Hi KB, sorry to hear you're having problems with your boyfriend, echoing those who have posted before me I think it's an insecurity thing, and despite being in the 21st century etc. I do believe that men want to be the providers and he may be a bit worried about this as things get more serious between the two of you. He probably doesn't mean to be upsetting you and creating problems within your relationship, so I think you need to alert him to the fact that you're a bit fed up with the constant focus on educational achievement and intelligence. I think that this can be done in a nice and reassuring way - just tell him that he is just as intelligent as you (why does it even matter?), and that you shouldn't be in some sort of competition with each other.

It can be difficult to be a woman doing a PhD sometimes, I personally just see it as something that I'm doing because of my career and because I want to - it certainly doesn't make me feel clever at all, my idea is that if I can do one then anyone can! From my experience it seems to be quite attractive to men at the beginning, but then it doesn't make a lot of difference. I often date men who are a few years older than me and they always earn more than me and have better jobs than me, so I guess they feel like providers then :-).

My ex boyfriend (we broke up last November after 4 1/2 months) seemed to have a problem with my PhD although to my face he kept saying how great it was, he didn't like the fact I might be moving to another city in October and that I couldn't have children for a few years. I don't think he liked that my PhD would slow the progression of our relationship, that problem has been repeated but not to the same extent. I think he was a bit of a frustrated academic as well, he's gone to a very good London university to study Philosophy when he was 27 (he was 31) and was very intelligent and talented at writing; when I met him he was in a bit of a rut career-wise as he was writing a novella and making money from managing a property in an expensive part of west London. In my opinion he should have done a postgrad degree as he wanted to and had the mind for it (he was much cleverer than I am I think), but he was so undecided. I had my future for the next few years basically mapped out, and I was working and teaching as well and I think that made him feel bad, especially as I was 9 years younger than him. I tried so hard to make him feel better but I couldn't and it was quite upsetting for me, I just constantly felt guilty. I finished it in the end, we did have a good time but it was just too emotionally demanding when I had my own problems to deal with.

Anyway I'm rambling now, but I hope that's helped in some way, basically just try to take the focus away from intelligence and qualifications, you are together for more important reasons than that and should be happy. Nxx

Sorry for the drama but I really don't know what do to and I'm terrible with computers!

I scanned some images into my computer then saved them onto my brother's memory stick, he needed them for his uni course. He then couldn't find them on his memory stick (I later found them as he wasn't looking properly) so I did a search on my computer. I found something then had to select which program to use to open it, because I used Adobe to scan it I selected Adobe.

Then all of the desktop icons apart from the Word ones changed to the Adobe icon, and I couldn't open anything properly as it said that it wasn't supported by Adobe. I restarted (didn't work), so tried a few things along the lines of restoring defaults but didn't want to do too much in case I lost anything. The only thing that works is if I uninstall Adobe, then it all returns to normal. I then restarted and tried to install Adobe again and all the icons went back again, so I uninstalled it.

I hope this makes sense, basically I need Adobe to read pdfs and put them onto Mendelay so I really need to install it again, but I don't want it to ruin my computer. I hope there is a simple solution to this!

Thanks in advance, Nx

Hi, I had a gap over Christmas because I submitted my dissertation at the beginning of December and started my PhD in January. I was at the same university so there was some continuity which helped, I don't know if that is the case with you. I asked my supervisors what I should do and they basically told me to have a break because I would need it! They also gave me some questions to base an initial writing assessment on, so I had something clear to work towards.

So I would suggest having a break first, as the PhD is full-on from when you start. Depending on your subject area, maybe read and get to know some key texts and do some literature searching that will help you to establish your research question, as that is likely to change from your initial proposal (unless your project is already set out for you of course). Also ask your supervisors if there is anything they want you to do so that you can start fairly quickly, maybe something that will go towards your literature review. It is also a good idea to read some general books on the PhD process and academic writing so that you will feel more confident when you start.

Hope that's helped and good luck with the rest of your MSc! Nx

Hi Corinne, I don't know how useful I can be because I'm not anywhere near getting my thesis written let alone bound, but I think you should try option 1 - to get it stripped and the correct images inserted. I don't want to sound patronising - it's a shame that it will cost you more but I think that it will save you a lot of stress when you are preparing for your viva, I guess that is stressful enough without having to worry about taking images in and having to mention the problem at the beginning, or constantly wondering whether the examiners will pick up on it.

I have slight experience of something similar and fortunately I didn't lost marks for it, but when I got my MSc dissertation bound the printers had put two sets of references in each copy, hence about four extra (repeated) pages. I ended up just leaving them in there because I didn't want to ruin the binding, but for the two months I was waiting for the mark I kept worrying about it; I was worried enough about the actual dissertation without that extra stress on top.

So if you can get it sorted, I really would, despite the additional cost which I guess is the most irritating thing. Hope that's helped a bit, Nx

I managed to restructure my proposal yesterday so it's getting there now, first goal is to write a brief research timeline.

Hope everyone is having a good morning so far.

Hi Pineapple, I know I haven't commented on this thread yet but I have been following it, and really feeling for you.

Thanks for updating, and I'm really pleased that you have another viva date to prepare for, I shouldn't think they'll cancel it again. I'm also pleased you're speaking to professionals about how you are feeling, I had three months of counselling at the end of last year and it really helped me, hopefully it won't come to that for you though.

Take care of yourself and good luck with the viva prep, try to maintain that motivation and have some positive thoughts.

Nxx

Maybe I should give it another go Olivia :-)

I use Web of Science most of the time - I am in an interdisciplinary field as well (psychology, sociology and philosophy). If you're in the social sciences, Applied Social Sciences Indexes and Abstracts (ASSIA) is good, also International Bibliography for the Social Sciences (IBSS). to be honest I don't use google scholar that often, never really been able to get much from it even though others rave about it!

Hi Kitten, sorry to hear you're having this trouble. Although your supervisor doesn't sound unpleasant, he clearly isn't fulfilling his role properly. Do you have a second supervisor you could speak you about your work? If not, I would contact the research administrator or whoever is in charge of PhD students and tell them what is going on as it is probably only going to get worse. Good luck!

Hi Betty, I'm four months into my PhD at the same university where I did my BA and MSc. I have three PhD supervisors who have all taught me previously; one supervised my undergrad dissertation and my lead supervisor supervised my MSc dissertation, so they all know me and how I work really well. I would say that although it is early days, I am really happy with my situation at the moment and glad I've stayed where I am.

I didn't really have a lot of choice over where I did my PhD as I am in psychosocial studies, which is an emerging discipline that is only covered in a handful of UK universities, and they all seem to be in competition with each other at the moment; they all have different approaches to the discipline so your choice of university really affects what you are able to research. Therefore I was most confident with how my department approached the discipline and I knew my research would be supported.

It is a good idea to consider the department and how well you get on there. It sounds like you have a really good working relationship with your potential supervisor at the moment so I think it would be a good idea to carry on with that, especially since you want to research one of her specialist areas. I was thinking of doing my MSc at a different university because I thought it would look better on my CV if I moved but that didn't work out, I was upset at the time but I think I got the better deal from staying where I am in the long run; I had quite a tough year during my MSc due to personal problems and my department were so supportive, I really don't think I would have got that at the other university.

I am still a bit concerned about my future prospects but I have been told that as long as I make an effort to network, go to conferences and publish, staying at the same place shouldn't be a problem at all - I don't think there is any point in moving unless you really need to.

Well done star-shaped - I have loads to do today as well but only just starting now due to a stressful morning for other reasons, working from home today. Have to go to work at 3pm so think I will be taking my laptop.

First goal is to spend an hour restructuring my proposal after taking loads of irrelevance out yesterday.

Thanks Jane, I think I'll give them the options of coming to see my horse and something else I'll think of as well - I could always take my horse down to Brighton for a lesson or something that they can come and watch. It just seems strange having to organise something like this - but I totally understand why they suggested it. In my department supervisors seem to be quite close to their students and regularly socialise with them so I guess this isn't out of the ordinary for them.

I thought about doing that Snowdrop, as then they could really experience what horse ownership is like, especially in terms of serious leisure (concept that challenges the boundary between work and leisure) which is a major theoretical aspect of my research. But then I wondered whether that would be too personal for the supervisor/student relationship, as it could be similar to inviting them to my house? Also the yard is an hour's drive from campus so it might not be right for that reason.

This is a bit of a strange one and I am trying to work out a way of approaching it...

For a bit of background, I am predominantly researching the relationship between humans and horses for my PhD, and how that feeds into other areas (serious leisure, psychoanalytic theory) - I am in psychosocial studies. My supervisors, although very interested and supportive of what I am doing, know next to nothing about horses and the equestrian world, and so they aren't really able to make their own judgements, it's like I'm talking about some mystical place and they're just believing my interpretation.

I had my last supervision on Thursday and one of my supervisors suggested going on a field trip so that she and my other supervisor could experience the equestrian world and know what I was talking about a bit more. I was thinking of what I could suggest as I suppose it is a world that I would be inviting them into. Do you think it would be weird for them to come and see my horse? My friend is show jumping at quite a high-profile show that's only a 15 minute drive from uni at the end of June so I have just emailed to suggest that to them, I can get free passes and it's midweek so would be quite easy for them as it wouldn't take up their weekend or anything.

Has anyone else had to do this, or have any suggestions/opinions for me?

Natassia x

I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend.

This week I am finishing the final draft of my proposal for my review in the middle of May, can't believe I'm nearly four months into my PhD already!

First goal for today is to take all the content about gypsies and Irish travellers out as I'm not researching them any more, bit of a relief really!

Second goal is to include some more recent reading.

And I will have to make a banana cake at some point today to use up some over-ripe bananas - I don't really cook so I hope it will be edible!