One interesting running theme I've noticed on here, and between my friends, is that, whatever their political persuasion, they all agree that Cameron is generally just a greasy marketing man. I would usually vote Tory, but thanks to him, I probably won't. Same for my other Tory friends.

@Gingersnaps - Labour have been in power for 13 years now. If something that "allegedly" took place around 25 years ago hasn't been fixed, you can hardly say that it's not Labour's fault.

@Melsie - I agree with what you say, but there are three reasons I don't think I could bring myself to vote Lib Dem. (1) If there's a hung parliament, there's no way I want my vote going towards helping Labour stay in power. (2) Unilateral nuclear disarmament. (3) Amnesty on illegal immigrants.

Otherwise, I may reconsider...

I quite agree, "Keep_Calm". While I'm not from a council estate, my upbringing was hardly moneyed. I definitely agree in allowing and, indeed, facilitating excellence regardless of finance. So why is the Labour party so dead against grammar schools, which have always been the best way for youngsters with excellent minds to get the education they need, irrespective of money? People accuse the Tories of being "toffs", "public-school educated", and so on, but I would say that the majority of the Labour government went to public school, and the vast majority of their children most definitely do.

If you look at the way the current government has increased study of crap subjects at crap universities, encouraged the study of vacuous school subjects so that schools can look good on league tables and, in other areas, seems intent of treating with kid gloves those who make others' lives a misery, yet ignoring those who genuinely deserve help, it's not hard to come to the conclusion that they don't actually care about decent people, and are just using taxpayers' money to buy the votes of the undeserving.

There is something I'm genuinely intrigued about. The Labour government has shown that it pretty much despises people who try to make something of themselves, who excel at anything, and who try to escape from dependence on the state for money and lifestyle "advice". So why do so many people in academia align themselves with Labour?

For the first time ever, I've been tempted by the Lib Dems, purely because I'm in science, and they have the best policies in that area.  But they have so many other barmy policies, such as unilateral nuclear disarmament and amnesties on illegal immigrants that I really don't think I could bring myself to put an X in their box. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that Clegg would be more likely to climb into bed with Brown than Cameron, which is another reason for me not to vote for them.

I'm scorpio. If anyone could tell me what this indicates, let me know, as I have no idea!

No "pop" taken Keep_Calm.  I guess it's because it can lead to debate which can get strained etc. For example, if someone came on here and said they were going to vote for the Communist Party or the BNP (I'm not going to vote for either, btw!), then it could lead to personal attacks, exchanges etc.  I guess that's why.

For me, the main priority is that Labour don't win. Who am I voting for? That's secret!

Thanks for all your replies so far...

Keenbean - I definitely get what you're saying about the PhD being ungraded. I'm really looking forward to being able to do some good work for its own sake, rather than specifically to get a certain mark.

BilboBaggins - Wow, it certainly sounds like you did well! But are you speaking with the benefit of hindsight, or were you totally sure that you'd be ok with your workload even while you were doing your masters?

Waddett - yeah, my department is internationally renowned in its field, although I don't really see the point of doing a PhD at somewhere which isn't doing at least nationally recognised work. Your suggestions all make perfect sense, but it's a bit like eating broccoli - you know you should do it, but you don't.

Amanda - I've had this happen in the past. However, I would far rather do too much, be told this, and have to delete, than not do enough. I'm not just afraid of getting poor marks - in a way, I'm more afraid of people thinking I'm lazy/can't be bothered/time waster/not good enough etc.

Hi Tom,

I think this is one of those questions where there's not necessarily a "perfect" answer. Obviously, if you were to say something like "stack shelves", then they might think that there'd be no point in offering it to you when someone else could make more use of it. Valid (imo) answers would be things like academia, research, industry, or things more subject-specific. Perhaps they would look favourably on someone looking to stay in the subject area, but as long as it's something which would make use of your PhD, either in terms of the specific techniques used, or just in terms of the intellectual development, I don't think you can go far wrong.

Hi everyone,

I don't even know what I really want to say, so this post may well be one long rambling rant. I'm doing one of these 1+3 PhDs, and in the "1" part, so strictly speaking I'm doing a masters, even though, to all intents and purposes, I'm part of the uni as a PhD student. I'm about halfway through the year, in my second of three lab rotations, and I'm finding it all very interesting, as I've always wanted to be a scientist (I work in biomedical stuff).

But...

I feel like I'm completely overdoing it with the work. I'm actually at work from 9.15 until about 6/6.30 every day. In addition, I usually work at home until 11 two or three weekdays a week, and usually work Sunday afternoon and evening too. I don't find that doing lab work bothers me at all, and I keep it all in proportion. Also, it's easy to leave that kind of thing at work, because I can't do lab work at home! However, the reading side of things is really getting me down. I can never stop reading, as I always worry about missing something vital, so every time I read a paper, I have to read three or four more which it references. This spirals out of control, so instead of reading 20-30 papers for a lab project, I read 80. I feel like this isn't really science like I'm meant to be doing. One of my supervisors said that he'd rather a student did an extra experiment every so often rather than reading too much, but I worry so much about missing things and getting poor marks. The masters is graded (distinction/pass/fail), and while I'm doing fine at the moment, I'm an obsessive perfectionist - I've always got As, got a first in my degree, and I'm scared of not getting a distinction in my masters. This is driving me to ridiculous levels of working, and it's really getting me down.

I went home for a week over Easter, and spent almost all my time there working, and not I've had one day back, I feel really in need of time off, which I won't get now until September. I'm not about to give up or anything, but this is really getting me down and ruling my life, and part of this post is just saying this, but part, I guess, is hoping that someone can offer some advice. I've had mental health "issues" in the past, and while these are well controlled at the moment, it's really important that I don't risk a relapse, and my current working pattern isn't helping really.

Can anyone offer advice/a slap around the face?

:-(

PS - How do I change my username? I'm not worried about this or previous posts being recognised, but just for future reference, just in case...

Hey Elindis,

I hope this doesn't confuse you, but I want to differ from the other two posts.  I think it depends on your field, but in my experience (biomedical science), the application form is generally a generic one, and if the project has already been specified, you could either leave the "Research Proposal" bit blank or, perhaps better, write in it that the proposal has already been made by your supervisor.

However, as the other two have already said, the best thing would be to ask your supervisor, who should definitely know what you're meant to do.  At least I'd hope so!

For some reason, we only have a 10 year old version of GraphPad which crashes whenever you try to open a file. Therefore, the choice is SPSS - powerful (overly so for my work) or Excel. Sadly, as I'm not about to start learning a whole complex programme just to use some of its "easier" features, I have to use Excel. :-(

This questions really aimed at full-time PhD students receiving a stipend. Seeing as it's coming up to the end of the quarter, I was wondering, how do you cope money-wise? Do you find that you have quite a bit to spare at the end of each quarter? Or that you just about break even? Or do you have to resort to job/parents/savings? Personally, I'm a student in the south of England (not London allowance area) on the basic 13k-ish stipend, and find that I really don't have much, if any, left over at the end of each quarter...

What kind of situation are others in?

This might be hijacking your thread slightly, but how did you get the programme? Or does your uni provide it?