however here nobody asked for funding for themselves, only how other people got one.

Sorry i have not replied but have not seen your messages all this time! if you are still interested let me know and will try to answer your questions! Elli

Quoting from introduction page:
"The very popular PhD Forum contains all sorts of questions and answers about applying for and carrying out PhD research. Please don't use it to ask for funding for yourself, these postings never get answered and get in the way of some useful information."

Thank you "onlooker". That's exactly what I feel too, I just wasn't able to express it as nicely. :)

I'm due to start a PhD in October, and I know its going to be a lot of hard work. However, I've been checking out my new university's sports and social clubs and I would love to join a few. How do the PhD students out there find a balance between work and play? Would I be able to go off on hillwalking trips every weekend and play tennis a couple of nights a week without it having an effect on my research?

Signal-to-noise ratios get bad when people do not read previous posts, posting repeat or open-ended questions that attract no replies. Previous repliers are unlikely to answer ad-infinitum. The more similarly headed posts around, the more those making the effort to search give up and post the question again aswell.
Yes, searching for a PhD is stressful - also demotivating. A good source of information is being diluted here. Someone finding this site has to wade through many posts that don't give good advice, making it dispiriting and likely for them to move on without useful information.

look just don't log on anymore would you? It will save you from wasting your time if that s what you think. I am tired of arguing with somebody that doesn't seem to be even a little understanding and I will not waste my time any longer.

well, that's your prerogative. i find it amusing that you accuse me of lacking humanity; the whole point of a forum i thought was that everyone can draw something useful from it, which is less the case if there's only a series of people asking the same pointless questions all the time. i really think you are missing the point completely!

If you ask a broad question I would simply reply talking about my own experience, just to let them know what I have done to try to get funding! I think you lack of a bit of humanity there. As I said nobody is stupid here we all know that you have to look around!

ok, so if you're from overseas and you are serious about taking up a PhD, do you (i) write a whimsy message asking an open-ended question that noone would be able to answer properly, or (ii) first get your own impression of how to begin by making a list or something, and ask people more specific questions where you can get more intelligent and useful replies? How could you possibly expect to gain anything at all from it otherwise? You only have to take a brief look to realise that the silly questions rarely get answered!!!!

Anon, surely you must realize that people doing or attempting to do a PhD are all intelligent people. I just think you took those questions from the wrong point of view. Everybody start searching where they can obviously! Asking what other people have done about it or an advice just make you feel more secure of yourself and of what you are doing!there is nothing wrong with that!

I was asking the same thing! But apparently there are no criteria for selection, only the usual!... therefore there is nothing we can do to make ourself stand up from the crowd. The only thing to do is write to as many people as possible!I wish a good luck with your reasearch, I am sure that you will find something, microbilogy is a very hot topic!!good luck

a friend, the point you made about it being v. stressful finding funding is exactly why people should find out what they can first before asking others!! Believe it or not, there are those of us who would like to be able to advise others, but it's not easy when someone is asking such broad questions as "where can I get funding?" without giving any background info whatsoever. If people aren't stupid, they really should be asking stupid questions.

cara Angela, io mi sto laureando qui in inghilterra e spero di cominciare il mio PhD presto. se ti sei laureata in italia in teoria dovresti gia' essere dottore!complimenti!Io ti consiglio di non basarti solo su questo sito e di cercare anche sui siti delle universita' individualmente, ma tu cosa vorresti diventare?un ricercatore o solo specializzarti con un master?

Thank you Anna, you are a nice girl. x