Where can you find so many cool people from different countries, religions and walks of life?
Where can you make lifelong friends who you will always stay in contact with, no matter how many miles seperate you?
Where can you look back, in 20 years time and think 'they were the best years of my life?

- In a PhD students office... whilst doing a PhD...

White.

Whilst some dark ones look 'cooler' - you have to cater for people with colour blindness and eyesight difficulties, so if your presentation is, say.. 10 feet away, some people might strain to read light text on a dark background.

Clarity and boringness should sadly win over 'coolness' and whilst I'd actually agree that in most cases, dark looks nicer - You're less likely to end up with an annoyed audience as they'll probably be able to read the text on your presentation if you stick to white.

When I did mine, the fees were £3,000 a year.. however that was pre-top up fees and as my BSc cost £1K a year as opposed to £3k a year ... I don't know if the PhD has gone up as well.

4 years part time? I'd say that was rather optimistic and aim for 5.. but that's based purely on personal observations and not on your research skill or writing ability which, of course, I don't know...

I'm afraid I have no idea as I assume it's an American thing? I do know of one woman in my Uni in the UK.. she got a third at her BSc degree and manged to go straight onto a PhD as she got permission from the dean of the university and her supevisor agreed she would be able to do it.

Most of the time, if you get bad BSc grades, you have to do the Masters to 'prove' you are up to it - if you get a bad MSc grade I'm not sure what you would do - talk to your supervisor and try and prove you are capable? however.. I guess the question they will ask is, if you *are* capable, why did you get a bad grade? The woman I mentioned had health problems on top of family issues, therefore she cited that as the reason for her bad grades..

'That depends on your pre-nuptual agreement!'

Which aren't sadly legal in the UK.. however mutual declarations of trust are, apparantly.. which is why, in a couple of years when the boyfriend and I are in a position to buy a house, we will be signing one.. 50/50 .. apart from the cat, which is mine and only mine

'Marriage meant more of a commitment though...and of course this is a very individuated experience and so other people might have very different thoughts. ' ... I'd disagree with you dude, but not in a bad way as I agree on 99% of what you write and as you said.. it's a personal thing!

My view, which is obviously different to yours is - a ring won't stop someone cheating, nor will a peice of paper, if you're married *sometimes* people stop making effort and think 'we're married, you're not going anywhere' and in this day and age, I would say a child or owning a house together is more commitment than marriage... you could walk out and 5 years later, file for divorce, never seeing your partner again and as long as your finances are not together... you're sorted.

If you have a house, you can walk.. but you'd be losing out on thousands of pounds, so would usually have to at least talk to that person again!

Example... 2 people with PhDs and careers, both nice people, marry, have kids and the woman gives up work - nothing wrong with that if that's what they want...

Next example... 2 people, he beats her up, cheats on her and when she is leaving, he proposes - she is so desperate for marriage and babies she accepts - I'd say that was wrong but hey... their life, just not something I would want..

'However, if a woman sees her life-goal as marriage and babies then I really don't think that should be slated, it's a perfectly noble occupation.'

No.. it shouldn't be slated - that is unless the woman is *that* obsessed with the idea that she marries a well known arsehole just so she can get the ring on her finger and babies and *that's* what I meant.

Not everyone, male or female wants a 'career', there is nothing wrong with that, nor is there anything wrong with personal choice, being a housewife / househusband or mother / Father... However, I think there is something wrong when people start sacrificing their morals and respect for themselves.

Sadly she didn't as she married him.... :(

Some women are sooooo obsessed with babies and getting a ring on their finger, they will give up any of their wants / needs so that they can reach their main 'goal'

2 weeks later she was Mrs and was going through all the hassle of changing everything...

He was an arse - but it's funny, isn't it... people say 'It's a sign of commitment to change your name', 'it's nice' etc... but why aren't they saying these things to men? if the guy wants everyone to have the same surname... why can't HE change HIS?

Oh.. and did you know, if you get married, the woman can use the marriage certificate to change her surname on things.. the bloke can't.. he has to change his by DEED POLL....

Sexist or what? :(

'I just honestly couldn't think an example of how a woman changing her name to that of her partner's would cause an imbalance in the relationship, or really have very much impact on the relationship at all.'

You try asking 50 blokes if they would marry their girlfriends and change THEIR surname... what do you think the responses will be?

'Hell no... that's a womans job to change her surname'

'No way mate, I'm not under the thumb'

'Nah, I'm going to keep my surname and if she doesn't change hers to mine, I won't marry her'

Etc etc etc - I've actually *heard* a work colleague boasting about how his wife said she wanted to keep her surname and he had told her to give the ring back as she obviously didn't care about the relationship if she wouldn't take his name! Maybe there isn't an imbalance in the relationship.. but in some areas of society? hell yes...

'so what about the solution of keeping a professional, maiden name and a new family name for everything else?'

- That might work as long as the bloke also changes his name.. oh, wait a minute.. it will be the woman making all the sacrifices once again!

I won't be marrying or having children but 2 of my sisters want marriage and children - both have said under no circumstances will any children have the Fathers name and if they don't like it, tough... I think this is also unfair and they should either take half of our surname and the blokes, or create a new family name they can all change to...

... but they are more militant than me!

'I hate all that double-barrelled nonsense though - either keep yours or take his - you can't have it all and anyway it sounds pretentious... in my humble opinion '

What about if you have a double baralled name through birth?

My dad is double baralled and our family have been since the 16th century... my mother married my Dad, took his surname and all of his daughters have the double baralled surname too....

I always feel sad when people say it sounds pretentious - my parents live in a council house (non UK people: this means parents on low wages not very well off) and we were raised to be polite, respect people and be grateful for what we had... no foreign holidays, very few presents etc.. but we were happy...

Not all people with double baralled surnames are posh, nor is it our choice... but personally.. I think double baralling is much 'fairer' than to *expect* the woman to drop her surname.. if she chooses to, fair enough.. but noone should expect...

'I would use Dr to get around the idiocy of Ms/Mrs/Miss...'

I've been 'Ms' since I was 13 - I have no plans to ever get married as it's not my thing, however if I changed my mind - my partner has already said he would never expect me to take his name. He's 'Dr' on certain things.. I'm currently Dr on the British Gas Bill and my Bingo card (wow, go me) ....

I've been thinking about it, and I don't really care how I am addressed... 'Ms' is fine.. 'Dr' is fine (although sounds a bit weird).. but Miss / Mrs? no, no, no... my marital status is noones business but my own so everyone else can sod off!

Push.. push.. and push....

You don't get any reply to your emails.. so you phone... you don't get any answer to your phone calls, so you leave messages..

My internal examiner was really busy, she took 5 weeks to send me my corrections and then decided to have a holiday like.. 'now', before writing to the exams office, saying she had accepted my corrections... I had to push and push and get my 2nd Supervisor to basically camp outside her door and bug her outside of work... and she finally did what was required.

There is, of course a limit... too much pushing and they'll hate you - but I've found that with some busy people, you need to always take the lead and be proactive.. and when you DO have them on the phone... make sure you schedule a phone call catch up on 'X' date.. that way you know when you'll next speak to them and if they cancel, ask them for another date there and then....

'Actually I feel sorry for the people who do write them, if they are as successful as they claim, these guys could probably have 20 PhDs each, instead of selling them to stupid students...'

Maybe they've all got their PhD's, realised academia wasn't that great and decided to exploit peoples greed, stupidity and laziness and are writing thesis for others? 1 PhD... 20...

Shame people do it, I wouldn't imagine there was much point to being called 'Doctor' unless you're in academia and if you are.. surely they check your quals anyway?