http://www.postgraduateforum.com/showmessage.asp?thread=4101&cat

I'm excited 'cos I love modelling almost as much as tap dancing!!

Hmmm...Gib-son-and-Bruck's-Next-Re-ac-tion-Meth-od...ok...I think a five beat cramp roll followed by a shuffle ball change and ending with a stamp would do it

You can fit a 9-beat riff to "ex-pec-ta-tion max-i-mi-sa-tion" (I've just tried it - I love tap dancing! )

While it is usual for the examining panel to be provisionally selected by the student and supervisors, ultimately the examining panel must be approved by your Uni's research degree committee. They will look at such things like whether the proposed team have enough experience of examining at PhD level. Have they recently examined a PhD at your Uni (in which case they may not be able to examine another for a while)? Are any of them registered for research degrees themselves (again, usually ineligible)? Have any of them advised on any aspect of your project?

Another thing to consider is getting the balance right - this is especially important if your project is multidisciplinary i.e. you wouldn't want both (or all in the case of >2) to specialise in one area and have no one to examine the other aspects of the thesis.

Nothing wrong with wanting to make a good impression and showing that you are serious about the studentship. I'd recommend the suit option but search the archives on here for plenty of other opinions. Good luck!

Excellent news! Glad life is good!

Unless Wickid wants us to post photos of ourselves wearing cool shades?

I worked whilst writing up, I think most people do unless they are lucky enough to complete within their funding time or have lots of savings stashed away. You just have to be realistic about how long it will take you to complete and to accept that some weeks will be more productive than others depending on your work situation. I was lucky enough to get a 'post-doc' job while I was writing up but it was initially tough as the work was demanding and I needed to work evenings and weekends (hence little time to write up!).

http://www.postgraduateforum.com/showmessage.asp?thread=4101

Not like it was in my day

"Well, of course, we had it tough! We used to have to get up out of our student digs in the middle of the night, and lick the science department clean with our tongues! We had to eat half a handful of freezing cold gravel, work twenty-four hours a day in the lab while surviving on a fourpence student loan every six months, and when we submitted our assignments, our lecturers would slice us in two with a breadknife!"

[Apologies to the Monty Python team]

I'm amazed that you can get an extension on a undergraduate dissertation especially on the suppose day of submission!!??? :oO Didn't you need a note from your GP or something???!!!!

[Sorry, I don't mean to sound like an old git but my Uni was incredibly strict about undergraduate deadlines. If you were a single minute over time (without a proven valid excuse] your assignment/dissertation was immediately limited to a maximum score of 40%.]

Lashings of homemade ginger beer is the only thing to have with your picnic on Kirrin Island

Zara, I'm sure that you will have thought very carefully about this decision so I'm not going to tell you to do just that! A PhD is not worth 3 plus years of total misery and it's not everybody's cup of tea. If you are unhappy and have decided that you would find something else more fulfilling then go for it. It takes a lot of guts to admit that something is not for you and to move on and sometimes it's easier to stay put and be miserable. You only get one life so make sure you spend yours doing the things that make you happy. Good luck for the future.

No problem, I can't go hogging all the centenary posts!!

Corrupting other people's work is far, far worse. One of my colleagues accidently bowled over a load of conical flasks containing my carefully prepared calibration standards - with a PEAR!! [Yes, we do have a no food in lab rule but she popped in en route to the tea room and somehow lost her grasp on it!]