Can you get a laptop on your bench fees or from the department. Quite a few unis let you do it and it would save you some money.

Thinkpads are nice but I don't think they are worth the premium. A Dell with 8Gbs of ram and an SSD would do the job.

I wouldn't be so open with real names on a public forum. It makes you semi-identifiable and shows that you don't care at all about these people's privacy.

What do you want from a supervisor? Do you want someone to actively collaborate with you, occasionally give you solid advice or just be a name on a CV? Generally the lower status lecturer's can be more supportive and distinguished supervisors are not accessible. So if you want to choose exclusively by supervisor I would consider how independent you want to be. If you are asking this question I don't think you are going to be that independent

Though judging your PhD options exclusively by the supervisors status is a pretty bad idea. I would also consider the location, the department's reputation, the project itself, funding and how you get along with the potential supervisor. Funding is usually one of the harder parts of applying for a PhD and I would seriously ask each supervisor what do they think or do they know of any options.

You read enough until you feel comfortable with the literature. There is a joke in my department (engineering) that the PhD students know the literature better than some lecturers. As you only need to know enough literature to apply it and expand upon it, as you can't be an expert in everything.

Also I don't think quantity matters as much as quality of the work. Again in engineering, I could read 10 papers in a week and only 1 would actually be useful. Then my supervisor will read one paper that month and it will be that useful paper as she has a knack for finding the most useful works. So knowing what to read can save a lot of time.

Most universities allow PhD students after a year to leave and write up their work as a Masters. It is pretty common for people to fail the first year transfer and be allowed to submit a masters. So if you are doing well experimentally they should let you write up.

Don't know anything about comparative literature but do you have a methodology and timeline/ gantt chart. That sounds like a lot of work and you want an achievable project.

That sounds really awkward and frustrating. I haven't been in a similar position and this sounds like a difficult situation to resolve without hurting anyone's feelings. I think a polite conversation with your main supervisor might be best. or if that is too confrontational it might be better to solve the problem in little steps and gentle nudges to get her to change.

I would focus on trying to get her into the teacher role. Like say that you want to practice presentations for some upcoming conference and that you want to answer difficult questions yourself. Or that you feel that you can't include data in your thesis if you didn't do it yourself. Therefore her doing experiments is harming you or duplicating results. Also you could say that your are doing a specific methodology even though it might be wrong because you want to learn it/ improve at it. She clearly wants to help you but if you are firm about what you want to do she will support you.

I agree with abababa, usually a simple conversation can solve misunderstandings like this without any drama. I know in my field (engineering) there is a tendency sometimes to avoid putting someones name on a paper unless necessary.

A third alternative to abababa, is write your own paper with the data. Suggest to your supervisor that you think it is publishable and that you want to try. I have seen 2-3 papers come out of the same project that focus on different approaches/conclusions. If your work is different enough your supervisor might like the idea of 2 papers.

That sounds normal for academics. His initial enthusiasm sounds very positive as the long correspondence delays is normal. If anything the initial speed sounds like a green flag.

I am just curious if you have talked about funding. Finding funding is the most difficult part of organising a PhD and I would talk with him about your options. It may be that he is waiting on a funding decision or waiting for another round of funding to start. I think you should be worrying about this and your proposal more than correspondence speed. Though goodluck!

This is a general should I quit post. There are some very good articles on the internet that answer this question better than we ever could. Though you can always continue on your PhD while you consider your options or apply for other jobs.

To answer your question from the other thread, impostor syndrome is generally where you feel like a fraud or got to where you are by luck. It is pretty common among PhD students who become overly anxious about their work/lack of progress and doubt their sanity. I am not a medical doctor and think you should investigate this yourself.

Plenty of people have done degrees and masters while working part-time. I have also seen many of them succeed, so things aren't stacked against you. Like everyone you are going to have to manage your time well and you will have to prioritise certain things. The masters can be a chance to start over and your previous history will not affect you as long as you put the effort in.

Also can you not read on the train? I find I can focus on certain activities better on the bus as there are less distractions. So i think you should focus on finding something productive you can do on the train.

We have all made mistakes and a PhD is the perfect place to learn from them. You shouldn't doubt yourself to so much over 1 proposal, we have all been there. If you can learn from the mistakes and fix them you should be fine.

Sorry I can't help withe the associateship as don't know anything about it and I don't understand your problem. Is your supervisor stopping you or is there a time limit?

Supervisors can react very differently to mental health issues. They can either be really supportive and give you the space/time needed or tell you to "man up" like they did. I think it depends partially on their own PhD experience and they mimic what they had to endure. So you really need to judge your supervisors for yourself and get a feel for how they did.

Though I do think that you should see the university therapist or equivalent and make some formal notes on the university system that you did it. That can give you some insurance for bad supervisor reactions or extensions.

At my uni it can take up to 6 months for a viva. I think a lot of it depends on how fast your external is at reviewing it and then finding a suitable date. They are the biggest factor not the time of year.