I haven't done a psychology conversion course so can't comment on that specifically, but I did do my psychology MSc via distance learning/online with the OU, and it didn't put me at any disadvantage (I got a funded PhD straight after it).

I agree that a PhD should be judged to be either good enough or not, and don't see much point in asking candidates to spend months making changes after the effect, especially when these changes may be nothing to do with good practice and everything to do with the examiners' own opinions.

Adam, that sounds like a horrible and extremely stressful situation, and I hope your appeal goes well. Definitely look after yourself while all that is going on.

To be honest, a lot of the frustrations being described in this thread concern things that are rife within recruitment in general, and not specific to academia. To give a couple of examples off the top of my head, I used to work in a field in which no academic qualification was necessary, but I would get jobs fairly easily (as would others) by having a degree - ie the shortlisting criteria were in practice more stringent than the ads suggested. Recently, my partner spent several days completing the most arduous application I have ever seen, and was later told she was not short-listed because we live 'in the wrong postcode area'. Recruitment is difficult and frustrating at the best of times and more so when you really need to find something. However, given that shortlisting can often seem to be done on a rather 'fuzzy' basis, I tend to see the annoying personal statement/cover letter as my chance to give it my best shot and possibly just hit the right note with the recruitment panel.

I think that since your supervisor is supervising for the first time, he's probably just very conscious of keeping everything on track and possibly discouraging you from doing things that will take time away from your own work. It's no bad thing that he's being careful. My supervisor is also a first-time supervisor and is in turn being closely supervised by the head of department, so there is a lot of focus on keeping on track.

Do you have any other support alongside the medication? I'm thinking about your working pattern and the fact that you feel you channel your energies into that - if you suddenly stop that without having something else in place then it may indeed come as a big shock. Would you consider speaking to someone like a psychologist or a counsellor, who may be able to help you to look at things like your routine and things to help you cope?

Good luck, and as AnnJolie said, there is no need to feel like you are letting people down - depression can happen to anyone. If it helps, imagine what you would say to a friend who was in the same position - sometimes it is easier to be kind to someone else than ourselves.

A postgrad diploma is usually a masters minus the dissertation. I did a postgrad diploma years ago for job-related purposes rather than academic ones, and I had the option to go on and do a masters, but didn't at that time. Years later, I did a masters with the OU, and I did that in various chunks, so I got a postgrad certificate first, then the diploma, then the masters. Have you looked at specific courses yet?

If you're stuck with one particular thing, usually there are other bits and pieces you can focus on until the stuck thing resolves itself. For example, could you spend time researching your methodology a bit more, or drafting some writing about that, or looking at the analytical methods you might use once you have your data? Or for a different kind of focus, have you looked into conferences you could attend, or research groups in your field that might be helpful to join, or bits of interesting training? At the end of the day though, if you're all up to date, you should also enjoy this period as it won't always be like that :)

20 pages every 3-4 weeks does seem excessive. If I was churning that out for supervision, I wouldn't be doing any other writing. I would try talking to them and see if you can come to a more sensible arrangement (eg if it is that they want to focus on your writing skills, maybe you could try writing a specific piece and then editing it after getting their feedback, rather than constantly having to write the next report). If it's too daunting to speak to all three of them at once, perhaps you could try to get an informal chat with one supervisor first?

Sorry it's so grim, Andrew. If you're having intrusive suicidal thoughts, please get some support and talk to someone. I know it's the job situation and lots of people are in the same boat, but if you're feeling that bad, it can only make the whole situation look and feel worse. Give yourself a break, seek support and do some stuff that will make you feel better in the first case. I hope you feel better soon.

It's rotten waiting, but you don't know one way or the other until they get in touch - could be they have a final couple of interviews today. Good luck!

What kind of timescale do you have, and is there any way of tweaking your research design a bit, either to make it easier for people to take part or to make better use of smaller numbers? I've had recruitment issues with my PhD, but I can appreciate that time will be a lot tighter with a Masters. In my case I've made a few changes to my design so that people could participate in more flexible ways, and I'm also planning to give a reflective account of the recruitment difficulties. Do you have a supervisor you can talk to about possible ways around the problem?

I think you need to focus your research questions a bit and then it'll be easier to decide on a suitable methodology. For example, do you want to know something specific about people's experiences of these festivals (eg how they rate the facilities, value for money etc) or is it more an exploration of people's experiences? For quantitative research you'll normally need a larger number of participants since you'll be relying on statistics, whereas for qualitative you can have a more in-depth focus on the experiences of fewer people. How are you recruiting your participants - will you be at the festivals yourself? This may affect what you can do as well, eg normally for qualitative research you'd need to have somewhere quiet so that you can sit and interview people. You can achieve a good focus with either a quantitative or qualitative approach, but the important thing is to be very specific about what you want to know and how you are going to answer your research question, and make sure you choose an approach that will do this.

I found that people who approached me had either a general interest in my topic or they were doing something similar and wanted to ask specific questions about things like which measures I was using. Remember that you know more about your project than they do, and don't feel afraid to say that you're still collecting data or whatever.

I think most of us have times when everything seems to happen all at once and you feel as if there aren't enough hours in the day. Everyone's PhD is different and I didn't have data at the end of my first year and my recruitment was going all wrong. I found that it helped just to look at what I could work on at each stage, e.g. if data collection was stuck then maybe I could do some reading and writing for a bit. Remember it's a long journey and you may get a breakthrough when you don't expect it. It might help to look at some stress management, if you can find something that works for you - meditation or exercise or setting aside some time to do something enjoyable.