I think you have to put a comma at the end in the author field

Department of Homeland Security,

wow! that's great - I'm going to try it for real tonight

gamba, is your full time job a 'career'? I think it would be very difficult to juggle a career and a PhD. I know lots of people who are successfully doing P/T PhDs, but it is not easy. They are mostly doing it by supporting themselves with an assortment of jobs that, well, dont require a lot of intellectual or emotional effort and are also more flexible time-wise. Like they will do a bit of teaching, a bit of admin work, a shift in the bar, but organise it so they also have days free to work on their PhD.

if examiners are going to start worrying about the number of chapters then god help us all.

I'm confused as well. I didnt do the upgrade thing, but where I am the MPhil requires registration for two years and a 65,000 word thesis (compared to 3 years/100,000 for the PhD). It's definitely not something you can just walk away with if you decide you dont want to carry on after a year. And in my subject area very few people actually have data after one year, so you'd need to go on to actually produce some to write up to get the MPhil.

ooooh, I like the champagne idea too - but I may save that for after completion. And I definitely have a lot of catching up to do with people I have been promising to visit for the last few years.

Yeah, I havent actually seen that, it just seemed like a way round things.

TBH, if it was me I'd be pragmatic, and just reference the published paper. Unless it is something absolutely central and you think your examiners might check. Are you quoting from or just citing? I'd be more careful if quoting, but as a citation the gist is going to be the same.

"personal communication"?

or "personal communication, published as "?

well, my treat is going to be reading a few fiction books without feeling guilty that I should be reading something research-related.

it might also depend on discipline? The way I have heard it talked about, research fellows have developed their own project proposal and got funding for it, whereas research assistants/research officers are working on a project that someone else has developed - even though fellows and assistants may both have PhDs and both be doing the same work.

Though I have also heard in bioscience research assistant used to refer to the person who does technical support for a research group, and a generic 'postdoc' is those who are working on a specific project.

it might also depend on discipline? The way I have heard it talked about, research fellows have developed their own project proposal and got funding for it, whereas research assistants/research officers are working on a project that someone else has developed - even though fellows and assistants may both have PhDs and both be doing the same work.

Though I have also heard in bioscience research assistant used to refer to the person who does technical support for a research group, and a generic 'postdoc' is those who are working on a specific project.

I'm too am curious why you applied for this studentship if location was going to be a problem.

And it's not exactly as though it is short notice is it? I mean I spent my twenties/early thirties moving around the country to a new job every couple of years, with one months notice, finishing work in one place on Friday and starting new job the following Monday. and no, there were no 'relocation packages' in the jobs I was doing.

I think its good to start with a bit of introspection. Once you are clear about how you work, then you can identify the sort of supervisor that will be 'best' for you. And you will be able to ask specific questions (of them or their current students) about how they work. e.g. do you like to get on by yourself and only show something when you've got a polished piece of work, or do you like to talk things over and get feedback as you go along? So would a good supervisor be one who waits for you to come to them and doesnt harrass you, or one who pops into the lab every day to ask how things are and insists on regular meetings every week?


Oh, and gut feeling is good too. in the interview, you are interviewing them as much as them interviewing you, and if it just doesnt feel right (or v.v.), then I'd go with that feeling.

yay! happy birthday!

and how many candles will you be blowing out on your birthday cake this year, are we allowed to ask?

Hi again fatbob, just another couple of thoughts.

If you start the PhD you've been offered can you then apply for full funding for subsequent years?

With the teaching, I'd suggest finding out exactly how much income you can expect, so you have an idea of budgets. It might work differently different places, but i was teaching in a politics department and you got a fixed amount per seminar group, but the marking was paid separately, per student. So it would make a big difference if you had 6 or 16 students in the group.

I suppose it also depends what other work you can do. You say you have worked previously, so is there any freelance or consultancy type work? Would this be easier to fit in the 'vacation only' thing compared to bar work and stuff which tends to be more available around universities in semesters!