I have a 3000 word paper to read in 20-22 minutes. So 5000 words in 15 minutes seems a bit unaccurate to me unless you can talk really quickly! 5000 words would be more like 30 minutes I think. Anyway the best thing is to read your paper aloud and calculate how much time it takes.

I wouldn't worry too much about that - most probably the library and other campus resources will be open all over the summer although with restricted hours. If not, it is still likely that as a PhD student you have access through a card, pin code or something like that. So yes I guess that it is possible to continue research over the summer - at least if you are in a non-lab subject, don't know if PhD students get access to their labs during the holidays.

Coastman - Miss Nimrod would be more accurate...

I'm in a completely different field but I think that the most important factor is your career plans. For some career options a PhD is a must (for example if you want to be a lecturer) and in some industry fields it would definitively improve your career prospectives (i.e. you will have defintively more chances to be promoted if you have a PhD). So it's really up to you to decide what do you want to do in the future and analyze if a PhD would help or not.

Having said that, I think that, even if you are now determined to do a PhD, 2 or 3 years of work experience between your undergraduate and your PhD can be very useful. Work experience will be always valuable in a PhD application, you can save some money and it will help you developing some skills different to those you can develop at university.

Happy happy happy Christmas to everyone!!!!!

The writing up process starts to frighten me! I've only started in October but when I see the (apparently) huge amount of raw material I've collected during the first term, it seems just impossible to go and organize it. I've deliberately left for Christmas the task of writing 2 articles (nothing too formal - one is a general overview of my discipline, for the newsletter of the organization which sponsored my masters, and one is a short paper to be presented in a student research forum in January) but I start to wonder if I will succeed.

Hi pea,

I visited Havanna with my parents and brother 3 or 4 years ago. Personally I found it quite difficult to avoid the more touristic places and do something different, it seems that as a tourist you are always guided to the topical places (but that was just my impression). Visiting local markets can be fun. You will find plenty of local pottery there but I rather enjoyed buying old editions of Cuban and Sovietic authors (but of course 99% of them are in Spanish). I am very much the museum type and liked the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (particularly the 20th century paintings) very much. If you have time for a short trip outside Havanna the Vinales Valley is worth a try.

Thank you guys. In fact my boyfriend and I live hundreds of miles away from each other now as a result of me moving for my PhD and he moving for a new job. That means I couldn't have his support 24 hours a day anyway, but also that I am not continuously flooded with criticism as I was when I started the process of applying for a PhD in the UK. When he saw that his attitude wouldn't stop me, he changed his attitude a bit but he couldn't help behaving like that again when he visited me in the UK last week (i.e. saying that my research topic is rubbish and things like that).

I was there 6 years ago! Actually I was on holiday in Oslo and did a 1-day trip to Gotenborg. It's a nice lovely Scandinavian city, I think it's called "the Swedish Venice" or something like that. I really don't have much tips about what to do apart from wandering through the streets and near to the river and canals, I was there for 1 day only. I also visited it in February and I don't think it's the best month because the days are really short and it's incredibly cold.

25 - I worked for 2 1/2 years in the PR, arts management and IT industries between my Masters and my PhD and I'm really glad I did although that means that I'll be slightly older when I'm finish my PhD.

Any tips about coping with your PhD work and not get too depressed when your partner is not supportive and doesn't like the idea of you doing a PhD?

For me you get 1,520 hits

Hi Vince,

You sound pretty much like me - I have always had big problems to socialise, it's not that easy at all for me. At the beginning, I always have to put a bit of pressure on myself and treat invitations from people as "obligations" I have to attend. If I feel I'm not able to attend every of them I set myself a minimum, for example take 2 invitations a week or something like that. At the beginning it's quite challenging because I would rather stay at home by myself, but at the end it's not such an awful experience and I do get quite well with other people and feel at ease with them.

Well in my case I guess I had to accept I will never be a big socializer or the most popular student in my department, but I think my social skills are now up to a minimum thanks to auto-discipline.

It has been discussed a number of times here and many people agree that at PhD level (specially if you intend to stay in academia) it's not the prestige of the University which matters the most, but the department. You may check the RAE results (http://www.hero.ac.uk/rae/) to see how is your department classified (with 5* being the best mark and 1 the worst), try to find out wheter the department staff publishes regularly in international journals of your field, etc.

Well I don't want to interfere but... why should you do what your friends want you to do, and not what YOU want to do? If the project is interesting for you (and I don't think Bath is ranked as a "bad" university), why should you go for a project less interesting for you but at Oxbridge? I mean, at this stage I would look for more projects in other universities (including Oxbridge) but if the projects that interest me are in (say) Bath, Sheffield and Manchester rather than Oxbridge, I wouldn't bother applying to the latter. IMHO.