Read the bottom post before the top post!

or move supervisors (clearly a bit drastic for the level of the problem at the moment, especially since you don't complain about the quality of your actual supervision in your post). I think that, while you may be right that you cannot engage in all the girly talk, everyone concerned would benefit from your participation in discussions about the general research area that you are engaged in, so you should try to find some mechanism (as outlined above, or another) to engage. In addition, do make an effort to talk to other academics in the department/university researching similar things to yourself and in other universities, to maximise on your understanding of developments in your research area.

I quite agree there is a possibility that being male reduces your chance of engaging in the informal conversations to the same extent. The equalities agenda on gender generally only acknowledges discrimination can occur in one direction, which is of course quite wrong. I think you have a number of options: positively engage your supervisor or the other supervisees about their work on an informal basis, so you have the possibility to benefit from their work in the same way that they are from yours; you could ask for weekly/fortnightly/monthly team meetings for your supervisor and fellow PhD students and yourself to discuss where everyone is up to/collaboration opportunities; or insist that your supervisor does not disclose too much of your work and ideas/IP to fellow PhD students (in some competitive research areas this may be legitimate request though may damage your relationship with supervisor/fellow PhDs);

'How to write a thesis' by Rowena Murray is worth reading because it is very practical. It helps you improve your writing throughout the PhD process through various exercises. It also tells you how to approach particular sections of the PhD such as the literature review.

Jouri

You seem to be painstakingly negative about every aspect of academia, be it the developing a PhD proposal (and indeed 'hot' is a word used by the ESRC about certain topics on its website), the life of the postdoc, or the life of a lecturer. Do you think you would find any other area of work more exciting? I don't think its helpful to try and sap every ounce of enthusiasm out of someone considering a PhD, simply because you personally don't enjoy research.

Matt and BHC are terminal whingers and would complain whatever profession they were in. Hopeless cases.

I thought this opinion piece arguing the positives of an academic career might provide provide inspiration to those wishing to pursue an academic career despite some of the difficulties of early stage academics (during the PhD and post doc period).

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=401968&c=1

I guess the reason the company runs this forum is because the constant updates on it helps boosts the search rating for the phd funding part of the website that gives them revenue. The higher up the search ratings the website is, the more they can ask from universities to advertise PhDs. Thus they have little interest in the content of this forum itself. Thus it is actually those seeking funding that mean this forum is here in the first place. As far as I'm aware the organisation that runs this forum is a profit making business not a charity.

Curiousphd - I think that the idea of going on a fear of flying course is a sensible suggestion. Also hypnotherapy could help. It is a fear worth getting over in the sense that as we all know flying is the safest form of transport. But I appreciate that it is a genuine problem for you. But clearly in academia you will need to fly to conferences in different places.

Entrepreneur is quite right. It may be a way for you to have a cv association with a better university where your new supervisor has gone, while having a second supervisor at your existing university (your geographical base).

HI NMA

I think it's worth taking the opinion of your supervisor, particularly if they have experience on a journal editorial board to see whether they think your submission was broadly of a good enough standard that it might have a chance to be accepted (i.e. the reviewer may just be having an ego trip with a PhD student's work, and being unnecessarily harsh), or otherwise establish with your supervisor what steps you need to take to write to the appropriate standard for journal submission. If your PhD supervisor is not an experienced journal editor then try to get advice from a sympathetic senior member of your department who has experience on a journal.

Well said Hairui, though other posters are correct that diplomacy is also required in replacing one's supervisor.

I like Jouri's point: "Academics are a funny species, very sensitive and easily annoyed by minor things." It is so true.

Absolutely you need to put the overall undergrad mark on your application. The university will no doubt at some point require a transcription of your results anyway in order to admit you so they will see a breakdown then. For now if you have say 66/67% I would definitely just put the headline figure on your application. There's a big difference between a solid 2.1 (e.g. 65.7-68%) and a borderline 2.1 (e.g. 59%). Certainly any ESRC or AHRC studentship you will only have a reasonable chance of getting it usually if you have a solid 2.1 rather than a borderline 2.1 (the AHRC is so competitive usually only a First will do). The institution of the undergrad degree matters to some extent in practice as well if you have only a 2.1 rather than a First.

I'm sure you have a list of 6 or 7 ideal universities in Scotland based on their Rae ratings/reputations etc that you would be happy to go to. So why not phone or email the research secretary/departmental administrator in each of the computer science/artificial intelligence departments at these universities as this person will probably know exactly what studentships are being offered by their university this year, or would certainly be in a position to tell you where to look on the university's website. It's worth bearing in mind that some studentships are not very effectively advertised externally or even on the university department's own website. Another approach is to see whether the relevant research council can tell you which universities in Scotland has been awarded their quota of studentships.