lol jojo... well at least you're getting around the problem. just hope your supervisor doesn't come along next meeting and says "now where is that theoretical chapter..?"

phil, i guess that's true for england, but not everywhere! in germany age is a very strict qualifier, in switzerland sometimes more, sometimes less so. apparently age can be important in italy. i don't know for other countries.

to answer the original question, i would say Britain is where you need to look. over here, what you describe for Pisa, would be called ageism. it won't be easy to find funding, though. not because of age but because of residency criteria, as phil pointed out.

hey micloi,
at the end it is you who must decide. if i were you i'd think about:
- how much do you want a (any) PhD? is it an option at all to quit without having a PhD?
- how much do you want "this specific PhD" that you are working on now?
- how much are these new options what you really want? are they projects which really interest you, or are they just a seeminlgy convenient path to get "any old" PhD?
- what importance does that job have for you? is it really just a good way to earn money enabling you to do your PhD, or is it, at the end of the day, something you're really interested in and would like to pursue?

niamhhavok, welcome to the forum!
with me i guess it is a bit different - i come from a research oriented background and a university where self-directed learning was about the only kind of learning existant. so i never doubted i could handle the PhD situation, but i was very curious on what having a supervisor actually means. i think one other reason my sup remains vague is that she doesn't want to impose anything on me. i really believe she realized much more than i did that i was not so sure about my actual research questions and thus maybe consciously didn't push me in one or other direction but rather gave me the time to figure it out by myself. so that in the end it is really MY project. or maybe i am projecting to much of my wishes into her right now

thanks for your comments, everyone.
in my case, i don't think my supervisor is vague because she feels unqualified, but rather because she hasn't read what i sent her carefully. rarely, she does read it, and then i do get precise comments. just so i remain on my heels and don't start thinking i can give her uncarefully written stuff
as to the "results": i guess that is subject-specific. i'm in the social sciences and in my first year. over here they basically expect us to do nothing but read and plan our fieldwork in the first year, perhaps hone our methods knowledge in courses. so in my case it's the other way round - it's me who wants to get "results" (that would help me feel i'm actually doing something) but the dept./supervisor want me to take my time.

heyyy the date on my computer tells me it is now Monday the 30th April. as far as I remember yesterday it was only the 28th??? did I sleep THAT long?
Please someone tell me it is only the 29th today. I have a deadline on the 30th...

hmmm in some places the 'you' referred to could easily be the PhD thesis. in others, less so. i honestly don't usually miss my PhD...

but i think yes, it could be adapted. i especially like the bit about every body going out for summer picnics.

ha!

yeah, cause other people work on saturday as well

hi,
i believe age doesn't matter that much. at least in england.

re funding, i am an EU student as well and i found that it is very hard to get funding in the UK, as they will only pay for people who have been resident for three years. you can get fees, that's it. and that tends to be very competitive, too...

so you should be looking for funding mostly in your home country. if age is a problem there, i don't know. it is in Germany, but in Switzerland for example 28 is not old to start a PhD.

other things to consider are the location, and if you go on the one year course you will be spending a lot of time in that year planning your future, writing applications etc. instead of focusing on your work. on the other hand you'd have some extra time to decide on what exactly you want to spend the next 3-4 years, you'd still have more flexibility.

no, i post here too. and, first post ever (on this thread), i'm already winning!

hey there,
i know, the ESRC are terrible in that way - and the written documentation is completely non-understandable, so i couldn't say "well you should have thought about that before doing the specialist masters" cause how should you have known?
sorry to hear about your troubles.
just one thought though: if they won't fund 4 years, but will fund 3, can't you go for a 1+3 thing and fund the final year by yourself? i know it's not ideal (especially since it might well turn into two final years) but it might be a way out of the catch22. some funding opportunities from other places are available for final year(s) funding.

cont.
I have found that although my sup is rarely very specific about anything, her advice, which usually comes a bit clouded ("That xy is a very good book" means I should probably read it - why can't she just say "I think you should read that xy book"?), is usually sound. But because I was often expecting much more specific advice, and then being dissappointed, I didn't 'hear' that kind of more subtle stuff.
I have the feeling that although she doesn't often really read what I write for her, our relationship could settle into a quite useful form of getting some general advice, and mostly, new thoughts and inputs, out of our meetings. But the work, at the end of the day, needs to be done by me - and that's the way it should be, no?

This is just 'thinking aloud'. I'm curious if anybody has any thoughts on this?

Hi all,
I've been hanging around here recently, posting in reply to some posts, but this is my first 'own' topic. I think it's a great forum, thanks to everyone contributing!

I just had a meeting with my supervisor. I had sent her some important stuff beforehand (funding application material, first year examination paper). She said it was good but she had not read it closely. When I pointed out some specific problems I was having with the stuff, she did give some useful, but obviously quite unspecific advice.

Somehow, after reading on PGF, I was not expecting anything else, so I was not overly dissappointed. Now I have been wondering about the relationship of PhD students to supervisors in general.
Is that maybe exactly what it is supposed to be like? As long as you're on track, supervisors just let you do your thing, and only help (if at all) when they feel or you say that things are going wrong?

third, i think everybody thinks their thesis is weak. because you have spent such a lot of time on it... BUT you know your work better than anybody, including the famous person, will by just reading it. because you wrote it. YOU are the real expert on the topic.

fourth, that famous person will not be examining his/her first thesis. they will know what a PhD is supposed to be (a reasonable piece of work) and what is NOT expected (a world-changing piece of genius). so relax!
i know it's easier said than done. perhaps the nice weather on the weekend will help?