Hi rj24
Thanks for your advice. What is the title of the paper/book by fornell and Larcker?
now I'm a bit confused about the term latent variable, is latent variable only for factor analysis? or a variable for regression can also be a latent variable? I haven't done factor analysis before.

I ran the regression again, switched the blocks and the adjusted r2 is almost the same, like .65 and .63.
thanks
satchi

hi sneaks
thanks a lot for your advice; Im going to run the regression tomorrow.
:-) satchi

hi kelly
yes they give training in a phd (but first u need to convince your potential supervisor/uni that you can do a phd in something of which u dont have background)

Dont know about UCL, sorry.

Without MSc is not a massive disadvantage. If you have an excellent CGPA for your 1st degree, should be ok.

Supervisors are usually human.

Phd life is like a christmas tree:
stars, angels, presents you like, presents you don't like, lights, trimmings, nettles (!)

I do like 6 days a week, and yes we can work part time.
And we all get stressed.

good luck!

:-) satchi

hi sneaks thanks a lot I understand better now.
So what do we do if two variables are highly correlated? how do we regress them then?
another question is: what if we do a two-block regression (hierarchy) and from the 2nd block, SPSS tells us that variables F,G and H are excluded. Then what after that? Is it up to us what we want to put in the block? Say if we did that two-block regression and then we found excluded variables, is that the end of the result.

thanks a lot
satchi

hi keenbean
u didnt say which fish (what color) was eaten first?
i will try to analyse your dream but need the colours :-)))
satchi

hi buttercup and sneaks
thanks for your replies
sneaks what do you mean by suppression effects, can u explain to me briefly
thanks a lot
satchi

hi loonyloo
I read your story it makes me go woooooooosh!
Its a brave (and good) decision to get another supervisor; does anyone in your department/school know how you feel about your supervisor? I guess if you dont tell anyone maybe people wont know and then your supervisor-change might be smoother.

I am also in love with my supervisor! BUt its just a silly crush. Some days ago I was so crazy, I posted it here.
Then the crush went away. Now I'm ok. I haven't seen him this week as well (because I have to work on something else).
So I'm ok. I think I still have the crush because I still think of him fondly but I know it's a silly crush and just takes me on a temporary high some days.

I'll be ok. You too.

Good luck on the change.
love satchi

hi eska! hi everyone
has anybody seen AVATAR? :-)

:-)

hi Algaequeen, hi everyone
Reading the 1st post I'm not sure if this question is general or phd-centered, assuming its general...
I guess sometimes we may never know how much to compromise for.

I for one, cannot never do something I really want to do, especially when it comes to family, there is no compromise. A crazy example, if I suddenly fell in love with another person, I could never divorce my spouse because my family (namely my parents) will not hear of it. So to keep everyone happy I must never fall in love with any one else. And then the family stays together.

then someone might say...but satchi, you are not happy....

then again it doesnt matter whether I'm happy or not. I've prorammed myself to live like this.

it sounds a bit sad. but I've become so used to it.
satchi

hi Aditya
what a nice name you have! what does it mean?
sorry to ask you a stupid question but is it a boy or a girl's name?

I don't know if your Indian MSc is recognised in Spain; but I think it does not matter now that you have already secured funding! CONGRATULATIONS!

I suppose your phd is English-based? Nevertheless it would be a good idea to learn some Spanish. Because if you get sick in Spain, say you are away from the big cities, if you go to the hospital, even the nurses and doctors do not speak English. I know this very well. Even in Madrid, if you occur a bag loss (there are professional thieves there I have already lost one back pack) , you go to the police station, policemen also don't speak English. If you go to the movies, you watch Jackie Chan, he will be speaking Spanish on the screen.

So, please do learn spanish. If you have time, learn some on the internet now before you go.

Yes indian students can live comfortably. A number of my Indian friends lived comfortably in Spain; they were always efficient, they packed their own curry powders and spices, they were always resilient to tough situations and almost ALL the indian students I know or have come to know are very nice and very bright people. Only thing is, they do tend to keep to themselves.

most importantly, learn basic spanish like directions, and hello-how are you phrases. YOu also need to learn especially colours and numbers because even at the airport, you might find people trying to short-change you. My first trip in Madrid the canteen lady didn't give me back any change for something that cost 4euro, and I had given her 10euro, and she pretended not to know. I couldn't communicate with her, so I gave up and let her keep the money.

it is very nice in Spain (maybe except the food almost everything has either beef or pork in it) and you'll find limited vegetarian foodshops, not like in UK, they are easy to find. But you will meet other indian students, make friends and you will do well there!

good luck! Viva espana!!!
satchi

thanks Melsie!
satchi

hi, I forgot to type in "square" after the adjusted r square :-)
so it was the squared value...
but thanks anyway
I will have to hit the books :-)
satchi

hi phoebes!
I hope you feel better; maybe this feeling about quitting is just temporary.

At this moment I have become confused doing my stats! Sometimes I read somethng and then I do something else; and when I look back at the stats stuff I've forgotten what I was supposed to do!!! I'm trying. And I appreciate it that I can post a question here, most likely there will be some advice coming in from good people. I'm glad.

hang in there
satchi

HI again, keenbean, rick and fellow stats gurus
if I have a high value of adjusted r (such as .94) does it make sense to say that 94% of the variance has been accounted for when variable X1 has been found to be the most significant predictor of Y?

also when there is a problem of multicolinearity, can I say about those variables:

"Variables X3 and X4 have been excluded from the model because they have multicolinearity"

thanks satchi