... you attempt to make instant coffee without first boiling the kettle and then wonder why the granules don't dissolve.....

Hello, it is very hideous, more so than I had imagined!

FreeLouise, I'm lucky I don't have to get an extension as I've only just got to year 4. However I HAVE to finish my write up in the next month and submit. It's driving me and my poor husband mental.

I've actually written up most of it but corrections, putting all the chapters together and updating the lit chapters takes longer than you expect :-(

Again, I request someone to invent a program that takes all the sources you throw at it and then writes you a beautiful review??!??!?!

... and aiming to finish quickly?

Help! Need motivation and how the heck do you manage it?

Would you be doing the PhD in crystallography mostly because it's the phd offer you have or because of your interest? If it's the former, I would suggest thinking twice because sometime's it's only the interest and "love" for the subject that keeps you going. There have been a number of threads on here of people quitting their phds because they weren't interested in the subject. It's hard to do a PhD but a million times harder if you have not much interest for the topic.

In terms of university vs the lab, I would go on your supervisor, how many PhD students, publications, conference presentations etc and then look at the department and university.

When I compare myself to my friends (I'm slightly older than you), the only thing I regret is that I haven't been working for x number of years and don't have the same stability. I'm married but that was more for cultural reasons (to get my mother off my back) than the actual desire to be married.

I may not be in the same position in life as some of my other friends but they haven't had the same opportunities as me so I would prefer to stay where I am. The grass always looks greener but in reality, would you really want that other life?

This small single room for 325 pcm, it doesn't happen to be in a halls of residence (university owned or private)?

Studentships vary from university to university and also depend on funding councils. So basically you have to do the best you can.

I would shop around for your accommodation, sharing a large house with other postgrads would be cheaper but you will probably have to look at something a bit further away from your campus.
Booking your flights well in advance to Austria would save quite a lot via budget airlines.

Re the conferences and travel costs, there might be some money available in your department, you should check. Additionally, some conferences have bursaries for students, especially if you present an oral or poster.

Like others have said, try to take on teaching jobs etc to get the extra cash.

If you look at Sandy2008's other posts, they just seem to be copying and pasting random definitions. What a numpty.

Crystallography sounds boring to me but then again so does molecular biology. My subject would probably sound boring to you.

There's no way of knowing whether you will find a subject hard or enjoyable until you try it. Have you looked at some recent research in this area or looked at key books?

You Should Get a PhD in Science (like chemistry, math, or engineering)

Oooh, thats what I am doing!

Awww A116, at least you got it sorted.

Definitely have a shot at Linux, it really is so much better than Windows!

You can get a really nice front end with Java, the swing toolkit is quite straight-forward to use. There are plenty of Java-based forums if you get stuck so definitely have a bash at it.

Hi Bonzo, I do quite a bit, using OS libraries. Have you looked at SourceForge? There might be something you can use from there.

With regards to learning a new language, if you know an OO language reasonably well, it's quite straight forward to switch to others, especially scripting languages. Which one were you considering? I think Java is probably easier than C++ but that could be my personal opinion! VB is one of the simpler ones.

I know, thats why I thought Tricky's idea might be better.

A116, do you use Linux as well as well as windows?