pizza, pizza, pizza!!!!

i was hoping to bail out with an Mphil but dropped out with nothing. an Mphil is not much less work than a Phd. they usually take two years. it seems to me that if someone is going to stick it out for that long they might as well do the PhD

sounds like your on the right track anyway best of luck with that. I think mres are a great idea.

after dropping out of my PhD I am going to do an Msc next october, hopefully an Mres after that and if that goes well, I'll have another shot at a PhD.

Hence why it so important you pick a topic you really love and enjoy, so that no matter what happens during your PhD, you believe in the end product of your research and will be proud of what you achieve at the end

No matter how many offers you get, if you’re not sure I would not recommend accepting any offers.

I Know the consequences of not following this advice from personal experience/

Consider obtaining relevant experience in the field you are interested in and/or doing a research masters first if at all possible.

Unless you are 100% sure it's what you want to do, don’t accept it no matter how good the university you are applying to is.

Think about it. This is the next 3-4 years of your life. In this period, you are likely to be under a lot of pressure to deliver depending on the project you are on and on whether your supervisors support you or treat you like a journal paper machine. You will be getting paid rather poorly compared to industry and you may have to work long anti social hours.

Ending up in a PhD project you don’t like/hate for this period of time can be soul destroying (trust me ) and you can quickly find that your supervisors may turn on you when they find you that you don’t think their research project is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Also consider the time wasted that you could have spent doing something you love and the not so very nice hole in your CV if you bail out.

i understand how you feel, but chin up. you are in thrid year and can see the end in sight and have already been offered a lecturship. sounds to me like you've got talent. lectureships arent exactly easy to come by in any feild. Consider how many PhD graduates there are vs # lectureships

i didnt even make it passed first year and its has been a very hard few months for me, all ive ever really wanted to do was carve out a successful career in research.

but ill get back up on the horse eventually/ i find out this week if i get into Oxford for a masters so fingers crossed....

i totally empathise with feeling inadequacy, having no direction ,not seeing supervisor for long periods of time. i never really knew what was going on with my project and my supervisor never really gave a shit. it has destroyed my confidence even though i know i can make an impact if get a project i really like and still think i will have another shot at a PhD

its about a group of MIT students who took las Vegus for Millions by card counting. i think they are banned from pretty much every casino in the united states now.
interesting story, i hears its being made into a moive

either your taking the piss and/or have had too many of those drinks. bon apetite!!

Eddi,
I know its easier said than done, but I wouldnt worry about what other people are doing, it's of no consequence to your studies. Success in research has a lot more to do with blood, sweat and tears rather than intellence and natural ability.

Sure people who take on PhDs are smart, some of whom are really smart and may border on genius, but the majority of the people ive met in academia owe their success in their PhD and subsequent career as a result of their dedication and hard work more than anything else.

the person you describes is not likely to go very far in academia if they are showing no interest in what they are doing. wait and see

Olivia,
i agree. ill start a cats vs dogs thread on the off threads section. stuff like who has better personality, which are more intelligent, who would win in a fight

that monster thread were i "jokingly" asked to have giri removed was a great opportunity to get to know the kind of people on this website( from one polar extreme to another) ill have to admit that this giri person should have been booted off the website after the downs remark!!!!

its not wrong to want to change universities and i would absolutely make sure that you pass your transfer exam before informing your supervisors of your decision to leave. they can make your life very difficult between now and your transfer exam if they find out you are going to jump ship.

my ex asshole of a supervisor didnt responded very well when i requested to change project and supervisor.

prestige of univeristy, helps when you are starting out in your academic carreer, but ultimatley your reputation as an academic is built on your publication record. i.e the quality and volume of papers you publish. so its not essential to have done your PhD at a so called prestigeous uni

it would appear to be the second thread in the series to be deleted, probably becasue of all the insults flying back and forth in the early thread and the entertaining but completely irrelevant talk about throut, cats piss and what not.

lets make it a trilogy!!!

Do tell us more. did you get a new supervisor?

interesting terminology that you use " you fired them ". it implies that your supervisors worked for you?

where you self funded? if that the case i would say its quite appropriate term to use.

anyone ever read "bringing down the house"? I hears its really good

yes, email them first before putting in a formal application. Express your interest in the project, attach your CV and try to arrange at least a phone interview.