when I Google myself I get, apart from stuff about a committee I'm on, a picture of an Irish setter in the Czech Republic who has won several competitions. No lie.

But I was inspired by your gorgeous design from the other day, Cobweb. I think it was you...

I was thinking with these smileys we have all the components of a rich, colourful tapestry covering, let's say, half a page....

Would the mods kill us?

Crikey, Emmaki, I'm glad you saw the fateful e-mail. Sounds like many of you made 'less prestigious' choices that you're happy with.

Think it's better to be genuinely motivated by stuff inside you, like excitement for project, liking for department, etc. than by outward stuff like what other people will think as they gaze upon you.

:-)(sprout)8-)(robin):-)(sprout)8-)(robin)

Thanks guys

I've never actually allowed prestige of institutions to sway my judgement - I've just chosen what I consider exciting courses all the way through. But then some might say that this is precisely why I've never gone to a prestige institution! I haven't gone to average universities because I don't think I'm capable of getting into 'better' ones, I've just never really thought about it. Naive, perhaps...

Am well aware that a fair number of posters on here wouldn't touch an ex-poly with a bargepole! Lots of people I've met are very pleased that they can proffer the name of Professor Classy on their CV. And good for them!

So anyway, I suspect I will go ahead with applying for funding with the academic I described to you, because actually I'd really like to work with her and she's a great evangelist for our field. And as you can see from the description, she really does have a lot going for her in some ways. But in case our funding bid doesn't work, perhaps I'll punt around and see if there's anyone else out there with similar ideas/obsessions...



(up)(robin)(up)

Hi all
Am in talks with someone from my undergrad (am MSc-ing it at the mo) about her supervising my PhD. Trouble is, there are pros and cons.

- The department itself is in an ex-poly which for that subject came halfway down the RAE league table. But it came higher than other ex-polys and moved several places up the charts (sounds like Top of the Pops) from the previous RAE. My subject is actually a burgeoning sub-area of the main subject, if that makes sense.
- My potential supervisor's list of publications is not that impressive - she gets about 2-3 per year, but only a fraction in high-impact journals. However, she is also a research associate at one of the top 3 UK universities, and a very esteemed professor at another of the top 3 UK universities recommended my potential supervisor to another PhD-er I know
- My potential supervisor is passionate about our sub-field, knows loads of people within it, founded a major annual European conference, and is a journal editor. She runs a weekly research seminar group for our sub-field. She is very encouraging of students. She is also currently collaborating with better-known academics than her(!)
- My potential supervisor has singlehandedly set up a lab at her institution as well as annual field trips, and is gathering a team of students and colleagues around her who are of a similar school of thought. I know some of these people and I get on with them and feel very comfy with them.
- My potential supervisor has a canny eye for how our sub-field can contribute to policy, something that I think is increasingly important but quite rare among academics I know, and is starting to apply for relevant grants.
- I get on really well with my potential supervisor and we see eye-to-eye about the various emphases of my topic idea. The plan is to apply for funding together.

So there you have it. Lots of pros, but the cons are that this person doesn't have a great publication record and the institution/department itself doesn't impress outsiders. Am I just wanting to be with this supervisor out of loyalty/sentimentality? Why doesn't she move on and work somewhere a bit classier? :p Should I go and chat to others in my sub-field who might want my topic to have a different emphasis, but be at better-respected institutions?

Your thoughts please... (mince)

Ha ha I like your advice to "choose wisely from a diverse selection of potential partners". That's exactly what I didn't do in the past, with disastrous results!


Actually I never go on the hunt really - I just try to do stuff that interests me and see who shows up at the same events. But I am gonna keep my time management up to scratch, because when you know you've done your allotted hours for the day then you know you can run free and wild that evening!

It's interesting to hear that it's about a good relationship in the first place, and planning to some extent. I think I've become very used to being single. Then when I discovered that I loved my discipline so much that I wanted to continue to pursue it, I became panic-stricken that something/one might come between me and my studies. So for me it would be revolutionary to have both studies I love and a partner I love!! Because in my life so far I've usually either had one or the other, never both.

I tend to fill my spare time with being on committees etc and forget to keep my eyes peeled for someone special and I now realise it needs to go much higher up my list in terms of priorities, or life in the long term won't be worth much. It's great to hear from people for whom having both in their lives is just a matter of course. I seem to remember that someone on this forum once said that if you look at a lot of senior academics we know, they are often in relationships or married. So they clearly didn't think it was a matter of either/or in life. :-x

Cheers Sue

That's reassuring. So it's time management that's key to romance....

Sounds like a routine is extremely important as I suspected and also it's good if the partner has 'stuff' he or she finds interesting so that they are able to spend time without you.

The time that a postgrad would spend with their partner if they are already part of an established couple is the time that a single must use to go on the hunt. (up)

Ogriv

The start of term has hit me like a ton of bricks, and I'm only a part-time Masters student. Obviously time management skills are life skills and if one wants any sort of an interesting life, then they must be gained. I've got into that mode of procrastination leading to work at odd times, leading to social events cancelled.

Apart from the MSc I have the standard number of commitments in my life: a part-time job, a keep-fit routine, friends, cleaning and general grooming/maintenance :p They are all things that must be juggled. Additionally, I'm single. And I don't want to be forever, cos I've been single for a long time (cos of focusing on studies in recent years). So I also have to schedule in social events where I might meet new, like-minded people.

I know a lot of people in this forum think you can't have a relationship and be a postgrad student, but I refuse to believe that's true. If it is, then I don't want this sort of life. It seems to me that the nub of my musings is that to have a decent crack both at the academic work and at finding/maintaining a relationship, one must allocate one's time like a sane human being and have definite time off working.

All of you who have successfully met your romantic partner during your time as a postgrad - how did it fit into your routine? Love in life is as important as achievement at work (possibly more) and I want advice from people who have managed both.

Apologies for unremarkable musings on age-old topic (up)

Well done Lara!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Minor corrections too!!!!!!!! You are obviously a genius!!!!!!!!!!!

All of us long-term readers of the forum will know the struggles you have been through in the past year or so. I even remember your first post was called something like "I'm going to fail my PhD" LOL. This is proof that we can all bounce back from the solitude and self-doubt that is the dark side of research and by sticking with it we can triumph.

You're an absolute inspiration, Lara!
(up)

- Chatting informally with other academics in my field
- Hula-hooping
- Exploring new parts of London
- Mitchell and Webb clips on Youtube

Hi all
Hmmm, I think my dissertation supervisor is very reliable as I have come to know him as a cautious person (unlike the chap who was dismissed!) My supervisor says an e-mail went out to the department earlier this week. However the gory details of the misappropriation of funds are understandably being kept quiet, I think.

I think it's right, however, not to refer to any of this in my e-mail terminating the volunteer work. It's just as you say, I have to refer to how I don't have time and it's not furthering my objectives (which contradicts an e-mail I sent to the dismissed guy just 3 weeks ago!)

It will be strange to be this formal and cold with him, as I am accustomed to a more informal and friendly relationship. This is the nub of the awkwardness, but there's no getting round the fact that the context of our relationship was an academic environment. If we can't any longer operate within those bounds, then it has to come to an end. Weird.

Thanks all for your advice.

Thanks Smoobles!
Have decided to put off the e-mail writing till the weekend when I'm a bit less busy and have time to phrase things tactfully... such is life I suppose!


Ogriv(up)

Hi all
I was volunteering for one of my lecturers this summer by sorting out some missing/messy data for him, with the hope of then being taught to use the more exciting software he used to do the initial study (can't be more specific here).

He mysteriously wasn't around all summer - other lecturers were asking me if I knew where he was (as they didn't and were concerned), but he was responding to text and G-Mail (not his college e-mails) so that's how we communicated.

He's not the best teacher in the world (more of a researcher, and rather maverick and unreliable but with good publications) and so it was quite difficult not being able to ask him questions face-to-face about the gaps in his data and so forth. For this reason I made very slow progress and spent most of my time messing around with Excel and SPSS. I felt quite embarrassed about this but suggested to him that I continue to help him during term-time this autumn. I never got to the point where I could learn the glamorous software (!) and this was really the goal for me - something for the CV.

Yesterday I went in to see another academic, my actual dissertation supervisor, and he informed me that the first guy has been fired for misappropriation of research grants. Apparently the locks on his office door were changed (which might explain why he's not been around all summer).

Anyway, I'm now rather disinclined to continue volunteering for him. He no longer has an affiliation or access to the glamorous software so volunteering doesn't have the quid pro quo that I was hoping for. But over the time I've known him we have built up a friendship and (get this!) on Monday I saw him at an event he'd agreed to help me out with and he was behaving entirely normally with other students and academics... he said nothing about what's been happening and he knew I was going into college yesterday to mess around with his data some more.

I think the guy's in denial, I'll be sorry not to see him again, but it would be insane to keep in touch with him and keep volunteering for him now he's an (ahem) 'independent researcher' (ie unemployed). But now I have to send an e-mail telling him I won't be volunteering any more and that's basically 'cos he's been dismissed. Kick a guy when he's down. I'm sure he's culpable but it's going to be one hell of an awkward e-mail...

:-(

Going on from what RJB said, I'm halfway through an MSc and my main friend on the course appears to be nicking some of my ideas. I tend to have lots and lots of ideas (of wildly varying quality) whereas he has more scientific experience. But I've definitely noticed a recent trend of him pondering over potential dissertation topics that were originally ideas I brought up in conversation. This person is potentially a very talented researcher and is also extremely ambitious and confident. I think I'm good, but less experienced, less confident and less pushy.

To cut a long story short, I'll probably need to tell my 'friend' fewer of my ideas in future; crack on with following up my good ideas myself; and take a leaf out of his book in terms of pushiness I reckon.

At my level and stage of idea incubation, I don't think I can really claim plagiarism :p but this friend is a definite magpie and, alas, in this context a potential rival. What is academia doing to all of us?!?