Again it is difficult to answer that question, some relevant experience might help you get into a masters if you don't match the grade requirements. And work experience always looks good on a CV. But the job market is tough so it depends if there are jobs out there in your field. I'd check out both options and see what opportunities are available before making a decision.

I'm not in your field so I'm sorry I can't answer many of your questions. But just wanted to ask, have you tried looking at NGO's websites at their vacancies and looking at the requirements for working with them? It'll differ from organisation to organisation due to NGO's being independent but it might give you a better idea. It could be that you can work for one without a masters or PhD and save yourself the trouble and expense.

I'm a scientist so funded PhD's are the norm with me, but I'm guessing in political fields funding may be harder to come by. Again it's best to look at findaphd.com and look for PhD's advertised in your field, it will say whether they are funded or not there.

And always make sure you are certain about a PhD, I did mine because I loved my subject, I haven't really gained any employability from it at all in my field. I don't regret it, but if you are going into it looking for employability really check your field to see if this is the case.

As TreeofLife says you need to research these questions yourself. If you want an MSc each university will have different requirements, it is up to you to look at their webpages and check if you have those requirements. You can't expect someone from a forum to do all that work for you. If you want to go into work, again you need to contact potential employers yourself and ask them if you have the right requirements for the job. Having a 3rd doesn't mean you have no options, it just means you have to work harder to find out what they are.

I think you forgot to put the link to the article in..

Amazing joke though =)

If you are planning on staying in university accommodation it is likely the price will be similar for both universities. I'd contact them or look online at their websites to find that information before deciding.

Hello! I can't comment on the programmes or Newcastle as I've never lived there. But I'm from Aberdeen and went to Uni there, it's a great university (5th oldest in the UK). But the city is incredibly expensive to live in, it's the most expensive city outside of London, due to the huge amount of oil companies that have their bases there. I don't know if there are renewable energy companies but there are a lot of windfarms in that area (and in Scotland in general). I've heard Newcastle is also great to live in, and much, much cheaper! I think both Uni's are good, so maybe make enquiries to renewable energy companies about which MSc is most attractive to them?

I agree with Rina, never compare yourself with others. I'd bet this girl you are focussing on felt all of the same things you do, people find it difficult to appreciate their own successes. I think it's awful that in academia people even stop to mention beauty, they wouldn't do that to the male academics! I'm sure you are a wonderful person in your own right, it just sounds like you are a bit down right now. Perhaps talk to your university's counselling service or find a friend to chat to. I'm also at the last stages of a PhD and I know that the stress is completely changing me! I'm normally positive and pleasant (I hope!) but I feel like I'm turning into a sceptical, horrible person. Once we hand in the world will look different I bet!

Funded usually means that the cost of the PhD is covered and you will get a stipend to live from. If you write your own proposal funding is not guaranteed, you will need to talk to your potential supervisors, they will know more about funding in your subject area - often applying for funding this way is very competitive too but it really depends on your subject. I'm not sure I understand your question about the degrees being the same, PhD's are the same level of degree no matter what. It's just planned projects you have a research idea from your supervisors to work on and if you format your own proposal the idea is coming from you.

The PhD's on findaphd will tell you if there is funding attached etc so you can apply for a project which already has funding. You won't need to write a proposal usually, you apply like it is a job - each might be different but it should tell you what they require you to do, a CV and covering letter is the standard format, and then you interview for the post - it'll likely be quite competitive if it's a funded project. Writing a proposal yourself I would guess is a very different process, but I'm in sciences where that is very rare so I don't know much about that I'm afraid.

It could be that what you feel is mocking or ridicule is friendly ribbing (men often just talk to each other in sarcastic insults). I used to be incredibly shy too, but I really forced myself out of it (it was incredibly hard and I'm not judging you for still being shy), I forced myself to do things that scared me and gradually they got less scary. Perhaps just imagine you are speaking to a friend and try not to analyse yourself as much in these situations. These are only informal meet-ups and don't really mean anything, so don't put so much pressure on yourself. I bet underneath all the bravo they all feel insecure too, they just hide it a little better, I've found sometimes people often hide insecurities by acting over-confident. As my mum always says 'if you don't laugh you might cry', if you laugh at yourself when you are nervous or get something wrong it breaks the ice and the others will feel more comfortable too. Humour is definitely the way I get through those tough situations! =)

Have you finished the rest of your chapters yet? If the overall word count is too long then start thinking about cutting it down. I have a similar problem - I'm sciences and my word count is 50,000 and my lit review is about 17,000 and my supervisor keeps giving me comments like 'expand this by another page' etc when it's already too long! I had it nice and succinct before he told me to expand everything... I'll need to have a word with him I think! But better to have it long and cut it down than the other way around! It means you really look at your wording and content and only keep the best of it =)

Yeah I'm ecology and in the same position as Treeoflife - all my field data took 2.5 years to process and my experiments were done in my 2nd and 3rd years so there was no data to work with until half way through third year and the rest at the end of third year. I have 3 chapters written but 2 still to go with around 4 months left and lots of revisions still to do! It's just the way some projects go. Other people in science have different experiences as some have data from the word go, it just depends!

I'm sorry that you have this stress of potential health problems JSchae. I would probably chat to your supervisor about it just so they are in the know.

I guess before the test results come there isn't much you can really decide. It sounds like you are doing really well at the PhD and so if you really want it carry on for now working away, perhaps you can use your work to distract yourself from the unknown.

Once you have your results then make the decisions you need to make.

I think you need to talk to your friends and family, or a counselling service to get all of this out in the open and hopefully reduce your stress for the time being.

I hope you have good news when you get your tests done. Any of us can get hit by a bus at any time, so live for today and enjoy life as much as you can!

Yeah I'd agree with cloudofash. They won't want the nitty-gritty of all your experiments. They will just want to see you can do research, so perhaps put focus on how you came up with your hypotheses, methods and results. And remember the rule is one slide per minute and not much text per slide, so don't try to put too much in your presentation, let your enthusiasm shine through that is probably the most important thing! =) Good luck.

Sweets sound great! I'm sure they would just take it all as a bit of fun. I wish I got sweets as rewards at uni, I would have tried much harder =)