I guess it depends if you already have the morgatge money ready to go (and wont need to apply using your stipend, not your current job). I was only thinking if you moved up and then couldnt get a morgatge.

You could put it in a MAXI ISA. Meant to be around 9%. Thats if you trust the stock market (though I dont see why one could trust the housing market much more over the long term).

A 50% rise. So a house worth 1000000 now will cost 1500000? Crazy. Inflation will prob go up. My poor student loan will therefore also go up. Damn. I hope the intrest rate hikes will help to cool the housing market a little. Bankrupices etc are up, so maybe the housing boom will stop soon. After all what hope do those not on it have.

B&B or caravan is probably a good idea.

Lesbos?

Pull out by the sounds of things, though you may as well get the seller to do the surveyers stuff (they will have to do it anyway).

Why delay your PhD? You can always rent. Or are you worried about falling off the housing market (sounds like it would be hard to get on if you go with a PhD stipend to a lender). You can keep the money you earned on the sale of your current house in a high interest account and use it to buy one when you finsih (or to help fund your fourth year if you need one)

Crete?

Is there a lack of positions? Or is it that none interest you? The only thing I can think of is to look at papers from your original proposal, find out where these people work and then see if they have positions available. It sounds like you have sort of done this already. But instead of sending your proposal you could ask them if they have one for you.

It may be that there are no projects that interest you this year. Esp if you are very specific. Then it is either wait and see if anything comes out over the next year, or apply to projects that you are not 100% sure of this year (the ones that appeal the most). Remember that a lot of supervisor will be willing to let you progress the project in your own way, and some will be farily open to new directions. You can try and judge this at interview (though I doubt they will let you change direction completely). Grant stipends less so i think.

Maybe pick a project or two and talk to the supervisor. They may be more interesting when you discuss it. What about the states?

Do you know anyone from your previous place (uni prob) who may have contacts with someone in your chosen field? I think it really would help if you know someone who can put in a good word for you.

I would say that at PhD level there is a certain amount of comprimise. Esp if you have such an exact topic in mind. The other potential problem is that if you do something different to what the lab/supervisor does you may find it a lot harder to get interest/support from them. Maybe wont need it, it helps. There is also only so much funding to go around. Only if your proposal is very good, better than what the supervisor can come up with, are you likely to find funding through the department. Unless you can convince one of them it is worthy of a grant proposal.....

It will also prob depend on your background. I think that if you are just out of undergrad/very young you will find it hard to get people to take you too seriously. If you have been working in the area for a a while (such as an MPhil) then it should be much easier.

Which bit thecoastman? The treat them like poo bit?

Maybe he has changed his name. Felt like a personality change, so changed his name. Maybe he is posing as a girl (im sure he always wanted to do that ). He could be anyone of us......

Yeah, I think so, the time for half to go missing. It was quite a while ago since I read it. Must be around somewhere. I am pretty sure the half life was the same for the closed lab and the canteen. So I guess the theif was in that lab.....

I think they may also have looked at spoon value to see if more expensive spoons went missing more often. I dont think there was a correlation (dont think they had any silver spoons though)

There was a study in the British medical journal (I think) looking at the half life of tea spoons. They had tea spoons in a canteen and tea spoons in a closed lab and measured the half life of tea spoons. Apparently it was to help departments estimate their costs related to tea spoons or some such thing.

I dont beleive it! Some chap with a Belford PhD in gold star identification assured me it was real. He said the gold was as real as his PhD. Such a shock.

Ok, then I will give DanB an honory Richmond University PhD for his excelent advise. Lets hope that he doesnt get a pie in his face after recieving it (like a certain motor enthusiast).

Congrats on the PhD.

Poor DanB, feels unappreaiated. Well, I thought your advise was really very good. Here, have a gold star. *

mrchipz is right, there is still time to get a PhD. Esp if you have a borad mind on what you want to do.

As to the questions, I think it depends on the supervisor. Some were interested in what I knew in relation to there project. Others were not so bothered. Still it is good to know enough basic stuff on their project to be able to talk to them. Try and read their papers (though not one of the interviewers once asked anything about their own work). I think it is probably a good idea to ask them questions about the project, try and get in depth about the techniques etc.

Still, the emphasis (from my experience) is on what you did for your project/placement. I did both, so there was lots to talk about.

What about your current/undergrad instituation? Do they have any PhD's going? I would guess that you have a good relationship with some lectures there (those with first usually do!!). Maybe they could help (either directly, or with contacts of people they know at other places).

My advice would be to ensure you know your project and placement stuff inside out. What I did was prepare(in my head, but you may want to write it down) a logical runthrough of my undergrad project. Sort of like what you would do for a presentation of your work. Make sure you can talk for a least 20mins on it. Then, when the prospective supervisor asks about your project, you can go on and on and on. You will look like you know your stuff, really enjoyed the project, and really into the subject area. I think the less the interviewer has to prompt you about this sort of stuff the better.

Just make sure you have endless stuff to talk about with it. That way you can get into a really good discussion with the super about it as well.

Richmond university is currently running a buy one get one free on PhD's. These will be termed BOGOF PhD's, to make your CV the envy of everyone.