smiley that laughs, not just smiles) you make life sound... hmm I couldn't find a word. It makes me wanna give up the PhD and spend the rest of my life in Jaccuzis...