I don't find drink a problem.

I drink, I get drunk, I fall over, hic!!! No problem!!!

Ian

Wilhelm, I think you have your heart set and your mind made up on working for the MRes research group at the other Uni. regardless of whether or not there's the certainty of a PhD after the MRes. For me to consider this route ahead of the funded PhD at your current Uni., this group would have to offer something really special. Just make sure when you start the MRes, you look identifying a suitable project this second group has to offer. You may wish to enquire what they are looking at as regards potential projects a year hence as they'll be looking to start applying for funding in the near future.

To follow up on Pineapple30's remarks, I also have two MScs prior to my PhD though with a gap of five years in the real world between the second masters and PhD. In my case, I can't really say if two masters helped or hindered. The first masters (Computing) I have never used - I honestly thought due to ill health I was going to fail it, hence I started the second masters. The second masters (Quality, supplementing my Materials Engineering first degree) proved to be of more value as regards experimental methods and statistical analysis.

I will comment, however, that there were one or two real world interviews where my qualifications were negatively queried (i.e. professional student - which I never considered myself as, overqualified, will be off somewhere better at the first opportunity). So there is that possibility, but it all depends upon the person and why they have obtained those qualifications.

Hope that helps,

Ian

Many of us have this feeling of the end being in sight, in that we think we have a workable document together. Then comes the supervisor's red pen and suddenly we're seemingly months away when the dreaded red pen strikes. What was going to be late September / early October for me became mid-December.

You could be misreading your supervisor's intent here, however, in my case my supervisor would not recommend submission until he was 99% sure the candidate would get through viva with at worst minor corrections. I had a fairly straight forward PhD process, with a set-up that readily produced data (running joke was it printed off it's own papers). This lulled me into a false sense of security as I hit write-up.

Introduction, Methodology and Results was straight forward. Two to three drafts of each, okay so far. However, academic writing was different to anything I'd done before. Discussion took a gut wrenching five months as I had the learn the finer points of being concise and succinct in my writing style (explaining my findings in a clear manner in as few words as possible). Four drafts later, I was finally there - er, no!!! Conclusions took a month and a further three drafts and the two page Further Work a mind boggling two weeks. That said, all the work was worth it come viva - result: minor corrections.

If your supervisor is doing a decent job, the effort will be all worth it. I would be more concerned if your scripts were being ignored and if he's an experienced supervisor, these 'aggressive' remarks will be focussing your mind on the criticisms an external examiner might make. The later sections especially are your work and that work is what will make or break your PhD.

Meet and talk to him about how you feel. He'll have been there himself as a student, seeing and hearing it all before. He'll probably tell you the same as I'm telling you above.

Ian

Is the above MRes with transfer to PhD if you do well enough at the 1 year / 18 month point?

If so, then that's normal procedure at a lot of Unis. and I wouldn't worry too much. Go for the MRes with transfer to PhD at the leading institution if that is what you want to do.

If it is just an MRes without transfer, then I would look at the funded PhD at your own Uni. first before making a hasty decision. Having two masters on your CV close together makes you look like a professional or continuous student. I overhead a conversation during my own PhD that my supervisor was in the business of turning down applications from people he considered in this category.

Ian

He's the one with the problems by the sounds of it. Finish up as quickly as possible, do what you've got to do to get out of there and as Barramack say, move on.

Ian

I had two before viva and one in the pipeline, though the actual writing was done by my primary supervisor. Having a couple of papers out of your PhD work is about normal (1 to 3).

I produced a further six after viva (aim was to enhance my publication record), authoring these myself with my primary supervisor listed as a co-author in all cases and my predecessor as a co-author on two. A book chapter also resulted from the work with myself as first author, my supervisor as second author and another predecessor plus another researcher listed as co-authors. There's also another free distribution document that never went to press but is available on download.

So two to three is okay, but look to publish more once viva is complete if possible.

Ian

More importantly, is funding from your third sector funder okay?

I'm sorry to ask this, but the change in personnel is something that would concern me as regards funding.

Ian

Book your flight tickets and get yourself on the plane mate. From the looks of it, you could actually make a career out of the cricket and if I'd been able to do sport to that level then that choice would have been a no brainer for me.

This PhD opportunity will no doubt lapse (you appear to be on a 1+3 arrangement at a guess - one year Masters followed by PhD), but you don't seem in the right frame of mind with the break-up to proceed for now. If you start now and struggle because of your personal problems, you could find yourself trying to play catch-up fairly quickly or even drifting off and quitting.

You're 22 years old (no age at all) so even if you have to wait a couple of years for another chance of a funded PhD, better to have a go at your PhD with your head in the right place in a couple of years rather than start now and find yourself struggling.

I think EPSRC will be used to people calling it a day after the Masters year and probably coming back a few later when ready (though obviously on a new and different studentship). You could always phone / e-mail them and ask the pertinent questions if you wish.

With a lot of funded PhDs, the potential supervisor has the project and funding already in place. It will thus be a case of convincing the supervisor you're the right person for the position in interview.

Ian

I spent a year unemployed after my second post-doc. I did finally find a job outside academia and have been in that job for a few years now. It's not the perfect job, but the dole has the effect of simply being in a job, any job, a priority over targeting your ideal career.

1) He'll be off as soon as something better comes along.

2) The job will be too boring for him.

3) Overqualified / Uni. Uni. Uni. on my CV.

I've heard it all.

I would love to do something more in line with what I did before, but I don't want to find myself back at square one and signing on again. As regards academia itself, although I miss the research work itself, one thing I don't miss is the inability to plan more than two to three years into the future financially (i.e. the normal length of contract in a research post).

Ian