I feel I'm sliding when I just put on my jogging trousers (not that I ever jog, bleah). Like I did yesterday. Today I put on jeans and a reasonable jumper as I thought I might actually go into the uni to a talk. But now I just don't know if I can be bothered. It's cold. I'm busy.... maybe I'll just stay in my cave...

On the subject of research proposals. I know you say you don't have hours to spend in the library but really you need to do just that and if you can't - well maybe you are not really that keen? Pick out a few key journals and browse the back issues for say the last couple of years. I used to do that during my maters and that's how I came up with my research proposal. It was nothing to do with my masters - it grew out of an article I read that totally grabbed me. This might also give you more of an idea about how much this area interests you - enough to study intensively for several years? If nothing else - you will at least sound knowledgable and up to date at your interview.

My max is 80,000 and I expect to be 50-55,000. It is on the short side but it's quite math-heavy (I'm inter-disciplinary - the twilight zone) and supervisor thinks that will be OK. Get your supervisor's opinion - they know your thesis better than other students.

We've had a lot of one year post-docs in our faculty (humanities). I think leaving a 2 yr post to travel will look disastrous. If I were you - I would just do it straight away.

I agree with Sleepyhead. You have been unlucky and let down - and unfortunately weren't able to compensate or rectify that at the time. I saw a few people have similar problems with there masters when I was doing mine (myself included). One of the others failed completely and another dropped her distinction due to getting almost failing her project. She had already been offered funding on her expected results and it was not withdrawn. The other did a PhD elsewhere on the strength of his first degree alone.

It's not always possible to sort out bad supervision - I have learnt that the hard way. But it is very common and there may be some diplomatic way to describe your situation. I think if you could publish form your thesis that would be a really big help.

If you can self-fund, or go part-time and work to fund, then I think you could definitely still get a place if you click with a supervisor. But funding will be next to impossible. I know people in conservation work - funding is desperately competive. Getting more field experience might help a lot - you'd have new references too. It is sometimes possible to publish from such work too. Funding loves publishing.

If you are really keen I wouldn't say give up but take the long view.

Yes and I felt exactly the same. When I queried it they assured me it was normal to review as a grad student - also for a very good journal. Does make you wonder doesn't it :p

I don't know but perhaps it would help for you to consider whether you could do your present FT job and the same job PT at the same time using evenngs. weekends or how ever you plan to organise it. Could you do that for say 5-6 years?

Your university should have a counselling service and I recommend that you use it if you are not in counselling already. It is very easy to get stuck like this. Most of my first year disappeared like this and my sup and I briefly discussed intermitting but I felt I needed to push on. What we should have done was intermit retrospectively.

After a spell like this you don't usually just suddenly work at peak efficiency - take one small step at a time. Write an agenda with something small to get done every day and work up. Depending on your relationship with your sup - that is something you could discuss and come up with a realistic set of objectives to ease you back into working.

I don't know of any instances where college fees are not covered along with the university fees so you should be fine.

Shattered but strangely panicked here to. I'm due to submit in March :p

I work mainly Wed-Fri when I have proper childcare, about 10-6.30, then usually on and off through dinner and the bedtime saga which is really dragging on these days and I end up ging in every 10 minutes until 9-10 pm which is not very conducive to work. Husband takes her out so I can work on Saturdays. A lunch invite was just cancelled for tomorrow and I was actually glad as it means I can work - how sad is that? So varies a lot - probably 20-25 hours/week although it feels like a lot more!

Appealing in this situation would be like appealing to an ex-fiance for breach of promise: even if you win - you lose.

I can imagine your frustration since you already have a masters. I had to do a masters to bridge the gap from my first degree to PhD - I could never have managed without it.

Note though that in factor analysis (as opposed to principal components analysis) you can use either kind of matrix as FA outcome does not depend on the units of your variables being the same. In PCA you will get different outcomes if your variables have different units - different units will render a covariance matrix meaningless in PCA. But check that out and don't take my word for it - it's been a while since I had to sort this out for myself.:p

I feel your pain. My sup doesn't do maths either. And I am avoiding syntax. I know I will have to get with it some time - just now now TYVM. Now I'm not exactly a mega-expert but I've done most of my PCAs in SPSS - what was your 'horrible experience' ?

Well then given that you are unlikely to get funding for a masters, I would just apply for a PhD and see if you can get a place. The worst that can happen is you need to do a masters later - and you can soemtimes get onto masters courses (self-funded) at the last minute so youcould probably still do one next year if you don't get the PhD place you want without one.

I doesn't sound as if you definitely need a masters - sounds like you would get on OK with 'just' a first ;-)

I think that's true of many uiversities - funding is so competitive these days. I don't know your field but I would imagine it is not as well funded as some areas of science. It may not just be Oxbridge that will require the masters. A lot depends on whether you are applying for a funded place or having to apply for funding seperately (you can get a PHD place (self-funding) at Oxbridge with a 2.1 and no masters and if your supervisor loves you you might get a ready-funded place but you won't get your own funding). If you are doing the latter, you will probably need a masters anywhere. Also bear in mind that if you get a 2.1 then you wil need a 1st/distinction at masters to raise your game. Might be worth approaching potential supervisors to get a better idea about the requirements and the funding situation.