Well, I don't know about you, but i'm getting older all the time and might just do the poll again ..

i know of a happy marriage that started that way... but the student switched phd advisors and didn't even have her future-husband on her committee. that aside, relations with a professor are VERY different than relations with your phd supervisor!! so be careful!!

I work at a big pharma company too and do plenty of basic research...that, yeah get's published. Depends on it's merit/quality, not simply "we won't tell anyone in case Merck/Pfizer/J&J is looking over our shoulder". As for moral high ground, without knowing what you consider 'moral' to begin with I hesitate to comment further on that statement.

I reckon you should do an age correlation ie. use same age categories and see if it changes depending on age? Eg. if over 41 what do you hope to do afterwards?

Cool name asterix!! Love the books!!

...make myself like my supervisor? Everything he does annoys me, I'm constantly angry and I don't want to be! What should I tell myself when something annoys me?

supervisor - e-mail???!!! NOT A CHANCE. Supervisors just want to be left alone - this is an important lesson to learn as a PhD student. Learn it early.

I hope that makes sense

The reason people should care is that when they apply for PhDs they may have the qualifications to get them an interview. This would deny someone that is a little less qualified getting an interview. I know getting an undergraduate degree is hard, but these people could possibly be could at 'studying' and not 'researching'. If the lower qualified candidate was the better researcher, the supervisor would never know because the person with no initiative has denied them of an interview space.

SC I hope your joking? Why is everyone on here so judgemental and stuck up!?!

Well I have lots of chocolate if you want some. Might be useless for your work, but it'll make you feel good inside.

Hmm... Didn't even manage to post a message with name and subject in their proper places. Perhaps is not cut out to be a PhD student, after all?

I have three possible referees: Postdoc-1 who'd write a great reference, the Professor who'd write a good enough reference if Postdoc-1 tells him to, and Postdoc-2 from another lab, who's happy with my work but who's a "man of few words", i.e. would write I'm good but not more.
Obviously, I'll go for the professor, but which one of the others? Would it be better to have two independent accounts of me being ok, than two enthusiastic persons from the same place?

Can't you email him and ask his advice? If not is there no one else that can help?

I'm sure if they are that rubbish they will not get a place on a PhD. So why do you even care?