My PhD will be on natural history specimens and the collection of live animals in seventeenth and eighteenth century. So it will involve early modern musuems and science and the formation of ways of constructing scientific knowledge. But mostly it will involve looking at pretty animals.

Endurance and perspiration! Sounds like hard work. lol

I'm sitting out in the sun half reading a paper in preparation for my first meeting on Monday. Then I had better read through my proposal so I know where to start from!

I'm so excited, but yeah: I'll pace myself.

Thanks, I got a letter in mid August stating the list I was on, my position and said they would let me know asap. I'm guessing I will hear next week at some point. I went out and got new stationary today....just like being at school again. That precious illusion that brand new Paperchase and W H Smith products could bring academic achievment! All the enthuiasm and promise so bright in September, but sullied and dirty by November. lol

Hej!

Yay...I finally start my PhD on Monday! I'm still waiting to hear about a studentship though..I'm rotting on the reserve list. Eek. In any case, at least I have a part-time job to carry me through...

Good luck to any other PhD freshers!

Yay! Oh...it was lovely. So beautiful! And some of the stuff in the National Museum was relevant to my research area. What a great time! Oh well crashing back down to reality now what with organising stuff....I start my phd in one week!!!1

Yay...here comes Sweden! I'm off to Sweden for five days today: what a great way to relax before starting my PhD and to forget about waiting on the studentship reserve list!

I guess this will be the last holiday I'm going to have for a while!

Anybody else making a dash before the world of academic crushes them again? ;-)

Betsy! Hey! I think I'll be in the same positon as you...I've hidden mine in the box file where I hid all offical letters and bills! I've still kept my letter from my undergaduate university offering me a place! lol I got that letter 5 years ago!

I have a fifteen gallon fish tank with two goldfish in it. There is not much workspace. I might have to sort that out: looks like the fish are being downgraded to a smaller tank in place of useful things like....pens, and a computer...and books...lots of those...

I saw a great card in the Manchester Art Gallery shop today: it was pair of red glittery shoes with 'there's no place like home' written on it. Twee, but appropriate somehow... lol

Thanks, for your advice people (esp.hillyg)and I will check out that thread...

Oh, I'm so nervous, but still excited.....one of my friends said he is finding his PhD a lonely process two...I guess unlike undergad and taught postgrad you're the (usually) the only person you know working on a specific problem.....

Congratulations! It is always nice to hear when others have done well.

I start a PhD in September (and will prob be part-time since the studentship reserve list isn't looking good) and like loads of other people on here I'm looking for one or two nuggets of advice to carry me through the first few weeks of the long yellow brick road....before reaching the Emerald City of the Viva many years from now.....

I'm not an archivist, but I have friends who are, and we did a MA in Museum Studies together (a related field). I think they are looking for somebody who can research, sort systematically and work within classifcation conventions etc; basically work within exisiting ways of sorting documents within archivies , and develop new ways of working with the archive. Perhaps a PhD student is supposed to be good at this or something? Maybe PhD students are used to researching, sorting into order and using critical skills to make sense of info.

Hope this of some help!

Yeah, it is the same image. But it has probably been bought by Yahoo and this forum from a private company/ image library. Maybe?

I normally use a NHS dentist, but when I was at uni in a small Welsh town at undergrad we weren't allowed to register there: we had to use the private practice. It actually wasn't that bad: treatment was slightly more expensive than the NHS, but not as much as might be expected....