I think that we have formed a supportive community, and people come here for support, that may be lacking in their immediate environment, because in part because of the sheer isolation of the PhD ( in many cases anyway!) And its a break from the drudgery of the work--and we all need breaks, etc...a PhD takes a lot of just sheer determination, no matter what else it requires, if you are not exceedingly stubborn about reaching your goals, you might become overwhelmed and swamped by the entire process.

ahhh...thanks for clearing up my confusion. Good heavens, but that is an important one to be clear on ( American English v British English) ( now craving Taco Bell worse than ever...)

I don't think anyone 100% of the time thinks that they want to do or like their PhD. That is just not a rational way to expect to feel. You love it, you hate it, you are indifferent to it, all of those feelings and more, are part of the experience, and can even occur in the same day, the same hour, or the same minute!


I am not sure I would agree the posters on this forum are in any way bitter. Rather,

so confused...perhaps its just terminology--how can you be an attorney but not be qualified to practice law/not be a lawyer?

And then do you need some kind of qualifaction additionally to do patent law? You might want to check out exactly what the qualifications are to do patent law work in your locale.

Don't you need a professional qualification as an attorney??????????? What country are you in?

chicken mole ( that would be pollo mole--po YO mo LAY)
fajita ( fa HEE ta, not fa JI ta as I have heard it said--cringe--sounds like a body part, something out of a Shirley Valentine scene!)
Beef Burrito Supreme from Taco Bell...


oh...best food I have had in the UK is in El Piano in York...

http://www.el-piano.com/

York is marvelous, but El Piano is simply divine!!!

Proper Mexican is different to Tex-Mex fast food--its got more cilantro and lime and not the rich sauces that make the Tex Mex so popular with Americans. Proper Mexican is still very good--my hometown has lots of little Mexican restuarants, nothing fancy, just a hole in the wall, where you can get carne asada tacos, chicken mole--if you have never had mole ( pronounced Mo LAY) you have not had good food! mouth watering...beats the heck out of mushy peas!

I am not sure you could replicate Taco Bell at home. Its secret I think is in rich sauces and so forth...like Taco Supremes, or the wonderful Burrito Supreme...I think perhaps a lot of sour cream, mixed in with salsa and spices...a unique taste, a lot of variety, like their yummy Rice bowls...

I think that Mexican ( probably more accurately Tex-Mex) is a late comer to the UK fast food scene. I don't know why--perhaps its just not popular over the pond? Or people have not tried to expand in the UK market? Given the popularity of fastfood in the UK, with the like of KFC, McDonalds, Subway, etc...I wonder that Taco Bell has not made the jump over the pond. Of course I think that KFC and Pizza Hut and some others have the same large corporate owner.

I am puzzled. How does a PhD in studying Alzeheimers disease help you become a patent attorney? Is an Msc a qualifying degree to practice law? Don't you have to undergo other professional training? Does practicing patent law require being admitted or qualifed before a special body?

Cooking can be as easy as boiling a pot of water and having some lovely rice or pasta. Sauces that you can stir in are not that expensive, and if you add a bit of meat, like low fat beef or chicken, you have a quick, healthy meal that is not expensive. It takes as long as it takes to cook the rice or pasta, which depending on your variety, is 10-20 minutes perhaps. Everyone has 10-20 minutes to spare, why, that is much quicker than getting a pizza delivered!!!

Now I realise that I am fortunate to have access to student loans, that getting funding in the UK can be critical because there are not the sort of government backed loans available to fund HE as in the US, and funding becomes a critical issue to access HE. Whilst I am not saying going into debt to do a PhD is optimal, I continue to be grateful at least it was an option, because it makes the PhD feasible.

Funding has many variables--what is available through a department, whether you and your institution are eligible for ESRC or other types of funding like that, whether industry pays your funding, whether, if you are not from the UK or EU, you are eligible for funds, and whether your own home country has funds available.

In the US, people generally take out student loans if needed--widely available--to fund education, including PhDs, and maybe work on the side, or do Graduate Teaching, or whatever, to supplement the loans. Fully funded post graduates would be few and far between. I never thought twice about the funded/self-funded issue because from my American lens, self-funding is pretty normal.

Women CAN have healthy children and be healthy themselves when they have children in their 40's. In the UK more than the US it seems like there is a real negative view of this...the US seems more accepting of later motherhood, and again, age is but ONE of many risk factors when it comes to having children...people make their decisions and choices based on what works for them, even when the pregnancy or child is not planned...and there I think it should be left.

I applaud people who know they want kids and do it. I equally applaud people who know they do NOT want kids and do NOT do it.

I think that the women/biological clock thing is in part a product of social construction--women who for whatever reason do not have kids come under a lot of social pressure to have them, to say that they want them, whatever--and I think some of this biological clock business is simply more societal pressure to tell women they are supposed to want to have kids.