I suppose at the end of the day we want people to appreciate our work as we put so much effort into it which is often unseen and for it then to be torn to shreds is very hard to take and does knock your confidence!  I had a similar thing as I went to an ask a stats guy about something to do with the stats I was going to use to get a handle on the basics and he didn't seem to think much of the method or seem to know that much about it and couldn't see what I was trying to do! He was out with my subject as the method is quite a standard method so I would suggest sticking with people from your own field to help you deal with the stats as they know it and understand it better than a statistician who doesn't have the background to your subject!  We also have to deal with criticism constructively as sometimes it helps for people to debate and point you in directions you wouldn't have thought of but negative criticism is still very hard to take especially if you feel it's unfair but we have to be able to defend our work.  I think it'll come with increasing knowledge and confidence that will allow us to do this.

Saying that you'll present a poster or do a talk usually does the trick as you are representing and promoting the dept so it's worth their while sending you there. Dept funding is usually alot easier to get than external funding as long as you mention that you are promoting them. And of course showcasing your work and making contacts that'll benefit you and the dept in further collaboration etc...

Yes they're tough working conditions - if you're supervisor is already this uninterested it's not going to improve and if you're absolutely sure you don't want to stay in academica or do research the best thing to do it to see what else is out there and do it rather than do something you don't want do! Good luck!

I would choose the project that really interests you - totally and utterly as you will be dreaming about it and one that you can do and maintain interest in even if your supervisor loses interest or doesn't help as at the end of the day it's up to you to finish it regardless of everything else!! Then I would consider the supervisor - if you are all things are equal - i.e. you have no preference over the projects choose the one with the best supervisor!! Make sure they are helpful and accessible which is the most important quality of all! At the PhD stage the uni is not so important - what is more important is the contacts you make and your supervisor as he/she can provide you with help and references if you want to stay in academia! I think their reputation counts more at this stage but most important of all is to get a someone who is supportive and will help you regardless of their reputation. If you want to stay in academia teaching is a good thing when you are applying for a lectureship but depending on your subject not many people go straight into one so you’ll get opportunities to teach along the way hopefully! The dept is also important as you need to consider if it's the right environment for you and if you feel comfortable there and see what the resources are like. The best thing to do is to see what the supervisors are like - do you know anyone that will give you an insider view to what each supervisor and dept are like to help you decide? Good luck

The University of Cranfield are good for that sort of thing if you look up their website you'll that sort of stuff I think. The University of East Anglia are also into that sort of thing I think as well. I hope this helps and good luck.

That depends on you as everyone is different. It's a fine line as those things are time consuming and necessary and contribute to your PhD so could be considered as work (like when you are trying to tell yourself you are working!) but in I wouldn't count it as work in the tradiitonal sense! I wouldn't be so concerned about trying to fit to such a rigid structure as PhDs are flexible and work to whatever suits you and know that occassionally you will have to do these tasks which sometimes are just a pain and other times a bit of relief from doing routine stuff and factor it into the day! Afterall you might as well the opportunity to have flexible working hours so long as you actually do some work - if you are having an bad/unproductive day you can take a break if research permits and come back to it later and perhaps you might get into it better feeling refreshed and then work later. The danger is procrastinating too much and not noticing time slip away which can happen as sometimes it seems so slow when you are doing it and before you know the month is over! Hope this helps!

Congrats Pineapple that is very rare indeed!  They usually insist on a 2:1! It must be the two Masters that swayed them!  You're very lucky indeed - take them for all they're worth especially all that training you are entitled to!! Good luck! ;-)

To Milla - you sound very organised and know what you want! You could state what mark you got as distinctions are usually harder to get in foreign countries than the UK which has a mark of 70 or above for distinctions and rarely given.  One of my friends was very unfortunate in her grading as she was on the border of 2 grades and got the lower one as the marks were done proportionally on a curve of the whole class in her country so different countries have different marking systems.

Just out of curiosity if you don't mind me asking why do want to do a PhD if you are already a qualified solicitor?  Honestly a PhD is not all that it's cracked up to be! But if you want to do academic research it is necessary to do PhD!

Good luck (up)

That depends on what country you are in.  If you are in the UK it is not necessary or expected to publish before you submit your PhD as you are judged on the quality of your thesis which is hefty generally 60-100 k words. In Europe you need 3 publications as they get their PhD by publication so their theses contain at least 3 papers that are published or in press and any that are in the pipeline are included as manuscripts.  It would seem that this is the more logical way of doing things as it means that you get publications towards the end of your PhD or soon after you finish which are very important in applying for academic jobs if you wish to go down that route. If not it doesn't really matter if you never publish anything!  It would also have to save the bother of turning your discussion chapters of a British PhD into papers and duplicate your efforts as papers have to be more succinct so no doubt you'll be doing some heavy editing!

When you can publish depends on the subject you are studying.  If your thesis is based on ideas and ideology you can publish earlier than someone who needs results from experiments that are often time consuming and usually need to be adapted to overcome problems they incur along the way so it would be impossible for these people to publish in their 1st year or even before they submit their theses!

The quality of the paper needs to be considered - you can publish lots in lower ranked journals or wait until you have good results to publish in more respected journals.  That choice is also yours but if you plan to stay in academia it worth waiting until you have decent results to write about!

I had a dream about the number of chapters in my thesis and that it was too long that it ran into two volumes and would cost me a fortune to print.  What I found amusing was that someone else also had a dream about my thesis and that one of the chapters was about half as thick as the whole thesis! I've also had a dream about something I'm studying and recently I had a dream about my project but it was in a weird setting.  It wasn't directly related to my project but it about the study area and one of the researchers who works in that area was getting very excited about it! It was so bizarre when I woke up I had a chuckle! I had a dream about my field trip after we went on one for my MSc so I guess it's not that strange!

I am still waiting for an epiphany about how it all fits together!  Hopefully I'll dream about that soon! ;-)

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This answer doesn't seem to needed anymore either.
;-)

Oh yeah! I have 180 degrees turns about the situation - on good days I think this isn't so bad I can do it but then on other days I think, what am I going to write about and is this going to get a PhD? I think my analysis will be too simplistic and that I won't have really answered my question. I also worry I won't have done it properly and that I will be just glossing over things which they will find out about at the viva! I also worry that I don't know enough about the topic! And what is this actually going to show? Is it going to be of use to anyone? I mean in the whole scheme of things it's pretty irrelevant! Yeah I have those feelings too and I've have only written up the easy bits so far! Not sure what that says for the rest of the thesis!

But I guess it's just our way of questioning ourselves as we have looked at it so much and been so focused on it that you can't see the point of it anymore! I think if we had a pair of fresh eyes it would look different! Good luck for the last few chapters! You just need to give it that extra little bit of juice and then it's done and you don't have to look at it again!! Hopefully not for a while anyway so you can get a good break and come back with a different perspective!! ;-)

Excellent idea Sarah! I look forward to the day when I can do that! It has made me :-) Who fancies being the Minister of Education so we can arrange something? ;-)

Well those are the lucky few! Having spoken to many students I find this is the common experience from different unis and even the experience of a friend abroad although I don't know that much about the system where he studied I can't generalise about it but the supervisor was something else! Anyway I'm sure there are people who have wonderful experiences and really enjoy their PhDs and I really congratulate those people who are so lucky! But most students you talk to have issues with their PhDs at sometime or other and your memories of it depends on whether the good out weigh the bad! I'm sure even people who don't/didn't enjoy their PhDs do/did have good moments occasionally, just the bad outweigh the good!

I was just giving my opninon on it and the effect that bad supervisors (and there are an awful lot of them out there!) can have on people regardless of what method they use as they generally either do it unintentionally due to lack of social skills or do it to motivate people as various people have suggested on this thread! I used to think academia was great and had the view of many non-academics that it was a nice environment and not as cut-throat as industry but that was before I started my PhD! Having been immersed in the system for a while I have found that it is not as everyone imagines it and is every bit as competitive especially as there is less money around so everybody gets protective of their turf! This is not an ideal environment to work under as people are protective of their ideas incase it gets stolen etc... Ideally people should feel confident about helping each other other as some of the best discoveries come unexpectably from talking to different people and looking at a problem from a different angle! This is an idealised view which one person can't acheive but if more people share this view it can happen! But as the system is so inert I do not think it will happen unless something is done about it! Hey I'm just being realistic as I've had my eyes opened! And don't get me wrong there are exceptions to the case as there are good supervisors there who are willing to help their students in anyway they can and others as well!

What hasn't been mentioned is how soul destroying and unproductive it is to be constantly undermined by your supervisors regardless of whatever method they use! Some of the time they just say it without thinking and some of the time it is inappropriate but they often don't realise it (not that this excuses them but it goes back to their lack of social skills!) A little praise goes a long way if it is deserved! They are not trained to be supervisors or to manage people (that is why they're in not industry) and many just abuse the system! What makes it worse is the attitude of the hierarchy who often just brush it under the carpet so as not to rock the boat! Or make excuses for them which doesn't help!

The system needs to change as the way it works at the moment there is too much power given to the supervisors and not enough support for students! The checks on the students are just for rubber-stamping purposes to show that they care when in reality it's to cover their own backs so you can't about lack of supervision etc ... Or maybe it's the whole attitude of academia where it is very competitive for so little! Often outsiders don't realise this as they think it's all ivory towers and there isn't so much competition as in the private sector as there is not so much money involved!

Maybe it's time to actually value students instead of seeing them as inconvienent people who just complain! Alot of it is done to cover their own backs and insecurities and they want to use students to show off and compete amongst themselves!! Or maybe they realise that we are the future academics and want to bring us down even before we've started so we always doubt ourselves and are too insecure to start changing how things are done and improve it for the future!

No probs - ranting is good and allows you to let off steam!! I'm afraid PhD students are at the bottom of the food chain and we are often told this as well! It sucks!!! Sorry to hear about the e-mails and the meetings - as previous people have said before it would be a good idea to find out if it was done accidently or on purpose! Then you can decide what to do about it! I read in another post that PhDs are not just about how academic you are but also about your character as they are intent on half destroying it!! So good luck and hope it all works out!