I don't know what your field is but in biological sciences at least there are PhD scholarships like this.  The Wellcome Trust do a 4 year PhD scholarship in which you rotate between 3 labs in your first year and then select one, and write a proposal for the PhD you'd like to undertake in it. I believe that the University of Dundee, Warwick and the John Innes Sainsbury Lab do these types of scholarships (Wellcome Trust for Warwick and Dundee).  However I also know the deadlines are past for each of these.

So I think the type of PhD scholarship you are looking for does exsist in the UK, but beyond science I couldn't tell you. Hope this is slightly helpful.

Wonderful news, well done!

That is great news! Congratulations! :-)

I think today is just not a good day for working....

I don't think it has anything to do with the colour of your skin so try not to focus on that.  I've been declined PhD places and been told I have a very strong application, one of my supervisors is very suprised that I've been rejected from some places. I could blame it on being female but I know that isn't the reason.

So my advice is like others, ask current supervisors/advisors for advice and keep applying for funded, but also figure out how you would deal with part-time just in case nothing comes up.

Good luck with it all!

Most of these annoy me as well...especially the three abreast and slow walking...most of the time it's a group and they won't walk single file or even two abreast to let people past.  Some of us have places to go.

I generally moan about people who don't thank you when you stop/move out of their way to let them past.  I've started saying "You're welcome" whenever that happens now :$

Not really advice on what you could do but more advice on what you can say when asked.

I always say that my hope is that once I am finished with my PhD I will get a Post-Doc position somewhere to further my research abilities and to work my way towards obtaining a lectureship at a University, as I want to continue studying in my current field and would like to control/drive my own research. I say this because this is actually what I hope to eventually achieve. You could add that your aren't sure what will happen in the future so your current plans may change but currently this is what you are hoping to achieve.

You could always look at what opportunities are available right now and use that as the basis of your answer, even if things do change at least for the moment it is relevant.

Hope this helps.

I'm in the same boat, waiting to find out if I manage to get funding.

I had applied and been successful for a competition funded PhD, but sadly, like you, I didn't get the funding which knocked me for six because I really wanted the PhD project.  So I've sent out more applications had 2 more interviews and hoping for another one soon.

In the mean time I'm also applying for outside funding for a project at my current university, and so is my potential supervisor, so with any luck I will get one of the two. The latest I will find out if I've been successful is August and the earliest is July.  The wait is unbearable and I'm struggling like you are to concentrate on other things.

My advice, given to me by one of my supervisors, is not to worry about things you can't control but the things you can, so your dissertation and exams. He also said I should get used to this uncertainty as an academic career will involve applying for funding a lot and I will have to get used to waiting.

I agree with Keenbean in that you should look for other means of funding if they are available to you, but in the mean time try not to worry about it, if you aren't successful this year you will have other opportunities, but I'm sure you will be successful this year.

Good luck! :-)

Hehe shame.

Yeah I'm in biosciences so that might be why it's different but maybe not. Since it seems to be against what is normally the case I'll go with him doing her a favour as that's nice.

Thanks again.

Thank you Sue and Keenbean. Still confused though, my supervisor has submitted a paper which he admits he wrote pretty much alone but he felt it would look weird to be the only author and so added his PhD student as a sceond author as he used some of her DNA samples. Anyway she is listed as the first author and my supervisor the second and corresponding.

I'm guessing either she contributed more than my supervisor is letting on or he did it as a favour to her or this paper lists the names alphabetically and therefore the general first author is not valid.

======= Date Modified 10 Feb 2010 19:44:47 =======
Since I am about to ask a very stupid question I won't add any imput to the original question...Though I agree with what has been said already.

Basically my query is who is the first author: is it the corresponding author, or just the first person listed? It makes sense to me that it is the corresponding author, but this isn't always the first author listed so I just wondered.

I wouldn't have thought it was the length that was an issue but more how you go about writing it and the sort of details required.  I'm in the same field as the OP and I've got to admit I'm terrible at writing things like covering letters and personal statements (particularly personal statements).  I'm enthusiastic about my subject, I know what it is I want to go on to do, why I want to study for a PhD, and the reason for why I'm applying for a particular project but yet I struggle. 

I think it has a lot to do with how phoney a personal statement can appear, even if the statements are true but also because they seem pointless to me. My CV shows what I've been up to, my academic transcript represents how good my marks are, my references indicate whether I am capable and responsible, and my covering letter explains why I've chosen that particular supervisor and their project, but yet they still require a personal statement.

Saying that I can't refuse to write a personal statement, but I think people struggle because of what I've mentioned...Now I'm thinking my personal statement might be too short (300 words). :$

Anyway good luck with your PhD applications Masafee!

======= Date Modified 06 Feb 2010 19:39:38 =======
I don't think it is naive of anyone to want to type Figure instead of Fig. I actually prefer Figure myself, keeps it all the same if you have tables too, you wouldn't type Tab. 1....at least I never see this.

Anyway I've had a quick look through the journal papers I have at hand two out of 3 had Fig for the legend and obviously therefore in the text, the other one had Figure for both. So if academic journals are happy to have either format then I think your thesis can have either and nobody would think less. That's just my thoughts of course.

I can't think of any weird/funny things my supervisor has said...

I got asked a lot of questions about my final year project, the experiments I was doing and how everything was set up i.e did my supervisor have a lot to do with the way I ran experiments. I was also asked why I wanted to study for a PhD, what I planned to do after I was done and why I picked their university. Other questions were related to my course and what subjects I cover and the type of course work I've completed.

This website has some example questions you might get asked: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ssds/sd/careers/plan/further-study/interviews/example-questions

Hope that helps.

I have to say face-palm with Captain Picard is funny...

Anyway the situation you are in Loonyloo is awkward.  I'm not doing my PhD (undergrad in my final year), but I have a major thing for my current supervisor. Got annoyed with myself because I'm at the age were this shouldn't happen anymore. It is worse now as a rumour is going around that I have a crush, and I just hope he doesn't know.  I've felt this way for about a year and a half now, and getting very distracted (worse in lectures), but I've also found it helped me with my work because I wanted to impress my supervisor with my ability. The distraction lessens with time and it is good you are already being sensible and saying he's not interested and that you know nothing will happen.  I wasn't so mature and tried to turn everything my supervisor did into some way in which he was interested in me. I've come to my senses and realised that isn't the case.

Back to your situation, if you are unable to spend less time in his company and work then all I can say is that hopefully like me your feelings will calm a bit and you will get used to being around him without it distracting you.  As long as you can control urges (I've had some bad ones myself) then you should be fine. This is your PhD after all and if a different supervisor might not be as knowledgable, then changing might not be the best.  Not sure how long you've been doing your PhD for, but if you only started a few months ago, it might be best to carry on a bit longer and see if things settle. If you do change and then the rumours fly there is no way you can avoid it as you will still be at the same university, and it might damage his reputation.

Best of luck!