Once you've your degree, your A-Levels are a complete irrelevance. List what they are low down on your CV without the grades.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

Respond thanking them for including your name on the paper. Also, add you have no comments on the paper to make and you are satisfied with the presentation of the paper as it is. It is up to you whether or not you ask for your institutional affiliation to be your old or current University, but you do need to make clear your wishes on this.

The fact your former University has decided to name you on the paper suggests it's unlikely at the draft for comments stage they will change their minds. Although my relationship with my second post-doc University broke down pretty severely, they still named me on three separate documents. They did demote me from first author, however, on one paper.

Oh, make sure as suggested above that it's listed on your CV. Well done!!!

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

My mum doesn't like her first name either. She managed to get her workmates to use her middle name instead when she was younger. So no, you don't sound like a nutter. However, your parents and siblings will always insist on using your original first name so you have an uphill struggle to lose it altogether.

You will have to inform all your utility suppliers, local council, tax, etc. of your change of name as you would do if you want to take your husband's name on marrying. As what you are considering is a reinvention of your identity, then doing this via deed poll may be the way to go - take a look at the following website.

http://www.ukdps.co.uk/

It appears you've made up your mind that once you marry, that you are going to be Mrs. Second-name Blanc. This being the case and you intend a reinvention of your identity, then it may afterall be worth calling yourself Dr. Second-name Blanc as otherwise you'll have three different identities on the go at once and that will be even more confusing.

However, in the unlikely event your marriage doesn't last then bear in mind you will be stuck professionally at least with 'Blanc' as your surname.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

There's actually an opportunity to separate your professional and personal life here. Professionally, continue to refer to yourself by your maiden name, Dr. Satchi. Outside work, be Mrs. Blanc.

You will have Dr. Satchi on the degree certificate and on any papers you produce. Your publication record will be contiguous if you don't change names.

Outside work, you are Mrs. Blanc and can clearly leave your work where it really should belong. At work (I wish life was so simple sometimes).

Ensure you discuss with your husband-to-be so he is up to speed at least to avoid confusion.

Someone I knew retained the use of her maiden name professionally, which ensured professional contiguity. In her case, it was just as well as the marriage didn't last.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

Sympathy bump. I've never heard of this being asked for before.

Ian (Mackem _Beefy)

I can see from your message that the structure of your PhD is different to the UK / EU structure, so I assume you're from the US. That adds in a couple of extra years and I guess a little extra stress.

From your message, you seem to have really thrown yourself into your work. I found myself in this mode and for the write-up period at least all that existed was the PhD. That drove friends and family absolutley nuts to the point they wished it would go away, never to appear again. So yes, I understand. But actually doing reading in the gym? That desn't come across as a very safe situation. I've a picture of you falling off a treadmill whilst trying to read a paper in my head. :-)

Can I suggest straight away this is not a healthy situation and as Sam29 has said, you need time outside your PhD work to relax and switch off?

However, I'll add a PhD is not a 9 to 5 job and there will be times where workload or other research requirements will mean staying to within normal office hours will be impossible. Thus striking a balance between work life and private life will be that much more difficult. If you want to hold onto your boyfriend, this you will have to do. If you can't strike a balance, then you may be placing yourself into a situaion where you have to choose and being forced to do this in itself could end the relationship.

Has he gone through PhD himself? If not, he will not understand the stresses you are facing. You have to relate this to him if a balance is to be achieved. I'm guessing he's put Uni. behind him and may expect you to have a similar mindset to him, that your work is just a job. If you are still in the Uni. environment then this may be difficult to do.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

Layan,

Please take a glance at my blog on what exactly a PhD is, set up as a question and answer format for commonly asked questions.

Best of luck!!!

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

Understood Fled. :-)

The problems I faced during my second post-doc effectively ended my time within the academic sector - personal circumstances after didn't help, but the damage was all but done. I had no reference bar a bland statement from University HR I had worked for them. I openly admit to a major mistake (meeting based, not experimental) during the second post-doc, however, the hostile attitude of the Prof (primary line manager) was already clear. I'd already been described at the beginning as a stop gap, second choice option they would have to make do with. I can't honestly say whether this attitude and related atmosphere contributed to my mistake, though I'll note mistakes by others were left unchallenged.

At least I'd entered that second post-doc with my PhD behind me, however, looking back at my treatment both at my PhD / 1st post-doc University (generally good with some managable idiosyncrasies) and my second post-doc University (varying from sort of okay to outright hostility depending upon the person) I can understand the range of views and behaviours expressed on this forum.

I have no regrets about doing my PhD. If I hadn't, it would always have been "What if?"

However, the damage done means my PhD / post-doc period has not contributed to my career and when I finally found work outside academia after my second post-doc, my real world career was back where it was before I left industry to return to University.

Your future is in the hands of one or two people both during your PhD and at the beginning of the post-doc treadmill. Your supervisors are effectively god. If that relationship fails even through no fault of your own, then your PhD / post-doc time can indeed seem like a significant portion of your life wasted.

I can only sympathise with the opening poster.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

The important thing is you haven't failed. Wait and see what revisions the external examiners want and plan from there. Hopefully the examiners will clearly detail what they are after from you to make the thesis a viable document.

Corrections on this scale occur due to either errors in methodology or sections of the thesis needing more discussion or elaboration. Conversely, one poster here recently had to resubmit as there was too much in their thesis.

It's not the end of the world and once you know what to do, you and your supervisor can put together a plan to rectifiy the identified problems. If on receiving the detailed corrections the examiners have apparently misunderstood your thesis (a long shot and unlikely), you may even be able to appeal against the decision.

I remember expecting major corrections as I had some misgivings about my thesis and I think my supervisor was expecting the worst also. I ended up having to correct three minor typos.

It can be luck of the draw who you get as examiners as commented above, this potentially affecting examination outcome.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

I'll add it might be in Zia's best interests to ask exactly what these errors are. If Zia's supervisor will not say, then Zia might want to take a look back through the thesis to see what these mistakes might be, so as to be clear what is meant by mistakes or errors.

As I said, I personally think any action is unlikely and at worst, it might be to correct errors and resubmit. It also doesn't look on the examiners at viva to have missed these mistakes, although I do wonder if some examiners just glance at sample sections rather than the whole thesis.

In other words relax, I doubt you've anything to worry about.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

Bewildered,

That's a good post and all fair comment. Apologies for going a little off-topic.

You might find the following article interesting, concerning a few high profile cases (German Defence Minister, Hungarian President) where PhDs (and I assume other degrees) have been revoked. Some are unheard of outside the US.

However, it also mentions Gadaffi's son Saif-al-Islam, who was allowed to keep his. Martin Luthur King was also allowed to keep his despite evidence of plagierism.