I was thinking maybe a month, Hugh. It seems to me like it would be an awful lot of work to read and comment on an entire thesis, but my supervisors have moved at the speed of light with my chapters so far.

It sounds to me like the funding streams must be extremely competitive - I can't see how a third Masters would be needed when you already have a distinction in a research-focused Masters. I'm not in arts and humanities, but sadly I think the funding opportunities are very limited in this field and you may just be up against huge numbers of applicants relative to the funded places available. Is it possible to widen your search at all? (eg scholarships offered by non-RG universities?). Maybe others can offer more specific advice about this field. The other possibility may be rather than doing a part-time third Masters, starting a part-time PhD.

Done - good luck with it!

I agree with BevCha - whenever I snapped with my difficult friend, it just put her into 'wronged' mode and she wanted an apology, and because I'm not normally a snappy person (and I strongly suspect neither of you is either!) I would end up giving an apology to keep the peace. I think assertive is the best way to go here. Good luck, Satchi!

I know - I am glad I got a literature review of some sort down while the papers were still fresh in my head - it would be impossible to write anything substantial about some of them now! It's good that your old tutor said not everything needs to be linked up - one of my worries has been that something will strike the examiner as an interesting/important point and then I'll never refer to it again!

Congratulations!

I know what you mean - I go right to the wire with easy/boring things and difficult/challenging things too! Plus I think the thesis is just such a big deal that it's scary to start wading in to the harder parts of it - I need to keep telling myself that it's better to get something written and then start changing it than to sit there with nothing to work with!

Sorry, just noticed you said discussion section, not discussion chapter :)

This does seem ridiculous, especially as you'd already been told you had two months fee-free. Good luck with your union meeting, I hope they will support you.

I have spoken to people who applied for jobs at this stage and who used 'Mr/Ms', only for the prospective employer to address them as Dr anyway! I don't think it will harm your friend's chances to go with 'Mr', as anyone who knows about PhDs will just assume it's a given anyway.

Good luck for tomorrow, Eska! Keep hold of that presence of mind and positivity you have :)

I agree, HuntAnthem - it is hard to learn to send stuff off for feedback when you know it isn't 'perfect', but it's so important to get your supervisor's take on it too. I have a constant battle with this, spending weeks trying to polish and edit things before I will send them for feedback! I also relate to what you said about isolation (mine is a necessary evil as I just live too far from uni for it to be any other way). Still, these are things that are specific to this temporary period and one day we will leave behind the PhD and get back to a healthier working lifestyle :-)

I kind of like the look of that campus :)