Hello everyone, I hope you don't mind but I'm creating my own diary thread!

I'm hoping it will give me a chance to record my progress both daily and over a period of time to track the roller coaster of emotions that is a PhD. I also want to record my daily aims, in the hope that I will stop procrastinating and actually get some work done!

About me: am female, 22, based near London, undergraduate degree in stats, and now doing a PhD in stats, and by the way billy isn't my real name!

So, for those that are interested read on, if not please ignore this thread!

xx

Hey...firstly congratulations on two offers (up)

It would be silly to deny that some sort of hierarchy does not exist in/between institutions ... however, it does not necessarily mean that the likes of oxford / cambridge are at the top of that hierarchy. Maybe have a look into the institutions recent publications lists and see if they have published recently and in what journals. Maybe see if you can find any other researchers / PhD students in your field who can advise you ... or do you have anyone at your current uni that can help advise you? (am assuming you are recent Masters / Bachelors student!)

My advice would be to go with your gut instinct ... you need to be happy with the supervisor institution you choose as three years in a long time. I think that how you collaborate with your supervisor and the research environment you work in does have an effect on the end result of your PhD and how much you enjoy it.

Ahhh...that sounds painful Olivia, I hope it gets better soon!! It was good on the other forum but never really picked up...and since they have done some nice improvements on this board I think I will stick around...was thinking of making a diary but not sure if anyone would like to read the ramblings of moi! what do you reckon? xx

Morning olivia, congrats on your second star (up) (up) am hoping to catch up soon! :-) Have deleted the other forum now...has been dead for ages and everyone seems to chat on here. I am admitting defeat! Hope your tendonitis gets better soon- have you been to the doctors?

03:53 in the morning....how can you concentrate at that time at night? I start falling asleep by 9pm no matter how late or early i get up in the morning.

Hoping that they are going to repeate the gymnastics at some point as its the only bit of the olympics that i actually like watching!

Wow...I really feel for this girl, she must be devastated and very angry that someone let her get as far as to submit her PhD and sit a viva. On the other hand...it will not reflect well on her supervisors to have a failed PhD student so they will get their comeuppance!

Hey...don't worry about it. I am first year phd student and a phd thesis ranges from 60,000-100,000 words. I skipped the masters bit and have gone straight into it from my undergrad degree. At undergrad I never did a dissertation and choose tutoring instead....the biggest essay i have ever written is 5,000 words. The problem you will have is trying to keep it down to only 16,000 words for a masters dissertation...it is a much bigger project and you will have more to say.

Don't worry about it...you wouldn't have been accepted onto the course if you couldn't handle it! Good luck and hope you enjoy it!

I have a star now...not sure if i am deserving of it, feel like a fraud now :$ though i seem to feeling like that a lot lately...

You will have to be more helpful then!

PS can i have a star for being helpful ? 8-) 8-)

Hello....

I'm a statistician but work in a eidemiology department. I have a background in stats unfortunatly and havn't done much in term of epi, what I would say is that epidemiology is more stats based than public health. I think public health tends to be more about policy and such forth, however I know the two are fairly similar and i don't think that you would have much problems with getting into the other field career wise having studied the other at masters level. Don't know if this helps at all, let me know if you i can be of further help. What courses were you looking at?

======= Date Modified 13 Aug 2008 16:19:41 =======
Have only just notices all the changes today....when did they come in effect? Am a bit behind everyone else today, it's cos its a wednesday!!

ETA: Is there gonna be a section for diary's etc? Or are the forum layouts staying as they are?