Firstly - well done for getting the letter accepted!

It's definitely for the best that you didn't just stick your supervisors names on the submission - they might disagree with what you have written, and then you would be in a whole heap of trouble! Especially if they know the author of the original article/have published with them in the past etc.

Possibly you should have approached them first before you wrote it, but then they would probably have wanted to change/edit some of what you had written, and the letter would not necessarily say what you wanted it to.

As it is, there is a possibility they might be slightly miffed you didn't speak to them first, but as it's only a letter (ie. not a manuscript!) then I don't think you've done much wrong, particularly as it is not directly related to your PhD. It was your personal opinion, and you wanted to express it without anyone else's input. They may even admire your initiative! I think you should tell them pretty much what you put here - you made a rash decision to write to the journal, never expected it to be accepted, but now it has and you wanted to let them know.

I can see why you're nervous about telling them as I would be too, but you'll probably find they don't think it's that big a deal.

My thesis (in the sciences) ended up as follows:

Intro/lit review 10k
Results 1 6k
Results 2 13k
Results 3 8k
Results 4 8k
Results 5 9k
Conclusion 2k
TOTAL 56k

My results chapters were each written like a separate study, ie. intro, methods, results, discussion.

I would tend to agree with your supervisor and not get too hung up on exact chapter lengths. All that is important, in my opinion, is that the thesis has a good flow and the structure makes logical sense. For my thesis, I had to do experiment 1 to be able to do experiment 2, then experiment 3 etc. Therefore, my first results chapter is short because the work wasn't exactly groundbreaking, but had to be done (and explained) for the rest of the thesis to make sense. My second results chapter is huge because it was the most long-winded part of my work, and was essential before I could move on to the next section, so the chapter had to be really long to get all the necessary information in. Results 4 and Results 5 are essentially one long chapter of 17k, but I broke it into 2 as they are two slightly different versions of the same experiment so I wanted to make a clear distinction between them.

I didn't worry about the unbalanced word counts of my chapters at all, because I knew that the thesis as a whole 'told a story' and each chapter followed on neatly to the next. Each thesis is different, so if yours has identical chapter lengths or massively different ones, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Take each chapter on its own merit and ensure it contains everything it needs to; if it does, then it is long enough! I wouldn't try and artificially force a chapter to be longer or shorter than I naturally felt was necessary. If the overall word count is hugely under/over then I would go back and make adjustments, but if overall it is about right then I don't think the size of each chapter is that vital.

I should add as a caveat that I did pass, and no-one (supervisors or examiners) ever commented on my chapter lengths!!

It's a good idea to write a list of all the mistakes you notice - then if they come up during the viva you can point out that you are already aware of them (but don't reveal your list to the examiners until they ask!). Having said that, if they are just minor formatting errors/typos they probably won't mention them in the actual viva, they will just be given to you as corrections. This will also save you loads of time post-viva when doing corrections as you can whizz through your list really quickly.

As for your references, try not to worry too much about remembering them all! You won't be expected to remember every single reference in your thesis. I tried to memorise the titles/journals and key messages of about 10 of the really important papers that were vital for my thesis. I made sure I knew my examiner's papers inside and out. Additionally, I found two or three papers that had been published after I had submitted and memorised the key points of these (this turned out to be a good move as my examiners asked me what I thought the 'next big thing' in my field would be, and so I was able to discuss these new papers and the direction they were taking).

I then went through my thesis chapter by chapter and tried to write a list of about 10 questions that might come up, and practiced answering them. For me, it really helped to just talk out loud about my thesis (in an empty room!) to get myself used to talking about it and explaining it in ways that made sense without stumbling over my words. I also rehearsed summaries of each chapter, again just to get myself in the mode of talking about my work.

Some general questions that came up in my viva:
1) Summarise your thesis for me
2) What are you going to do with your thesis afterwards? (i.e. publications)
3) Which bit of your work are you most proud of?
4) What contribution does your thesis make to the field?

At the end of my viva, my examiner told me it was nice to have someone that talked so much (!), as he said that so often students are so nervous they give really short answers which makes it really hard work for the examiners, so I would advise you to expand upon your answers wherever you can, without waffling too much of course! I think this also helps to show your enthusiasm for your topic, which is another thing they are looking for and want to see.

Finally, best of luck, and I can almost guarantee it won't be as bad as you are imagining! My viva was mercifully short (just over an hour) and I got minor corrections, despite convincing myself I was going to fail completely. Please come back and let us know how it went

:-)

To start with, you can probably expect the level of supervision to be similar, but then this should tail off fairly rapidly as you become more independent. During my masters project, I had regular weekly meetings with my supervisor. When I started my PhD (at a different uni so different supervisors), I had weekly meetings for the first two or three months, and then this gradually dropped off to about once a month for the next couple of years. In the last year/18 months I only really saw my supervisors if I had a particular issue I needed their input on, otherwise we just communicated via email for any small questions that cropped up.

However, all supervisors are different and some request a lot more face to face time with you throughout the PhD. I think it also depends on the student, as it is you who should be driving the project, and so to some degree you can determine the amount of contact you have. For me, I preferred to maintain contact via email as much as possible and didn't see the need for regular meetings, but other students may prefer to know that they have regular (e.g. monthly) meetings to fall back on.

Woohoo! 3 stars!!

Thanks Ady, here's a present in return (and a sprout, just because): (gift)(sprout)

Hi Kaci69,

Some great advice from DrCorinne, and I agree that you should try and break your writing down into small, manageable chunks - that way the thesis doesn't seem so overwhelming. A well thought out plan is a really good start, which can be gradually expanded on and fleshed out bit by bit. Set yourself a little, achievable goal each day, such as 'draw figure 1' or 'write a plan for the structure of chapter 2' and things should start to get easier. Don't expect to be able to write massive amounts in one day - anything you manage to get down on paper is a step in the right direction so don't beat yourself up if you haven't written thousands of words every time you sit at your desk.
Just for balance, it is possible to write a thesis in 6 months so you could in theory meet your December deadline, but if you feel it isn't possible for you, then ask for that suspension. Your mental health is far more important, so if you need to take a bit longer then so be it. You won't be letting anyone down or 'failing' - doing a PhD is much harder than a lot of non-academic people realise, so be kind to yourself, take lots of breaks, and try not to feel too pressured as this can only be counter-productive.
Best of luck!!

Congratulations! Enjoy the celebrations Dr Gudwin :-)

======= Date Modified 10 Jul 2012 13:39:20 =======
I use this list:

http://images.webofknowledge.com/WOK46/help/WOS/A_abrvjt.html

Doesn't have absolutely everything and a bit hard work to navigate (especially working backwards from the abbreviation to the full title!) but I found it pretty useful.

I asked my superviosr a very similar question - she basically said there is no need to ever repeat anything, just refer back to where you first mentioned it.

For example, I used the same equation a number of times in different chapters, so instead of writing the equation out again I put things like:
Correlation was determined using the Pearson's correlation coefficient (Equation 6.5, Chapter 6).

Or occasionally I would simply refer to something I had explained in detail before, so I would write 'as discussed on page 55, Chapter 2' etc.

The only things I repeated were things discussing my work and my findings, just to make sure the examiner didn't miss them ;-)

I gave my supervisors my thesis chapter by chapter initially, they sent me comments/feedback on each one, and I then made the changes they suggested and compiled the thesis into a whole. I then read through the whole thing and did some major editing (deleting repetition, improving the 'flow' of the whole thing, making sure any cross-references within the thesis were correct, checking all the diagrams/captions were formatted the same etc).

Then I sent my supervisors the whole thing and they read it as a whole and sent me feedback on the whole document. I made these changes, and then submitted, without my supervisors ever seeing the final version (they told me they didn't need to as long as I felt I had addressed all of their comments). This way they only ever saw each chapter twice - once as an individual chapter and then once it was incorporated into the thesis. I didn't want to bug them with too many drafts so this worked well for me (I also know from past experience that if I sent them multiple drafts they wouldn't bother reading them!!)

When I applied for my phd, they asked me to fill in an application form, as well as sending my CV and a cover letter.

The application form had a few basic questions, such as:
Why do you want to do a PhD?
Why do you want to do a PhD at XXX university?
What experience do you have that will be relevant?

They are looking for enthusiasm, some degree of knowledge of the subject area, and some relevant experience, whether through your undergrad degree, a masters or perhaps some work experience. My advice would be to make sure your CV is as good as it can be (get someone else to look at if for you, or make use of your uni's careers service). It should be concise, logical and relevant to the PhD you are applying for. eg. if your degree is in biochemistry and the PhD is in imuunology, pick out and highlight any immunology modules you may have studied as part of your course and describe any techniques you are familiar with, to show that you have tailored your CV specifically and are not just applying for anything that comes your way!

As for the cover letter, again, make sure someone else reads it before you send it out. It should clearly lay out why you want to do that specific PhD, and what you have done that makes you the perfect candidate. eg. you could write something along the lines of 'My extensive computing experience, coupled with the laboratory skills gained during my undergraduate and Master's degrees, render me the ideal candidate for this studentship', and give specific examples of where this experience comes from.

For me personally, I think the fact that my application form and CV were good are what got me the interview. And I'm not bragging - it was mostly through other people's help! Having a concise, easy to read application goes a long way towards making a good first impression, particularly if there are lots of applicants with similar amounts of qualifications/experience - a strong application will really make you stand out, so no spelling or grammatical mistakes.

Of course, your results and experience are important too - I had a 2:1 at undergrad, a distinction in my Masters, and a year's work experience which helped me to stand out against the other candidates who were fresh from their undergrad studies (not that I think you can't get a PhD straight from undergrad - lots of people do, but they tend to have firsts). It wasn't part of my original plan to do a PhD, hence why I left uni and worked for a bit, but it worked out quite well in the end as I was lucky that the PhD and my qualifications and experience matched up perfectly, so it was easy for me to 'sell' my skills to the interviewer.

Hope some of this helps!

Here are my suggestions:

Q1: I would think that verbal confirmation is enough, and I personally would put (organisation, 2010) as that seems perfectly acceptable to me

Q2: Whenever I used a website as a ref in my thesis, I put the date at which I accessed the website rather than the date the site was last updated, eg. (CSite, accessed 29/06/2012). This allows for the fact that the info on the site may have changed since then.

Your question is a bit broad, and difficult to answer without knowing a bit more. To help you decide, the questions you should be asking yourself are:

- What do I want to get out this course?
- What do I aim to do career-wise afterwards and which of these will help me with that aim?
- Which University has the best reputation? (maybe someone on here can help you with this one - I have no idea!!)

The idea suggested below of contacting someone at the university is a good one, aprticularly if you have any specific questions to ask, as they will be the best people to answer those for you.

======= Date Modified 26 Jun 2012 13:31:25 =======
I agree with all the points made below. PhD students bring in money, generate publications, provide cheap labour for teaching/demonstrating, and can also do additional donkey work for the supervisor that isn't strictly related to their PhD. And I don't mean to sound cynical when I say that; it is a mutually beneficial relationship (or at least it should be, and hopefully is for most people) whereby the supervisor and university get cheap/free labour now and then and the student gets additional teaching/lab experience as they go along.

It also makes the supervisor look good if they have lots of PhD students as it brings in additional money (through external funding) which may be used to buy new software or equipment etc that more than one student gets to benefit from.

I know in my personal experience the research council that funded me gave a lot of additional money to my department that was supposedly set aside to fund conference travel, equipment etc - I'm pretty sure I didn't use it all and so the rest magically disappeared into the department to spend on other students (not that I am complaining - I spent plenty of it myself and would hate for the rest to be wasted - I would much rather it got sneakily redistributed to benefit other students who weren't fortunate enough to have such a large amount of funding).