That's ok Eska, nice of you to say so! :-)

I'm another one who's taken an odd academic/work route into my PhD, so am aware of some of the attitudes and problems one encounters along the way. I think it's all been worth doing for reasons of personal achievement, if nothing else!

I used to feel much more insecure about PhD stuff than I do now, in fact my supervisor mentioned ages ago that I should be more confident about my work than I was. For some reason, the insecurity has mostly gone now, so I think I must have grown in confidence throughout the whole process without realising it. I think doing what you and other posters have suggested, to focus on why you do deserve to be doing your PhD and what you have achieved, is the best thing to do when you have wobbly insecure moments.

It's been quite interesting in retrospect comparing myself and a few colleagues who have also got to the end of their PhDs. While we worried about whether we were good enough and had moments of self-doubt, others who oozed arrogant over-confidence all through their PhDs either produced fairly average work or failed completely, even after resubmission. Being really confident about your work isn't necessarily indicative of being academically brilliant, but sometimes can veer towards self-delusion, it appears....

I got my list of minor corrections yesterday, and it includes the things that you've both mentioned - a page of typos like 'delete extra full stop', 'put footnote 7 after fullstop, not before it', or 'reference on p 123 missing from bibliography'. It's also got requests to clarify odd sentences or paragraphs, and rewrite the conclusion to 'create more of a fanfare' (!!!).

What fills me with mild horror, apart from having to engage with the whole thesis again in that detail after ignoring it as much as possible for the past month, is seeing that all three examiners apparently want to check my corrections. So that's 3 more thesis copies to send out, with the possibility of any of them sending back more corrections if I don't do what they wanted, which may be likely given the vagueness of their report and the fact that they're from different disciplines. Then back to the committee that sits a few times a term for final approval.... I'm really hoping that all 3 examiners wanting to check the corrections will be a mistake, just to speed things up. It would be good to get it wrapped up before Christmas.

That's great news, Dr Smilodon, I hope you feel very pleased with yourself!(up)

Were your examiners a bit taken aback by you crying at the result? It must have been such a relief for you though - another massive step towards the end!! Enjoy your break now, you have seriously earned it!

Hello Mystic Guru, you sound as if you've almost answered your own questions... if you've found someone to supervise you then it's obviously possible for this to be academically viable for your own background.

If you enrol on a Masters then it will equip you with the necessary methodological background that you'll need for your proposed PhD. It will also familiarise you with existing literature and research in that field, so you would be in a better position to formulate a future PhD research question. There aren't really any short cuts, especially if you're intending to cross disciplines. If you've found a university that runs a Masters in your topic, why don't you enrol on that and see how it goes? It's quite common for students that do well in a Masters to continue at the same college to develop their research into a PhD. I'm afraid I've no idea about how many years it would take, or what the possibilities of transferring from a Masters onto an MPhil/PhD though - can you ask your prospective supervisor, as it may be university-specific.

Hi Lara,

It's good to hear it's moving forward at last. Have they told you who the examiners they've selected will be yet?

Lol, btw nice to hear yikes a mondo again! :-)

Smilodon, the examiners told me the result straight after my viva. They had a discussion between themselves after my supervisor (my chosen observer) and myself had left the room, following my oral examination. They called us back in and said I had passed subject to minor corrections, which they outlined verbally for me. I'd have thought you'd also be told the result after your viva, I know others from other unis have followed the same procedure.

The annoying bit for me has been how long the bureacracy surrounding completion takes, though maybe it varies between universities. You know you've passed, but it's not official and wrapped up till all the admin is done. My supervisor said it shouldn't stop me applying for jobs though, as she said academics know about all the admin and the end result is the same, I should just put I have a PhD in blah blah subject, passed in May subject to minor corrections on job/funding applications. You can still get started on publishing work before the official bits are rubber stamped too. Will your supervisor be back or available for email contact by the autumn term? It's a long summer when everyone seems to be on holiday as they can't take time off during term-time.

Sarah, hang on in there, you're nearly done with it! It sounds like they're really making you suffer though...

Good point, Hypothesis!

======= Date Modified 24 Jul 2009 11:36:59 =======

Timefortea, I had to pull out of two conferences a few years ago, both were central to my research area. I did worry a bit about pulling out as I don't like messing people around, especially senior academics in my field. It doesn't seem to have made any difference in the long run though, as people involved in the conferences have continued to either be interested in my work or have offered help and advice since then.

If you're pregnant with twins, the organisers have absolutely no idea what stage your pregnancy is at, or whether you've had complications. They'd be pretty weird people to hold it against you for withdrawing from their event in those circumstances, even without the swine flu factor!

Hi Sheyna,

I wouldn't worry about feeling naive about this, many of us have learnt about keeping PhD-related ideas to ourselves through bitter experience.

Regarding your supervisor being out of touch and unable to provide feedback, could you speak to someone responsible for postgrad students about it? Not necessarily to blame the supervisor for being unavailable, but to point out that it would be really helpful to have another appropriate member of staff to discuss your work with, in his absence. Some of our students have second supervisors or advisors officially attached to their supervisory team, to add specific expertise to that of the main supervisor. It's useful if one of them is away a lot, and also provides another perspective for feedback for the student.

One of my supervisors told me to be careful who I shared my work-in-progress with if it wasn't in the public domain. I was mildly surprised at the time as the rather senior academics concerned were all in the same area of research and I thought they were all quite chummy with each other, but academia is so competitive that I think it was very timely advice that I have always kept in mind. If you don't already know and trust these people, regardless of their status in the academic hierarchy, you could decide on whether to share your work by thinking about whether it would have a negative impact on your PhD if someone else passed your work or ideas off as their own? Not to encourage total paranoia, but you need to maintain intellectual ownership of your work if it's a career thing for you.

I'd also put my health first if I was you, and pull out if you're worried. There will be other conferences during your PhD, and people do withdraw from events for a variety of unforseen health and personal reasons, that's life. If you feel guilty (which you shouldn't!) you can always say you made the decision after takling medical advice about your pregancy.