======= Date Modified 30 Jul 2009 16:01:01 =======
======= Date Modified 30 Jul 2009 16:00:23 =======
Hi Stargazer,

I know a former PhD student at my university who is now a Dr., but throughout all his 5-6 PhD years he's been married and had little kids. His wife was also a PhD student in another field and they both became Dr's in the same year.

2 other female professors I know have had their babies in their late 30's-40's.

Good luck in whatever you decide! :-)

Hi, Pineapple! Thank you for sharing your feelings! I can relate to you fully. I'm at the end of my 3rd year and have always been questioning whether I really do belong to PhD circle. During the first 2 years I couldn't get involved into studies very much due to some unpredicted privated issues and this made me feel even more detached. Last semester was first teaching experience and only this semester started doing my own work. I've been invited to a number of Phd parties with my colleagues and still up today I don't feel fully at ease there. But only lately, I've started to realize that it makes one even more isolated. I try to perceive my PhD colleagues just as usual human beings as myself and try to be more relaxed. I think the important thing is to be aware that this psychological aspect is a part of your way to PhD. As long as you recognize it, it may become easier to deal with it.

Hey, guys! How are you doing now? I'm in your club, too. Had my first internal seminar presentation about 2 weeks ago and ever since have been totally distracted wanting nothing to do regardless of all the deadlines coming up within the next 2-3 months. Only today forced myself to work 3-4 hours, so strange, never had such a burnout before. Hopefully tomorrow will manage more. Wish you good luck!

Same here. No time for my supervisor to read my works, no time give feedback. But my situation is a bit different, he is in another university in another country. Is there anything like "office hours" your supervisor provides for students? Maybe you could try to make an appointment with him and, if he doesn't have time for reading your paper, just explain and show him the main points when you meet him in person...

Thank you, guys, for your replies! I did have a second supervisor but she took a maternity leave a few weeks ago. Well, will just try to grab my main supervisor once again.

One more question. So, before presenting any paper at a conference, are we supposed to receive a feedback from our supervisors first? Or should we be more independent on taking such initiatives because they are so busy all the time?

Dear All,

Thank you so much for your quick replies! Wow, I've been kind of too uninformed and naive as well about so many things you wrote here. Well, the reason I considered this was in a hope to get a feedback, but I guess it's not really how it works. My supervisor has been totally out of touch lately. He has moved to another university in another part of Europe and due to the rules at my university he is entitled to be my supervisor for a limited amount of time, since he is not here anymore. I kept emailing him the outline, rough drafts of my papers during the last 4 months and no reply yet, except for short messages promising to get back when he is free and then disappearing again.

Jewel, thank you for the insight. I'm in social sciences but I will check the website you gave and maybe look for similar services in social sciences, too.

What do you guys mean with "public domain"?

Hello everyone,

I'm relatively new to PhD life, thought I would seek advise here first. I want to share a rough draft of my paper with a Professor from another university whom I met at a conference. He said I could send him my work and he would take a look at it. I want to send the paper to him and also share some other ideas on methodology, which he is an expert in. My question to experienced PhD students - is it safe to share everything you are in the process of doing with other researchers? Will they not "steal" your ideas? Or am I being too paranoic and hillarious?:$ Your hints would be very much appreciated.

Hi, Keep_Calm! (like your nick:-)

Thank you so much for chiming in and giving an encouraging reply! Sorry I didn't answer right away, had to prepare for the presentation. But I did read your post and it gave a good push. Especially when you said "the experience is always worthwhile, even if you only come out of it knowing what you did wrong!"

It was just an internal weekly Seminar between my PhD colleagues and Professors. The presentation went not bad, wasn't perfect with nice critique and comments, but, no, they didn't eat me8-) Now I know more or less which details one needs to pay attention to in presentations. Some things that seem not very essential and minor to yourself might need clarity and more scrutiny from others point of view and it's good.

======= Date Modified 05 16 2009 21:16:19 =======
Dear all,

First presentation of my paper is coming up in a couple of days and I'm freaking out. I have spent all my energy to writing the paper during the last 2-3 weeks and getting the results. Eventually, got so tired and missed 2-3 days doing nothing although planned to prepare for the presentation. Now I have 2 days left and am thinking to cancel my presentation. I'm freaking out that my Professors and PhD colleagues will tear it off to pieces and that they might find my paper non-sense or something way off. Anyway, just feel not very good about it... I can, of course, manage to stack all I have in Power Point slides and rehearse a bit and just present. But, is it enough? May be I should have prepared longer? How long did you, guys, prepare after having written your paper (I mean, just Power Point and organizing your thoughts stuff)? Thanks in advance for your replies.

======= Date Modified 22 06 2009 11:06:01 =======
========== This thread had been moved ==========
============= Edited by a Moderator =============
======= Date Modified 20 55 2009 23:55:10 =======
======= Date Modified 20 53 2009 20:53:44 =======