I accept that I am blunt and unfeeling and all the rest of it, but more than most people here know that I am angry. Perhaps if you had seen what I have seen you would be too.

The way I see it is that most people in this line of work will spin you a fairy story. At least I respect people enough not to.

When people used to ask me "when will you finish" I always found the enigmatic answer "When its done" usually sufficed.

Apart from my supervisor who heard "well, i reckon in 3 months time if you release the funding for X,Y,Z". I tell you, that 3 months was the longest three months he has ever had to wait.

True. One can infer my harshness reflects the climate that we work in within academia. At least my (and others) brashness is overt, rather reflective of the covert politicing and undermining that often goes on.

Simuzosha,I don't recall reading anywhere that this was a fucking therapy group. People come here for advice, venting and to find out something resembling the truth. Posters here tell it like it is, and thats why I am here. You dont like it, there are another billion internet pages you can go to where everyone is politically correct, uncritical and "nice".

Smilodon,

Thanks for your post, as it is an excellent potential explanation of why certain international students make "awkward" postings about pursuing a doctorate.

My view in this case is that our invective may cause the poster to reassess their views and come to an understanding that they have committed a faux pas. However, as silence teaches nothing, polite ignorance of these posts are potentially worse than getting an earful from hard bitten PhDers.

@ PC Geek. I am not sure what you are getting at. I never said "no one from TVU gets anywhere". I made an oblique reference to TVU regarding publication rate and impact factor compared to UCL. It could have been any other Russell group vs Post 92 institution comparison.

The OP asked "Will I be looked down upon by other academics because I've never been to a red brick?". Some will pay no attention and look at the individual, but (and this the point I tried to make) some WILL be snobbish about it.

Are you saying that academic snobbery does not occur? Or that the OP is unwise to raise this issue in the first place? Or that I am out of line in pointing out the factors I posted above?

I know of several who have done the latter and it has worked out well for them.

For psychology I think it depends on what you want to do. If you want to do a research PhD you can get funding around the time you apply from various research bodies, but for applied doctorates (like clinical psychology) you usually have to fund yourself (unlike in Britain).

I take it you are from the US?

You may be in luck because lots of US universities offer substantial scholarships if you do well in your SATs and have letters of recommendation.

Another way may be to take a few credits at a community college or junior college and then go onto a regular college from then at your own pace (which may allow you to work and study at the same time).

I think the reason why this resentment occurs is that the majority of the posters here have had to go through severe hardship and struggle to earn their PhD. They have been misunderstood, under appreciated and ill paid, but have a certain esprit de corps about being resilient, independent and able to think laterally.

When someone comes along and expects their poorly written, vague and overly optimistic request to be taken seriously, it grates. The underlying subtext that someone that clueless and unwilling to do even a cursory google search is often regarded as disrespectful and not illustrative of doctoral calibre material.

People are right to say "supervisors are important" or "individual factors count". However, there are a lot of indirect benefits that factor in too. Higher ranked unis often have better facilities and good libraries (due to more money), have world class experts in them who give seminars/ lectures and are a good source of contacts for finding future work.

This is quite snobbish, but the sad truth is that employers and people in general ARE snobbish. Unfortunately, faced with two fairly similar candidates most employers will gravitate towards the person that came from a more prestigious uni.

Boy am I going to be unpopular for saying this.

I think its naive to say reputation doesnt matter in research. On the contrary the reputation of a university is very important for future career progression.

Most of the higher ranked unis have higher RAE scores because they publish more research in high impact journals. This means researchers at these places attract more funding and can produce even more research, and rise in their fields. At lower ranked "teaching" unis, staff spend more time teaching, less time researching and they suffer at the RAE by attracting less government funding and grant money.

Take a look at the journals in your field. Where do the authors tend to come from? Are there more from UCL or Thames Valley University?

Bear in mind the links cited are mainly of US origin. Over there the system is quite different. PhDs take longer (5 years + usually) and have coursework components and exams.

I am currently part of the reserach commitee at my uni, and have been involved in several non-completion cases. If students have evidence of progress (such as peer reviewed publications, scholarships and awards) the panel tends to be more forgiving.

If however there is little evidence of this, no real clear plan for finishing the thesis and the supervisor is unable to make a good case, then things don't look so good for the student.

I have heard this happening before especially since universities have been audited on their submission deadlines. Before universities were quite happy to take money and have perpetual PhD students as cheap/ unpaid researchers. Now many departments want to cut away their "dead wood" by palming off weaker students with MPhils.

From my understanding exceptional circumstances usually means something along the lines of developing a life threatening medical condition or are in a car accident. Or your lab has burnt down. They are there so that freak occurances don't penalise students.

However, not having a good enough supervisor probably doesnt count. Its not a recent development, questions should have been asked a LONG time ago, and an action plan should have been negotiated. From bitter first hand experience it is unlikely anyone will give you any breaks for having a crap supervisor.

Its really common that PhD work is trivialised by people who don't understand what it entails. This does suck immensely.

However, I also think that I did become quite precious and oversensitive with my work. Not saying this is what is happening to anyone else. I remember telling my ex about how hard it was that I had to present my work before hundreds. However, as she was training in clinical psychology she had to treat with people that attempted suicide, lost family, experienced sexual abuse (on top of her own thesis and academic work). Other friends in medicine would be carrying out life saving operations and working 80 hour weeks.

Listening to this put my own work in perspective, and how I was becoming po faced about much of it.

Many of you know the trouble I have had with my previous supervisor's political games, which made it hard for me to find a post doc. Now I have one I dont want to lose it (I also had to change some details to anonymise things).

The way I see it, had I not been in the room, I would have never been aware of anyting, right? And the situation would have remained the same. What difference does it make that I tell Sabrina. Its not going to bring her work back is it?

I guess there is one good thing that came out of this, is that anything I have complained about before is absolutely trivial (like vivas, upgrades, finding jobs). I put my hands up and can now say I was being unduly pessimistic. Those of you who said it before called it well and were damn right about it.

It takes something like this to put things in perspective.

I spoke to Katy today and said that I saw her in the room on Friday morning. She went scarlet and said that if I said anything to Sabrina she would tell the PI that I had been sexually harassing her and get me fired.

Wish I hadn't said anything at all now.I thought my former supervisor was bad, but that was NOTHING compared to this.