Depends what PhD discipline you are in. I can think of several jobs where a PhD gives you chance to earn more. You can't just walk up to an employer and say 'give me more, I have a PhD' but you can place yourself advantageously with a PhD depending on what you decide to do. Maybe you chose the wrong PhD Sylvester?

a little bit of bulls**t here, careful where you step everybody...

Just out of interest, which masters programmes are they on? I thought that you had trouble getting onto a masters without at least a 2.2, realistically a 2.1. Moreover, to go from a 3rd to a distinction, no disrespect to your mates, makes me question a little the quality of the masters they are on. The problem here is convincing a supervisor that you are keen and intersted whilst having only attained a 3rd. Almost a contradiction I feel.

Which city/town are you in?



Read a book

Sorry, I can't help it with this one.

Are you really trying to tell me that you were incapable of thinking where to try and find a cancer based PhD!!????! You found your way to this site and then it all became a little too much to figure out how you might go about looking for a PhD in that area? If I was you I'd give up now, cures for cancer are a lot harder to find than the "search" link at the top of this page.

I totally agree with you two. However, I mentioned a similar view a while back and got told that unless I was incapacitated with work I didn't know what I was talking about or was doing it wrong! I'm curious to see how long it will take until we're all told that we're useles for having more than 8 minutes a week off...

I'm British and I don't have a social security number so I doubt that if you try to use yours, whatever that is, it will help. I'm not particularly sure that being a citizen of a country which is a member state of the EU actually allows you to do whatever you like in other EU nations. Incidently, a lot of funding bodies are not government run and thereofre don't have any obligation to the EU, thay can distribute their funding as they please.

Sounds like you're doing ok. Keep going.

I'm looking for a new pair of casual trainers. More for everyday use than sport. If they come with funding that would be great.

Crack on. If you don't stick up for yourself noone else will. Don't back down!! Got any witnesses?

Perspective was what I was getting at. The original post was lacking it. No, I'm not writing under two names. I'm afraid that I don't need to validate my views by falsifying a second comment of the same stance.

I think this thread is totally stupid. Must have been quite an issue if a week later all is ok.

It appears that I'm going against the grain here but in my opinion university reputation/standing is massively important. Bearing in mind that you will be competing against individuals who will also be as qualified as you after you finish, irrespective of what field you move into. Consequently, having a big uni reputation to boost your CV is a great tool. Moreover, I suppose it is to some extent fair to say that "better" universities have that reputation for a reason. I'm not saying that all supervisors there are great but presumably a large proportion would be at least very preficient. As a result, you will have some expertise in your field even if you are not sure how 'big' that particular supervisr is. Put it this way; I've never heard of someone saying that they were not impressed with a candidate because he/she went to too good a university, the opposite, however, I have heard.

Just don't quit.

Why have you concluded that this guy helping her is because he thinks she is incapable? Just out of interest, how long have you been looking for work? Has it been long enough such that getting a little help is possibly a wise course of action? With all due respect, this other person who you have been put in contact with does have a job and you don't, maybe you should accept that you don't actually know it all and she may well be able to offer some advice, she's been through what you're about to do already. Apart from giving out your contact detail without permission, which is rude but not unforgivable, this guy really hasn't done that much wrong.