Microsoft Office is depressing me and I'm sick of putting rubbish diagrams in my papers! I want some swanky high-res colour diagrams like the ones in New Scientist etc. Anyone know of what program they use or anything else that'll do the trick?

cheers,
Mac

You pay no tax or national insurance on your stipend. You do not have to pay national insurance contributions to recieve free medical treatment on the NHS, but it may affect your state pension entitlement.

Actually, I'm not sure of the exact position on National insurance contributions re. pension entitlements. Any financial advisors out there?

If you're really keen, budget to pay into a private pension fund to make up for not having a pension from an employer for 3 years. This is rather good as even though you don't pay tax on your stipend, pension contributions still qualify for tax relief. E.g. if you contribute £78 a month to a pension, the government top it up by £22 to £100...more free money!

I think you're missing the point a bit here and don't see the significance of saying where I am or who my supervisor is. Attention seeking anonymously on an online forum would be pretty sad, even for me All I'm saying is that when I was thinking about a PhD, I came across this forum and thought no-one had a positive experience. I'm saying you can.

On a similar subject, I found this amusing:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3514615.stm

As for people treating you like you're weird I can't say I've really experienced it...everyone seems quite accepting of each other's career choices.

H et al,

Sorry, there certainly wasn't any intention to rub it in or insult anyone, but when I was looking for a PhD and came across this forum, I was starting to think no actually enjoyed their PhD! I really sympathise with people who are finding any aspect difficult and I'll probably be back multiple times asking for advice when it gets tough for me, as I'm sure it will.

I've only just registered and will do my best to post constructive replies to future posts, but I think it's worth saying that doing a PhD can be great and there are many positive experiences too.

Reading this forus really is making me feel bad. I have an excellent stipend, supportive approachable supervisors, a great research group and after less than a year have published two papers. My research is going well and I will have been to three conferences/workshops this year with my semingly endless expenses account, which I also bought a laptop with. What can I do to aleviate my feelings of guilt? c'mon guys, someone else post something positive!

I'm with DanB on this one. Geek and nerd are not the same thing. Geek is the new cool.