Boursin

That's good you're getting some funding but shame it means you can't get the career development loan. I would advise getting a student account though with the interest free overdraft if you can. I've still got one for my PhD and it's come in very handy as I had to move house recently. Depending on your finances you might not need it but it could be useful for emergencies etc.

Good luck with sorting out the loan .

Forgot to add this earlier, with the career development loan you don't start paying it back until the course has finished, with a personal loan they probably want repayments quite soon. You might have seen this already but I'll add the link anyway as it might help others.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/AdultLearning/FinancialHelpForAdultLearners/CareerDevelopmentLoans/DG_10033237

I haven't checked the most recent info but 3 years ago the only banks offering career development loans were the Co-Op and Barclays. I don't actually bank with either of these and only used the Co-Op for the loan. If you haven't already done so check with these banks to see if you are eligible.

Brie

I did my MSc part time over 2 years and took out a career development loan to cover the second years tuition fees and travel costs as I had a long commute to uni for lectures. This was 3 years ago and I borrowed around £2300 which I'm still paying back, got another year to go. You can repay in one year if you want but as I wasn't sure if I would get work straight away after finishing I chose a longer repayment period. For me it was essential as even though I was working and had intended saving enough during the first year to pay for the fees this didn't happen. I already had enough money put aside for the first years fees from a small inheritance. I also went straight from undergrad so didn't have a lot of spare cash.

As a postgrad student you will still be entitled to a student bank account with the interest free overdraft, all you need to do is go into the bank with an acceptance letter from the university. HSBC will let you have up to £2000 overdraft interest free, don't know about other banks. So if you don't want to take out a loan then this may be another option to help cover costs.

Stilton

Bump means that this thread has been pushed back to the top of the list so people can see it. Afraid I can't help with your problem though but now your post is back at the top it means more people will see it and hopefully someone will have an answer for you.

I really noticed it when I had to write my upgrade report toward the end of the first year of my PhD. I'd written a 14,000 word dissertation for my MSc the year before and it felt like it took ages at the time and was a huge amount of words. My upgrade report was 13,000 words and it didn't seem to take as long to get that many words down. I'm only in my second year of PhD now but I'm not finding the final word count quite as onerous as I would've done at undergrad level. I've found that I can easily knock out 1000 words quite quickly, although have to go back and edit them for clarity sometimes.

I'm funded by a different research council and I get paid quarterly and I think is fairly standard for most stipends.

When I did my MSc dissertation a few years ago the word count for the whole document was 15,000 and I used approx 3000 of those words in the introduction/literature review and I also had approx 80 references for the whole dissertation. For you this will probably depend on how long the finished dissertation is expected to be but I would imagine 5000 words would be the upper limit for a literature review at Masters level.

Hi, there was a thread about this last year which is here and might be helpful
http://www.postgraduateforum.com/threadViewer.aspx?TID=18935

Sorry only got time for a brief answer. With regards to workload many PhD students treat the PhD as a job and will work conventional 'office' hours i.e. 9-5 and not work evenings or weekends unless there are deadlines looming. I'm in my second year and I don't do 9-5 because I don't like those hours, I know that when I get a job I'll have to do that but for the moment I enjoy being flexible. I would say that I work approx 35-40 hours a week but that will sometimes include weekends because my partner works weekends and then I will have time off during the week. You can still have a social life whilst doing a PhD.

Well done on submitting, have a well deserved rest. :)

Hi, I only had a month between finishing my MSc and starting my PhD. I was continuing with the same supervisor and he said I could do some reading if I wanted to but he actually recommended that I take the month off, so I did. I did absolutely nothing vaguely academic for a month and it helped to refresh me, in fact I didn't really do much of anything other than visiting family.

If you feel that a little bit of light will reading will help you then go for it. But if you feel like you need a break before starting then take the break. It might help to start the PhD with a clear head but it's all personal preference.