that's good news indeed!

hi sneeky,
you could look at CBAS (centre for the study of biomedicine and society, king's college, london) and BIOS (centre for the study of biotechnology, bioscience, biomedicine and society, LSE, london). both offer MSc-s that usually take in people with science/medical/engineering backgrounds and from where people usually go on to either social science PhD's or policy, consulting, or similar jobs.
or, there is the option of a "diploma". that is a one year "conversion" course; it presupposes a degree in a non-related discipline, so it assumes that you already know "how to study and think", but don't know the discipline-specific stuff. after achieving the diploma you can get accepted to MSc courses.
about going to continental europe: which languages do you speak?

i found that i couldn't get a student account, even though i am a student and i am a british citizen - because i didn't live in the UK for the past x years. so i was classed as overseas student, and they don't get student accounts.
however, NatWest gave me a "Step" account without any trouble at all - i must say though that i went to my uni's local branch, where there are a lot of international students.
"Step" is a current account and comes with a Solo Card - that's a debit card but not as good as Maestro, less places you can use it at. It also automatically came with a savings account "1st reserve". Online banking is very limited. No fees.
Meanwhile I've changed my savings account to a "e-saving" which gives you more interest. Again, no difficulties.

(madgrin)

3. and this is the best:
endnote connects with word. when i write, in word, and i want to cite something, i use a few clicks or keyboard shortcuts to get it in, from endnote, even if i don't remember the exact date and bibliographical info. (I could also just write (Bourdieu 1971). that would take me about the same time. but then i wouldn't get a) b) and c) below...)
then:
a) when i finish writing the paper, the bibliography is automatically also finished. i never have to write a bibliography. never ever. it is always just there, waiting, at the end of whatever i'm writing.
b) so i wrote it all in harvard style. so my supervisor (or publisher or whoever) wants it in footnote style. so what? three clicks and it is done. changed. all there in the new style, the whole paper.
c) and i never have to worry about "getting it right". endnote puts it right. (mostly. but that's another topic).

2a. you can use endnote to search through electronic databases, such as library catalogues, isi web of science and the like. so instead of going online, finding an item, and copying it out, you just start endnote, use the endnote connection and search through the databases with the always same, familiar interface. whatever you've found and like, you just "save" locally - no need to type that reference, not even once.
2b. or you can go to the library catalogue or web of science or whatever you prefer to use to look for literature, find a lot of interesting things, "export" them to endnote format, and then import them to your endnote library. also saves you the time of typing up that bibliography - it's all there digitally already.

personally, i don't find this second function extremely useful, as i tend to collect referencing data as i go along, as i read - i rarely do big searches wanting all results in my computer.

1. it is a database. that is, your literature all goes in (by hand or automatically, see 2nd) and the program helps you keep track of it all. it's very straight forward: you've got fields for author, for year, for publisher, etc. including fields for your own notes, abstracts, links to the PDF and you can customize, that is, you can invent your own fields - anything that is useful to you. the standard fields vary by publication type, so first of all you say if it is a journal article or book or what, and then you will get slightly different fields. so you have this database - you can run searches through it, easily find all items by the same author or that include the same keyword etc. i find that useful, i keep all my summaries of papers in endnote, and i can always bring up the exact title of that book or look up the year of publication of that article very quickly, or put together a reading list on a specific topic for a friend with a few clicks.

jayney, you say referencing is such a pain. well that's exactly what endnote is about - relieving that pain! i've been using it since version 4, i think for about 8 years now, and i'm still sorry i didn't start using it earlier. i recommend it to anyone who is starting out studying (undergrad or postgrad, doesn't matter).
there are three main things that endnote does.

part of my "data" consists of published research papers by medical scientists/doctors. i'm doing discourse analysis on them.

it has made me aware of quite some nuances in writing... and my own writing has become harder!

ah jouri, it seems to me that you've pretty much self-analysed your situation! that probably sums it all up.

how about taking a positive slant on the loss of control? no control also means no responsibility. from now on, you can think: all the important work is done, you've done your best, you've created your PhD. now it is out of your hands, you can sit back and relax and just do a 9-5 job of making all those little corrections and stuff.
you can't REALLY change your work anymore. so whatever you do now, it doesn't really matter! doesn't that take some of the pressure off your current work?

ah, i'm sure it isn't. you know, maybe it isn't brilliant, maybe in fact it isn't even exceptionally good... but if it were rubbish, i'm sure someone would have let you know before now!

i can understand the depressive feeling though. cause, actually, from writing the last sentence to submitting, there is probably still quite a lot of work to do. little bits of correcting imprecisions, odd holes to be stuffed, references to be fixed, tables to be titled... it never stops. even though you're "finished". but hey, you got this far. you're going to get that last hurdle behind you too! the rest is just "work". like any work... boring, unimaginative, uncreative... the little technical stuff... but isn't that a nice change once in a while!

oh dear. i've had a similar situation, where i got to see my supervisor about a funding application at lunch on the day it was due. spent the rest of the day madly making adjustments, but it ended up as rubbish. for important stuff, i do hate leaving it to the last moment, too!

hope it works out for you, joyce. fingers crossed!

jouri, does that mean you have submitted???

well done!!!!!! congratulations! why do you have to wait months... is your viva so far away?

or use endnote - does it all automatically...

Smilodon, I just did my last revision class today, did 8 of them recently, on about 14 different topics. I found prep time actually to be quite minimal. The key strategy was: It's them who have to learn the stuff, not me. Make them come to the revision session "having already started revision". Then what I did was: Give them 2-3 questions similar to possible exam questions. Have them choose one. Have them devise an answer plan within 15 minutes. Then have them discuss their plan with their neighbour. Then have the pairs present their combined/revised plan to the class. Have other students comment on it. And times up.
I hope you can find a similarly effortless way to conduct your revision classes!
I did variations on the theme by having them devise a "possible conclusion" or "possible introduction" instead of an answer plan.