Determinands? Not sure if that is a word, or it fits.

HI. I do not think it must be too personalized. The main statements are the same. But just tweak the cover letter, such as name of Professor, project applying for. I also tweaked the order of my achievements etc (for some I emphasized work experience, for others academic experience, depending on what was most relevant)

Good luck

Thank you to both. Re the seminar. Who was it organised by? I am on the lookout for such seminars on HPLC and LC-MS method development, so would like to check them out. Thank you

Hello. It is funding for the project. To buy consumables and for me to attend conferences. It is not just my supervisors who are using it to attend conferences, but also funding from my project is going to other students in the lab who do not have much funding for their project, and if they want to buy chemicals or attend conferences etc (what they are working on is unrelated to my project) they are told take from Xs fund. Her project comes with funding. I am just worried that there will not be enough left for my project at the end, and wanted to see if this is normal.

Hi. I am so sorry you are in this position. I went through the same thing. My partner knew I was applying to positions, and every time I tried to talk about it he was like yes OK no problem. We will talk when we come to it. Then I got accepted and started actually deciding to move (not N Scotland to S England but 3.45hours by plane away. I noticed he was not really comfortable with it. However he did not want to talk. I finally wore him down (basically sulked and did not keep up conversation about anything else which I knew works to get him talking) and he said that he felt as if my applying to PhD positions was to get away from him. However he knew and accepted that he should have talked earlier to me about his concerns rather than at that stage (I had visited the University and accepted etc etc) and that was what was making it difficult for him to talk about the problems, cos he knew he should have faced the problem before (I did not push too much to discuss before, because he seemed OK to me, but maybe I should).

I think it is very important that you have that discussion now. Try and be calm and do not get angry. At least you know what he is feeling and can work around it. Perhaps he does not need to move with you. Would a long distance relationship work for some time? Skype works wonders for us. We meet every 1.5months or so. Then he might move closer later on (my partner will be moving to a 1 hour plane ride away from me in the next year to start his masters). I doubt he would have actually done that if it wasn't for me being all the way up here. It is not easy, but it can be done.

Any views on this?

I do not think that what you are looking for actually exists. It seems you basically want somewhere where all the information is given in one place re positions, scholarships, how to apply, problem solving etc. Unfortunately it is not so easy. You would need to look at several different websites, talk to numerous people and try to get there. findaphd.com is actually one of the best (if not the best...at least for Europe and in particular the UK) I have found. Other countries might have their own.

I think this is largely something related to the particular couple. I have been in a relationship for 5.5years and we have somewhat gotten through a lot. The most important thing I think is that your partner is as heavily involved in stuff as you are (perhaps you could meet at the gym? Therefore you have some time together). I have managed to make a relationship work (with hard work) whilst working full time and doing my masters by research part time (meaning many weekends/evening spent in the lab/writing/sampling). I would bring him with me to sampling, he would come to the lab to bring some food or just keep me company on long weekend days. Some days whilst writing he just came to my house for an hour or so, and we either go for a walk, or else he comes in to say hi, and spends the rest of the time chatting with my family, cos I am in no mind to talk to him. Yes it was not quality time, but better than nothing. But then when he had an activity for his stuff (he is involved in youth work, so he might have a camp or something, I would be there helping him and his group in cooking, organising etc, and he started playing the same sport I played, just to be there). Not really quality time, but that was all there was. Now I am a 4 hour plane ride away. Some days we only communicate through a message, and most days it is a Skype call. I think that if your partner does not have his activities (not necesarily a Phd, but something which he is involved in, so that he could understand if it is Saturday and you need to be in the lab). I wish you all the luck. Having someone there to moan to is always a bonus. I guess yess, a relationship is hard work, but you can make it work. What is important is that he is on the same page as you.

Best of luck

I have a question. Do any of your supervisors use your funding to attend conferences? And also do any of you have to demonstrate and not get paid for it? I just have a question, since I moved to a different country for my PhD and things seems to be different and want to know if this is normal. Thank you.

Hey...how many words do you have to reduce it to? First of all...do the appendices count in the word-count? In my Undergrad and postgrad Unis they never did. So check about that. Then first see whether each paragraph is necessary (especially in the lit review I find that I tend to put in something just cos it is interesting and not necessarily directly relevant). Then go down to the sentence level and see whether you cans ay what you said before but in less words. This can reduce quite a lot of words, even though it does not seem like it.

My fiancee and I of 5.5years have gone into a long distance relationship (me starting my PhD, not him moving away). I had the same questions (posted somewhere on this forum) which I got answered, and it is true. It gives me something to look forward too, every evening or so, for our Skype 'dates'. We generally are connected around 1 hour every evening. But this may be a Skype call where we are just connected but doing our own thing. I still miss getting a hug or so when I am down (made worse by the fact the ppl in my new country are not as 'affectionate' as ppl back home, where we give hugs to all our friends. But what is imp is to get a life outside of PhD/bf...you get more time to go out with friends and do your own thing. And do plan your next meeting at least before the next time. At the moment I have a rough guideline of when our trips for meeting until the end of August are...so I have something to look forward too, which really helps.

Sorry for asking a question of my own, but thought it might link to this. I have had great support from my boyfriend. I have moved a 4hour plane ride away and we now get to meet around every month or 2. How do you deal with questions such as. So you are mainly on your PC in the lab working (I am doing a science PhD, but at the moment actual lab work is done 2 days a week, due to access to instrumentation issues). Why cannot you do that at home? I actually can. But doing a full time PhD I cannot actually just come here for a couple of weeks at a time. How do you deal with questions like that? I would love to be able to do it.

I am not sure whether anyone has much of an idea on using HPLC, but hope that someone does and can help me out a bit. I am trying to detect a number of compounds in a mixture using HPLC (currently developing a method), and have managed to separate and identify most on the HPLC. What I am not certain is whether the calibration curves could be prepared as mixtures, or whether I would need to prepare calibration curves for each of the compounds separately. Thank you

Thanks for your comments. I am still doing some initial analysis. Should be analysing for pharmaceuticals.

Just wanted to share a good day, rather than all the bad days I have had. I managed to get my first HPLC peak. Have been having lots of problems with cleaning the column etc, but managed to get one today, so it seems I am doing something right :) Will next get access to the equipment on Friday, but am a bit more positive now :)