Hi GM, indeed the PhD can be a very isolating experience. Some people manage to treat it as a 9 to 5 job and so they can fit a lot more in their day. It wasn't possible to me, tasks had to be completed when resources where available etc. That meant working at weekends or during holidays, but I learned to be very organized. I think that I also learned to put energy and resources on what was important (for me) and spend time with people I really wanted to be with. I think that it is about finding a balance that works for you.

Hi Kim, I understand your feelings and why you wrote that title for your post. You have all my sympathy. However, I want yo reassure you - nothing is a waste. This project might have not worked out as you initially thought, but you have learned a lot along the way. This experience good or bad is going to stay with you, and as Satchi says, surely will lead to something else. So do not feel disheartened. It is disappointing, but not a waste. It is just a step towards something more rewarding down the line.

Hi Tulip, it depends from which pot the money come from. If your PhD is part of a bigger project for which your supervisor has applied and was awarded funding, and your stipend is paid using a portion of his grant, then I guess your supervisor can do that. In any case is always a good idea to check where the funding comes from before doing anything. Good luck!

I agree with skyhoo, for how tough it is you will have to deal with this person for some time. Don't forget that supervisors are usually also referees when you apply for jobs after completion.
I would suggest to :
1) Keep contacts to a minimum and to be always professional and polite - tough but possible
2) Don't bad mouth her - I know it's very tempting thing to do, but you usually pay the price for doing it
3) Focus on completing your thesis in the best way you possibly can
4) Build a strong network around you - it will be valuable support on many levels.
Situations like yours are unfair, but sadly very common and not only in Academia. For how tempting it is to drop everything or to confront her you need to develop skills that enable you to go ahead without damaging yourself and your future career.

Of course that I remember, and I am delighted for you. Well done!

I wouldn't be discouraged at all. Nowadays postgraduate students are always registered as MPhils, and then they usually have the option to upgrade to PhD status after the first year review of research progress.

I think that this is the way Universities use to prevent students dropping their PhDs half way through.

Also, I know a few top rank academics in my field who got an MPhil before they embarked on a PhD.

I do take your point, but you shouldn't let your experience at the viva to lead your judgement. Examiners often use these techniques to see if you are capable to defend your argument under pressure.

I agree that there are good researchers/ academics and people who tell tall tales. I can tell you though that there are no more than 5 or 6 top researcher in my field (worldwide), and two of them completed their PhD roughly at the time in which I started mine. I am very proud of what I have achieved, big or small it was beyond my wildest dreams, but I have to recognize that they are at a different level and not only because they published in the top journal (and more than once!) in the course of their studies.

So, while it is normal to compare ourselves to others we should also learn to accept that we are not always going to be at the top. Should we be resentful for this? I think not.

Also, a PhD thesis should be examined on its own merit and definitely not for how the candidate comes across.

I don't doubt that such cases exist. (sadly) you can come across "crooks and liars" in and outside academia, but this does not imply that we are all in that way.

I might have understood your point in the wrong way MeaninginLife, but your comment seems to imply a judgement on piere's work that -unless you know him personally- is out of context here.

He asked whether including his published papers in the thesis was helpful and if it makes any difference at the viva. I know nothing about the quality of his work, so my answer was based on my personal experience. I do think that including peer-reviewed papers reflects well on your work/ and the outcome of your viva.

I also doubt that the cases described by Ian are the rule in academia, but I would be inclined to say that these are exceptions. That kind of "researchers" never get that far ahead in the academic world.

My University has specific guidelines on this, so you should check with yours. In my dept. you are asked to submit any articles published in peer-reviewed journals bound in the thesis. If nothing else, it demonstrates that you are capable of producing a high quality piece of research that stands the critique of other academics in your field.

Obviously, an article may only represent a small part of your research, so in itself is not a guarantee of an excellent thesis. However, on the contrary of MeaninginLife, I have never come across the case of people that failed their vivas or had a revise and resubmit verdict after publishing in peer-reviewed journals.

Usually application forms ask that specific question, the amount of money that you applied for, where, and for what purpose. In my view, if they don't ask, you don't need to say anything. However, if they do, you can always say that you applied also to x for xxx amount to finance another aspect of your project (e.g. a further trip abroad, acquisition of material/ digital resources/ organization of a conference). I hope it helps.

Thank you Reenie and TreeofLife,

This is more or less what I thought too. This kind of research grants are so competitive though that you really want to give your application the best possible chance to stand out. Although probably in the end the research interests of the selection committee will play a decisive role.

In the end I attached a personal statement including why I deserved the grant, the skills that I acquired in the course of my PG studies that are relevant to the project and what I will do with the money, as it was pretty impossible to include them in the one-page Project proposal.

So, now I can only keep my fingers crossed and wait.

I am applying for a research grant and there is the possibility to include a supporting document in the application, but it is not specified what they are looking for. It is all rather generic. There is only a page limit, which automatically excludes the articles that I published as they are all longer than that.

I suppose that I could add a personal statement, but I wonder if anyone had any experience of this and can give me some ideas?

Many thanks!

Hi Tulip, your concern is understandable, but you should check with your University - even if you still have experiments to complete the 4th year is considered as "writing up" time, so your registration fees should reflect that. I took my 4th year too and I think that I only paid a flat fee of £100 for registration back then. So this is worth checking.

Also, there are other funding bodies that you can apply to for funding. I don't know where you are and if this is applicable to you, but did you check the British Federation of Women Graduates for example?

However, looking and applying for extra funding takes time and energy, so you need to find a balance between this and completing within your time frame.

It might have nothing to do with you personally and that he was asked for references by another student or by someone for whom he was external examiner and he didn't find a better way to deal with that. Some academics lack people skills, it doesn't matter how high up they are.

The best way to deal with it in my opinion, is to talk to him before you apply for a job, and check whether he is going to support your application or not. We tend to think that because they are our supervisors their support is granted, but this is not always the case.