Unfortunately it doesn't just stop at PhD-hunting. Within academia I have witnessed jobs (mainly research associate/fellow positions) that are advertised, but have already been allocated to an internal candidate. I worked as an RA last year and heard two lecturers discussing it along the lines of...

"Oh, it's a pain, we HAVE to advertise, but we'll only do it for a week, that way we won't have many applicants and the job will go to [named person]"

I couldn't believe they were so blatant about it!

Another way they do it is to advertise and make a job description SO specific, it might as well say "applicants who are not called [named person] need not apply"

Nezza, any good university will re-inburse your travel expenses. If they haven't offered, ask. It is very unlikely they'll refuse. Also don't take the dodgy selction process to heart. It's deplorable practice, but it happens, and it's in no way a personal reflection on you.

Me and Mr. Kronk have been ill for the last 3 weeks, so no plans made

Last week I bought him a Hotel Chocolat slab last week (we have a HC shop here, mmmmmmm!) and he bought me some pink roses, but no cards.

some questions first...

Why are they so against you going? What reasons have they given? If they are sound reasons concerning the prospective department/faculty's ability to supervise your proposed project properly, they are worth considering. Perhaps your Masters/BA
tutor(s) have some academic rivalry going on with staff at the other place? You may not know, but if you suspect this is the case, then their recommendation to stay is not objective.

Have you already been offered a funded PhD with your existing department? Are you still completing your masters?

What made you apply to the prospective university in the first place? (were you hedging your bets or seriously considering leaving your department?)

I'm British and a serial complainer - if something isn't on, I kick off!

Handing back money though IS rude, Golfpro. It just isn't what etiquette demands. By doing that, the girl is basically likening the relationship she has with Cryogenic to be nothing more than a business transaction.

If she didn't feel the same, the polite way of doing things would have been to either:
a) insist on paying her share at the time of meal, or
b) thanking him for the meal at a later stage, saying that she appreciated the gesture, she feels that he wants more from the relationship that she does and cannot commit to that. And if she felt guilty maybe offer to return the favour by taking him out for a meal "as friends". Paying retrospectively when you've decided that you're not "interested" is just not the done thing, I'm afraid.

Cryo, I'd forget abouther - she sounds far too immature for you to waste any more time on her.

Ahhh, so *that's* what an MD is in the UK!

In the US, is it the term for a medical doctor's first qualification?

Hi Trixie, I completed my PhD in psychology and there were some bad times, but I got through them!

You will too

Hi Laura - the simple answer is yes, it it possible. While I was studying and my husbnand was working we bought out house. Weapplied to Halifax and they would have taken the stipend into account with a full letter of confirmation from the university research registrar stating that I was in receipt of the funds. As it happened, Halifax took so long to process the form that my funding ran out and I got a job anyway, so the mortgage ended up being based on that. (Hmmm, I could say lots about Halifax, but will refrain from doing so at the moment! ) However, they WERE prepared to take the research money into account.

I do know someone who applied for a mortgage with a PhD stipend on her own. This was back in the days when house prices were reasonable. The bottom line is, some lenders will not just reject it on the principle of it being a stipend - they will assess it as they would a "conventional" income.

That's great, Fluffy! well done for getting this far, it really is a great achievement

PS - My PhD was in psychology too!

When I read the forst post a couple of days ago, I imagined its author to be a 50 something, pipe in hand, slippers on, reminiscing about the "good old days" of academia....

NOT A 27 YEAR OLD! For God's sake, get back on it if it's what you want - you're far from being over the hill!

(for what it's worth, I'm 34 next month, have just got my PhD and am referred to as a "young" academic by some of my work colleagues)

I'm in the pro-poster camp too, not least becasue I've done several, but I think it enables you to meet more people.In an oral paper, you have a limited amount of time to present, then questions are squeezed in at the end. With a poster, you can talk about your work in a much more relaxed way and often get more of a variety of questions.

Of course, it all depends on how well poster sessions are organised by conference teams. I've been to some where the poster session seemed to be nothing but an afterthought. However there've been some where they've made a real occasion of them (provision of wine usually helps!) and it's been interesting to look round.

I wouldn't worry about it too much if it's within the UK and not a huge gathering. Most likely they'll accept your abstract.
I've only had abstracts rejected at two conferences, one was really massive (I mean, HUGE medical conference which has submissions into the 1000s!) - you actually had to pay something in the region of $50 just to submit an abstract(!) The other one was where one of the leading professors organising the conference had a student of his talking in a similar area to mine!

Usually they're grateful to get submissions and only suggest topics as guidelines. Did you get a choice for submitting for a poster or oral presentation? Some conferences just have invited speakers for oral papers and only allow abstracts for poster submissions, which I think is abit unfair. That said, getting a poster accepted is generally quite easy.

Good luck!

As others have said, I wouldn't worry about it too much. So far I've had no published papers but have had 5 or 6 conference papers/posters. I found this much more useful as it made me think about the audiences I was projecting to and how this would affect my final write-up.

Sometimes it's not just about the subject in question, but the way you organise your thesis. A friend or mine did a clinically relevant PhD and was able to publish about 3 of her chapters before submitting. This was because the were separate studies that could be written up separately.

However a PhD that utilises qualitative methodology is not so easy as there is often a conceptual thread that runs throughout the work whcih is not easily splintered into several papers.

Hi Roopa, hope you're OK

Like others have said, why don't you think about other unis? I'm concerned that by putting so much emphasis on *where* you want to a PhD, you're marginalising what it will be like to do the 3-4 years of the subject when you're actually there. You could be missing out on a brilliant opportunity elsewhere by narrowing your choices to Oxford or Cambridge.

If you get a PhD, it will be impressive wherever you get it from (as loing as you don't buy it on t'Internet or anything

Jeez, Jen, hope you're OK! what happened?!