I'm currently waiting to see whether I receive funding for a PhD. The studentship comes directly from the university and the department I applied to put my proposal forward as they obviously liked me. The proposal is currently with the studentship committee and the said they would get back to me in early April. Well, this is early April and I can't sleep at the moment through sheer worrying.

Anyone else been in this situation?

I know where you are coming from. Luckily, I have never shared a flat with anyone like this as all my friends were really laidback. The bragging rights were usually gained from Halo or Pro Evolution Soccer 8-)

There was this guy in my undergraduate who was like this, always putting stuff on facebook like his exact wordcount on his dissertation etc. He would shout out in class that he was getting all of these amazing interviews and that his dissertation would get published. In the end, he only just got a 2:1 for it and he meekly approached me and my friend on graduation asking what we got. We told him and then I asked him about his and he said 'Yeah, got a 1st, just...' and then I said 'That's not what I heard' and the look on his face was priceless.

You either just have to ignore it, deflect it until they get bored, or just stand up and tell them exactly what you think of them and what a complete moron they are. In the end it's all just attention seeking.

No idea what it stands for but yes, its the same thing as SPSS 18

The University itself may offer a fee-waiver or at least a discount which you should apply for. It also depends where you live. I am Scottish and thus managed to get a carnegie-cameron bursary which paid my tuition fees for my MSc. There are similar schemes in other parts of the UK and you would need to do some research into what they are. I would contact the University and ask them where sources of funding are, both internal to them and external. With awards like the carnegie, they usually pay straight to the University so they will know where the money is coming from.

Also, have a look at your local authority, both where you live now and where you grew up. Sometimes they offer grants to help with travel expenses and the like. They usually aren't vast sums of money, maybe a few hundred or so, but every little helps.

There is funding out there that doesn't involve loans, you just need to hunt it down. Good Luck!!!

If you are analysing a scale variable (i.e. age) with an ordinal variable like social class, then you can use linear regression to see if there is a correlation and how strong it is.  You wouldn't need to recode the variable into a dummy (although you could) as long as the ordinal variable isn't coded like a dogs breakfast.

So, you would want 1 to 5 say, 1 being lowest class and 5 being highest class (the other way around would work too but in a sense counter-intuitive because if you had a negative correlation it would be towards the higher class).

If you go into analyse/regression/linear and put your scaled variable as your dependent variable and class as your independent you should get an R value, and R-squared values and B and beta scores which will tell you how strongly social class affects your scale variable.

Send me a PM if this completely confuses you.

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I have personally suffered from a complete lack of motivation for my MSc since Xmas.  I have had this one assignment which is residual from last semester to finish for this Friday.  Almost there but its slow going.  I think once new semester starts on Monday I will have new classes and a some new, fresh subjects to study. I also had water damage in my flat which doesn't help one concentrate, particularly when you have about 5 different contractors round everyday making a hell of a noise.  Its good though, people who work in the trades generally like football so I manage to have a good hour-long conversation.  Probably doesn't help the coursework or the speed of the repair job. :p

I've been there before. Basically stay up all night and all day. When you hit about 7pm, have a good sized whisky and go to bed. You will sleep like a baby until about 8am next day and then all is back to normal.

All this 15mins earlier then another 15mins doesn't work in my experience. You need to shock your body back to normal.

Lol, this surely can't be for real, can it?

I'm like you Heneghan, I want to get a distinction. I got a 1st in my undergrad and I think anything less in the MSc would be a bit of a let down. I think the best way to go about things is to set aside strict time every week for studying. A lot of time of course, but leave the few hours here and there free. In these times choose things that you like to do so it gives you some relaxation. For me, I go to the cinema with my fiance most Wednesdays (because of the Orange 2-4-1 deal of course) and play football and watch F1 or football on Sundays.

This works for me because it means I am in a routine every week and I can churn out the same amount of work and set a comparison, just in case I need to do more on some weeks or whatever.

Basically, treat it like a job!

I was lucky enough to get my Masters fees paid and get a bursary to help with living costs. It's still going to be a tough year financially, but without the funding I could never have done it.

I happen to know someone who is going, but can't help you anymore than that.

Using a web based storage client like Humyo (http://www.humyo.com/) is a safe and easy way to save your data. All you do is upload your files onto a server and you can access them whenever and wherever you have an internet connection.

Hi Folks,

I am starting my MSc next month at the University of Strathclyde and I will be taking the train through because I live about 30 miles away. I am going to apply to SAAS for my travel expenses because I understand that I am eligible for this support.

Has anyone else done this? Is there any hassle that I need to know about?

Thanks
Craig

Natassia,

Like you, I'm starting my MSc in about a month or so. Unlike you, I'm going to a different University which I am quite aprehensive about. I would have quite happily stayed at the same University but the course I wanted to do was simply not available there.

I was fortunate enough to recieve funding from the department to pursue my MSc. However, this has left me a little nervous because when I applied I had to show my suitability to stay on and do further research, as well as outlining some of my ideas which I could take forward into a PhD. I'm quite scared that, with such an award being given to me, I won't meet the expectations of those who have shown faith in me. I'm normally the type of person who takes pressure like water on a ducks back, but for the first time in years I am really, really scared of this course. Despite this fear, I'm going to give it my all.

In terms of advice on publishing, I think you should hold fire. By all means keep your ideas and work. I have ideas about things that I would like to write about someday but I feel that with a few more years under my belt I will be better equipped to do those ideas proper justice. But thats me, go with your gut instinct I say.

Craig