Sorry Ratty, but what you say makes no sense:

If you quit (no matter for what reasons or if you have intentions to start somewhere else again) than you ARE a quitter. It doesn't matter for what reasons you give up, if you give up then you do it.

Think about it and think twice before you take this step-always remember you have no guaruantee that the new supervisor will be better to work with (even if you like the topic), in fact things could become worse.

Your right of course Apollo, quitting is quitting for whatever reason. So, I've decided to try and work with what I've got. I've got the background knowledge and I have a good idea of where I'd like this project to go, I just need the courage to voice my opinion with a bit more assertiveness! No more goldfish...more rodent now me thinks, I'll just gnaw away at the bugger until he accepts my ideas!

Hey Matthew,

I think that a project that uses SEM would be more enjoyable, although looking at the applications of SEM could be quite interesting too. I've decided to try and get my current project back on track and to try and steer it back towards the IHC and microscopy techniques that I was originally supposed to be using. Unfortunately SEM wouldn't really be of any use in this project at the moment,but TEM would be ideal...just need to convince 'He who must be obeyed'!
Whats your field of research by the way...if you don't mind me asking?

Good question, Ratty. My BSc is in Pharmacology, and I was about to start a PhD in spinal cord neurophysiology in September. Howev,erI was ill over summer (long term, but flared up) and so I'm now having to temp for a year with a well known telecommunications and entertainment company. It's dire, and am waiting for September to come around again, although I have no guarantee of getting a studentship this time around. I'm looking for something in the neuropharmacology or immunology area. Fingers crossed eh...

Oh, you poor thing, hope it all works out ok. We have an endocrine pharmacology research group here at the PMS, cool supervisor too, a really nice guy, and there's a clinical neurobiology group too. I've often seen fully funded studentships available within these groups, so if you didn't mind being situated in the South West, you should check out the PMS website.

Ratty, which University are you at? My first offer, which I declined, was from Bristol...

I did my BSc at Plymouth uni, but now I'm based at the Peninsula medical school, which is linked to both Plymouth and Exeter uni. What made you decline the offer from Bristol...from what I've heard it's a pretty good uni. I was once tempted by a their biochemistry undergrad degree, but decided on Plymouth in the end even though I didn't like the uni at first, but I actually have a very fond attachment to the old place now....awwww, the good old days!

Well, I applied for a PhD at the Centre for Synaptic Plasticity in Bristol - a top place. However, their way of doing it is slightly different to most places, in that they decide which students to take, and then distribute the projects. While the project I was allocated interested me, I wasn't sure it was totally what I wanted to do. Also, I'm from Preston, and so I only wanted to go that far away for a project I was 100% certain about, so in the end I turned it down, and later got a better one from Sheffield, although obviously I'm not doing that either!

Have you spoken to your 'supervisor that would have been', you never know, as they were impressed by you the first time round, there's no reason why they won't be again. I didn't actually choose this PhD, it kinda chose me. I was working as a research assistant and my supervisor asked me to apply for it...and here I am. I guess I'm quite fortunate really...

Well, I don't think the "supervisor to be" is too happy with me. He certainly wasn't when I withdrew, as it was late notice. Also, I didn't give him the full details of why I withdrew, mainly because I didn't want to, which meant he didn't have the full picture, so I can't really blame him for being angry. Anyway, I want to move on anyway, and I've got my eye on a supervisor in Birmingham. Just have to hope he gets the funding though, and then chooses me...

Good luck

Thanks Ratty. I'll be sure to mention it when/if my interviews come up...

I'm not convinced by Apollo's rigid interpretation of the term 'quitter'. Strictly, yes, you would 'quit' one programme in favour of another, yet that's not necessarily a negative thing. I wouldn't regard leaving an unhappy relationship 'quitting' in the negative sense but liberating.

Eva, that's a weird way of interpretation.

How do you know if the relationship is unhappy?
How do you know if it's not your own fault that the relationsship is not the way it should be?
How can you be certain that you get a new PhD with a better supervisor?

The truth is: at the beginning of everything, no matter if it's a new job or a PhD things are difficult. Many people quit at this stage and are never successful-only because they did not have the willpower to get through the difficult first 12 months.

A quitter is a quitter.

I don't know what area you research in Apollo, but I'm in medical sciences. If someone was to start some research using an experimental protocol, and then, even after getting poor results, soldier on stubbornly without changing methods, that would be stupid, right? But to change methods would fit them into what you're calling a "quitter".