Aww you guys, you all think you are winning....

mods close this thread. Can't you all see I already won long ago? :-s:p

no, no. I won.

this game is over. I have won.

Tx....hmm work in progress it of course is, I am not expected to present findings at the end of my PhD first year :-) I think it's the eternal human desire to satisfy self and all, and to make every single thing wrap up and come together, even while we know every individual step need not wrap up as long as the whole PhD does!

No, it is never advisable to attempt a conversion. There can be no conversion cchart and it would make absolutely no sense. So even if someone said a BA degree from India can be convertd into GPA via XYZ routes, and someone had a 65% in English literature from india (which may be exceptionally good in many Indian universities, for literature is sooooo stringently graded), then that person would get a very low GPA.

Universities know this very well as you arent the first one with this problem. I'vce applied to many US unis for PhDs and got through and nowehere did I even attenpt to convert my marks.

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oh thanks you guys! See, my dilemma is from a larger thing.... see in a xingle conference I am doing a multipanel poster, a paper (where I am the only sad student) and a paper with my sup which she is presenting, but I am working with her on that, plus I have to submit an essay to a journal in 2 days after final revisions (which are done but its still not endnoted)...plus there's two other panels I am organising (one with 4 scholars) and another with senior phd students, the preps for which are all happening NOW, plus there's.... I am going mad.

So I have not (unlike you kind folk have said) had ANY time to work on this paper and am Sh*& scared! I'm usually prepared for stuff but this time, time has made a complete fool of PhDbug.

I totally LOVE public speaking so give me a podium and I'll rattle off, so it;s not the speaking bit, it's the *content* unfortunately that's the flaw now and that's why I am worried :-(

Hi all

:-(

I find myself presenting at a day long conference with 15 speakers, each and every one of whom is a scholar/researcher of standing, and two senior post docs.

I am 10 months into my PHD, all the other speakers are profs, research directors and so on (my supervisor will be in the audience, and is also a speaker)

Guys, oh please help me with any suggestions?

I am scared!

ahh at last a CDA in our midst! (I dont do CDA, just know a couple of people who do)... hmm.. i do the opposite of CDA in a way actually.. i do audience reception research in a way... so I guess opposite as in, meaning in the text and meaning at the text-reader intersect....

Hmm...

I am inclined to copy and paste the email I sent to a US uni, early July last year, for a PhD scheduled to start in August i think, saying I need to reject their highest university fellowship. And hang on, this after having flown from London to Chicago the week before that to meet each prof individually and get treated to lunch etc, and having stayed at one of the phd student's pads..

Nothing could have been worse than that. I declined 100K USD for 4 yrs, and as I said, declined after their lovely hospitality just a week ago.

Nevertheless, you must do as you decide. In my case they (in the US) knew I was having second thoughts as my supervisor of choice was in my London uni, and my second sup of choice who used to be at the US uni had left and left amidst bad blood I heard, and would in no way be involved with that Uni again. So really it made no sense any more... they knew that, deep down, and even not so deep down, but still saying No, a month before starting made me squirm.

Two people replied with curt emails saying thanks for letting us know and good luck. two others never replied.

I suggest that you be prepared for irritation, even if not expressed. Write a breif, non rambling email (up to you whether you rpefer to use the phone after asking for an appt via email, or whether you want to meet and do it, or email.... depends on your contact prior to this)...

also, how much time has already been invested on you? In designing the proposal etc? The lesser, the easier I should think... Be breif, have to the point reasons ready at your fingertips, and be prepared to feel uneasy. I have been there, and done that.

Hi

Sorry to hear you are going through a difficult phase in your life. But I had a few questions/concerns on reading this above..

First, do you want to do a PhD *or* do you want settle in Europe? They are entirely different things...

Second, from your post it is clear that you want to find yourself in a social context where ageism is less than where you are, where you can start a life afresh, where you can date.

However, what is not clear is why you wish to do a PhD. If doing a PhD is merely a ticket to this all, and you seek funding (whether from home or from the UK) just so you can be in what you presume to be a greener, fresher, more beautiful side of the world, I am not sure of your decision...

Mind you, there are plenty who start a PhD at a later age than 41, there are plenty whose demographics exactly match yours, there are plenty who do it to get a fixed stipend in a moment of financial insecurity, and there are plenty who have largely non academic reasons to do a PhD, all of which are valid reasons.

However, the hopes/aspirations you seem to have of this part of the world, the mess you fnd your life in: these two are somehow getting linked in your mind via that one word : a PhD.

Getting a topic, convicning a supervisor, organising funding to make this link a reality are issues to be thought through later, and perhaps they will even work out. But somehow, I am doubtful of the way in which you have begun to think of the PhD as a funded road to a better life...

you may perhaps be disappointed, in ways more than one... or it may all work out...

Best, keep thinking

Bug

Dear Natassia :-)

You sound a lot like me! And hence, in this, I am extending some of what I would tell myself to you :-) like you, I did back to back degrees after I left school, without any gap in between except when waiting for results, and I did my MSc in sept 2008 and started my phD in oct 2008, same uni, same supervisor as MSc.

On reading: Hmm, a good idea is start with the reading list really, the lists are made with care and do grasp the issues well. Learning how to read effectively is a skill, and you'll get what works for you pretty soon.

But most important is writing. People have different styles. Some write for thesis deadlines, others (like me) have the bad although useful habit of writing prolifically (!), even if some of it is crap. If I read something, I must write or else i cannot think;. Some make notes from the reading i.e. copy out bits and pieces and store for later, which is useful for this build up. Others, like me, never use direct quotes and whatever they read survive in their own writing in a synthetic way...i.e. writing *about* what you read.. so largely your own thoughts...

Write, write and write. Do not leave it for later. The later never comes. try this? Read a piece you like in your area, preferably an 'overview' piece, like a lit review. Then, write about it... another tip..whenever you read, always try to locate yourself in relation to it... very soon you will see yourself in the context of the voices who speak in your field...you need to know where you will find yourself...

I think, a one yr Masters is the best time to figure a little bit of this out, to lay a base for the PhD.

Next: If you dont want a yr off between MSc and PhD, start hunting for suprvisors/topics pretty soon. That gives you time to re/work on applications for funding. I did this, and hence I started my PhD a month before my MSc results were declared (!)


Last note: Sometimes, the most enthusiastic of people need to be restrained. I belong to this category, and you might too :-) ON the matter of publications. Wait. It is early. Some do publish during their masters. It is is no way necessary. Not at all. What you want is your first publication to be something which you will not look at cringe (too much) 10 yrs down the line. Obviously you will cringe a little, for you will have grown, but not too much.

Take this yr ahead to position yourself and your research agenda and hit the PhD ground running; Publications, will follow. Take the year ahead to write, write and write. Keep your written work stored in versions. It is like chiseling a lump of clay, as I am reminded...you write a draft and work to chisel it till one day, its done.

The year ahead is for these tasks. All the rest will, and must follow.

Take it from someone, who as I said, thinks a lot like you.

best, bug

hi!

Congrats!

Even i am approaching the end of my first year (started October last year) and am about to be published. it's in a peer-reviewed journal of our field, not open-access but one of the usual ones. Some have told me I should be happy (it's an 8000 word piece)...

CV value? Well, depends.. obviously your first publication in important. In my case it has been a strange first yr. It started with two book reviews being published (submitted during masters) in two 'good' journals. Then a co-authored publication with my supervisor, for the media, released across the press, but not an 'academic' publication, rather a policy oriented one. Then this, a completely intellectual piece, about to be published...so it's been a strange mix... what does it say for my CV? It perhaps says that I am distracted... or it could say I am diverse...(my intention is to diversify)

Same for you. Like me, enjoy your first pub. It will do you good to get things going. But tell yourself what I am telling myself as I am going into my second year: this is a good start, more than many. the task is to build on it and keep it up!

:-)

A note: a lit review for publication would be on diff grounds... i co-authored one for the BBC recently, with my supervisor, where I also played an RA role, and that was around 10K, but there are others which are huger and were 40 K, so that is variable... (Sneaks, I wrote my views thinking your query was for your thesis)

My sup has a nice metaphor for a lit rev. She calls it a Room. So get in dissenting voices to speak in the room, show you know the key players... then move around in the room abd try to open windows to touch upon other secondary areas...then find a pattern to see who's talking to whom, and which groups go where....

then observe it all, and locate a space in the room where you want to position yourself...and in that space frame your argument...

:-)

Hi sneaks,

In my dept (social science, top school) there's no way in which a thesis can exceed 100K plus minus, but usually minus a few K. And there's also no way in which we can do away withany of the chapters you say below, and hence 12k to 10k per chapter is the automatic count.

60k to me sounds way too long, sorry! In my dept it would at most spread across theoretical framework chap and proper lit rev chap and a bit of introduction chap, and hence inch close to 30k total, max..inclusive of this all...