personally, i like the second one better

this is off topic, but I'm curious: what are all you lot who are graduating soon going to do afterwards? I mean in relation to this forum. Is there some sort of post-doc forum out there or are you just going to keep on hanging out on here, or how are you going to cope with not having this convenient place for support (and for wasting time) available anymore?

A concrete positive experience: We had a farewell-drinks thing happening for one staff person who was leaving. The centre director, who is on sabbatical and thus rarely to be seen, turns up with an unknown guest. By chance I get to talk to that guest and it turns out he's a real important person in my field who I had been hoping to get a chance to meet for a long time. We had a great conversation, extremely helpful for my research, and when the guest left again he commented to the centre director, who hardly knows me cause he's on sabb, that he has a PhD student there who is working on a really interesting project. So, what started out as a simple social event unexpectedly turned out into a useful networking evening with lots of relevant info on my topic too. I felt boosted for weeks after that.

I'm really loving my PhD experience, too. It is SO GOOD to finally be among people (my supervisor, my fellow students, departmental staff) who work on similar things, think along the same kind of lines... where nearly every single conversation I have proves interesting and worthwile for my own research... to be able to immerse myself completely in my topic and think about nothing else for weeks on time...
Sure, there are some downsides. But it is definitely a tendency for people to just relay their bad experiences and keep silent on the positive ones.

Hi there,
Basically, I think you can accept funding from anywhere, AS LONG AS YOU REMAIN INDEPENDENT. So, if you accept funding from a specific interest group, you will have to demonstrate that they are not and will not be influencing your work and that you can write up any results even if they are not what your funding body wanted/expected.
Perhaps you can find more information on this question in your university's ethics guidelines.

great thread - I think everyone has such cool projects. Don't we maybe sometimes create some of our loneliness ourself by not talking to others about our research? (thinking it isn't interesting to anyone else and no one cares and it really isn't good enough for anyone else to see etc...)

I'm studying what 'happens' in reproductive medicine, specifically IVF, whereby I understand reproductive medicine to be an assemblage of medical, cultural and social practices. I am looking for negotiations of meanings of for example kinship, gender, genealogy, and nature/biology (but I would be glad to be surprised). I will try to analyze what 'happens' in relation to its cultural and historical situatedness (the case I am studying is Switzerland).
I am six months in and am currently working on a literature review.

I agree it's going mad... but myself I am actually quite glad for the respite it provides to my hayfever, which started extremely early this year...

@ 404...
As I only just started my PhD, I'm yet far from the writing up process... but I will certainly use "I" (unless my supervisor explicitly advises me against it even after I've explained my reasons). I personally think explaining this use of language should not be necessary but I'm not sure about this and will seek advice when I start writing.

personally I use "I" and I do it for specific reasons. I believe the avoidance of referring to oneself is a discursive tactic that helps a text appear objectiv and academic. But since I do not subscribe to the conceptions of objectivity that underlies this tactic I have no need to use it - I rather believe in the situatedness and context-specificity of knowledge and thus it would be a grave mistake to make dissapear the author - myself - by not referring to me and other discursive tactics that serve to place the author/observer outside of/far distant to the object he/she is observing/writing about.

Get a faculty position at a minor university somewhere in a chinese back-country city...

I'm six months in but you'd have to give some more info to make meaningful answers possible...
I suppose it depends a lot on your field (sciences/social sciences/humanities) and on your living situation (are you changing university or even country or are you staying put) and on your funding situation. And then it depends if you have already a well developed research question (perhaps from your masters thesis) or if you are still going to be finding one in those first 6 months...

@404
as I understand, our thesis must be between 75'000 and 100'000 words. Don't know how flexible this is though.

I'm not there myself yet but here is what I understand it is like at my university: There is a time limit which is normally 24 months but can usually be extended a little up to 27 months or so. You can easily go earlier if you're ready. Apart from that time doesn't matter but rather we have to submit three chapters of our thesis which must be quite well developed ("of sufficient standard") as well as an overview and outline of all other chapters. These three chapters would normally be the introduction, the lit review and at least one "substantial" chapter using empirical results.
So, to answer your question, here it is not about time (though there is a limit) but rather about progress. You can upgrade as soon as you've reached that stage (although I'm not sure if you can submit your upgrade material at any time or only at specific deadlines).

hey sarenka,
well, if you left at age 26, you're not a child of an expat, but perhaps an expat yourself, which would be even better! i think you'd have to show that your absence from england was always intended to be temporary. then you would qualify for the full scholarship.

about the fee status, a word of caution. my dept. thinks I qualify for EU 'fees only award' at ESRC BECAUSE my uni classified me as home/EU for fee matters (which happened chronologically earlier). BUT I originally had a real fight for my uni to accept me as home/EU fee status. I had to ask them a thousand times to read their own regulations and guidelines, but they kind of thought they knew better... It might take some determination to get through. Just don't get dismayed if you get negative responses at first and insist that the regulations say otherwise.

wow sarenka, I thought I was the only one! My department also thinks I should be EU (eligible for fees only, but at least that) whereas the criteria clearly state this is only for EU citizens "other than British". I am trying to argue towards the ESRC that I am the child of an expatriate, therefore getting an exemption from the residency requirement, but am not getting any response. We'll see what happens.

My supervisor told me that the ESRC are sometimes stumped by their own overly complicated regulations and tend to decide on the basis of general impression (as long as there is a proper paper trail) rather than sticking to the rules. So there is hope for us

And, something else - a friend here was classed as EU by the department, last year - but then the ESRC "upgraded" her to full eligibility. So sometimes it doesn't matter too much what the department thinks. Another reason to hope...