hey there

i started my phd in sept 2010, been at it for about 4 months now.

i was wondering how much guidance you would expect from your supervisor up to this point, as sometimes i feel my supervisor would be more concerned with his students who are further on in their studies (i.e 2nd/3rd year), and i would be attended to last.

does this sound like a usual situation to anybody?

as a seperate issue (ill just wedge it in here too) - i am not feeling part of our phd group very much (there are 5/6 of us) and i think this is something that will affect me as i am supposed to be learning from them and absorbing information as i go along.

early on they told me they go for lunch on fridays to 'catch up' but i could not go as i had cashflow probs - so since then they just go without asking me, so this is something that makes me feel pretty left out. i am thinking i shud just be a bit more forward and ask them when they are going but i just get the feeling they dont seem to care if i go or not. also i get certain 'vibes' of some of them that im not too keen on, some of them like the sound of their own voice too much, as if they have some sort of 'super knowledge' as they either have a phd (theres a few post grads here too) or are further on than me... so already i think i have some sort idea whether i would get on with them or not :/

it does sound maybe like i am over analysing things, but even the idea of talking to my supervisor seems like i would be 'upsetting the apple cart' so to speak.....

i just feel so far i am not getting the phd experience i expected and im defo not as happy as i was when i started :/

any advice would be most appreciated :)

hi folks

i recently started a phd in september, its going slowly at the minute and im not quite sure of the specific direction its going take, but thats not why i am posting this.

i am finding that some of the guys in my phd group (who are in either 2nd year or who had just finished their phd but still hanging about doing post docs etc) are very 'serious' and (i think) have the attitude of 'oh here is a newbie who knows nothing, lets not be very friendly to him'.....

the general atmosphere of the phd group is quite serious and there is not much talking done during the day - totally opposite to a place i used to work a few years back which had lots of banter and was enjoyable.

i realise that this is a phd environment and is totally different, but i am finding the atmosphere quite strict and not what i am used to.

has anyone else experienced this at all? it is making me re-think whether this is the right thing to do and should i just get a decent graduate program job.

thanks for reading!