ask LSE.

hey, try to be more proactive in your search - discuss what should be rather than what is won't bring funding to your doorstep. try checking out Queens University, Belfast. They offer about 10 PhD scholarships for students from developing nations every year - however the deadline is in April or May, so you would be looking at next year (Sept 2008). there are not many masters scholarships around for international students - however - it's your job to do the looking. try checking out Nottingham uni. all the best.

have you enquired about the reason why you haven't been awarded a PhD yet? it could help with your future applications? my field has a bit to do with the environment, maybe you could apply to interdisciplinary schools not just in the sch of envt i assume. try law schools and business schools.

even with all this stuff, your getting a job here to a great extent comes down to the interview - your communication skills etc. if i were you and i really wanted to practice here, i would ensure that i have get at least 65% at this Msc and try applying NOW - coz they recruit a year in advance - for training contracts unless you are doing the QLT. During that year, work on your communication skills. it's very important.

nefermj - i think you're quite naive about the reality of the situation in the law market at the moment. for starters, it is only with a 2.1 that you can be considered for a masters degree in law in England, your masters grades have to be above 60% to be admitted to a law PhD, most good law schools pick students with above 65%. regarding practice, you have to do the legal practice course or a similar one, which takes another year and a minimum of a 2.1 unless the firm you are applying to has polish connections or sit the QLT exam which takes a few months, but you still need basic qualifications for entry into the legal profession.

i agree with dazednconfused - rekindle your motivation - try linking the lit to what you want to say or your idea - and finally start writing anyway. it doesn't have to be perfect but it will help you clarify your thoughts and make links between different things. i noticed that since my last submission which had a result - though not the best in the world-, my supervisor has become more helpful and interested in my work and less critical. am sorry if this is not helpful. one last thing - i spoke to a fourth year student about my work and they really helped me develop my argument - maybe you could do that?

'I still haven't got any real results yet, and although my supervisor is a good person, can be critical and unhelpful.' I know what you mean. I have got a result but it needs to be developed through another literature review to come up with a real result. May i ask, is your topic totally new, or is it on an area with existing literature. Mine is the former, so i have really struggled with literature reviews and results.

' - I wasn't able to produce a basic literature review when I started so how am I going to write a thesis?' I haven't quite produced a lit rev on the basic focus of my thesis yet - my struggle so far has been demonstrating that the whole concept is important in the first place. so you can write a thesis, am writing mine without one. by the way some students in my department do a lit rev at the end of their thesis and that becomes chapter 1.

I can relate to a lot of things you say here as this was me last month. I felt that I couldn't 'fully understand concepts or perform at the level required.' Towards the end of my first year, this was really bad as i was trying to learn this new mathematical method to be able to use an empirical approach to my thesis - i attended classes, worked on it, but i couldn't do it in the time available. so what i did was tell my supervisor that i was struggling with it. i informed them on my strengths and weaknesses - i.e. what i knew and what i was good at and they agreed to change the approach of my thesis to a theoretical approach as opposed to empirical.

thanks Nimrod. am thinking 2 months to come up with the first draft of entire thesis and 1 month for feedback and another for incorporating comments from sup. about two to three months sounds ok then for the first draft.

ignore that - spelling hiccups.

oops - deal with it .

i read somewhere that it is normal to feel like that in the 16 to 25 months of your PhD. are there any specific reasons causing your lack of confidence? it may help identifying the root cause of the problem and dealing with it. i recently felt the same due to supervisor problems which resulted in lack of progress, though things are gradually improving. am a second year.

guys, does anyone know the answer to this. am trying to answer the timeline section on my annual review questionnaire?

H and shani - i think i have made my point. i'd rather not go into elaborating these matters. i do not need to go thro the stress of reliving them again. later.