are you sure you were deliberately excluded? maybe this was just an accidental oversight, and you have no way of knowing if they meant to miss you off or not. and maybe you're right, maybe they felt these emails would only distract you from your phd, and they want you to focus solely on your work.

i know how you feel - i am based with my industrial sponsor, and they are constantly leaving me out of things because i'm not a *real* employee :(  after asking about 10 times i eventually got included on the departmental email distribution list, but i am constantly getting messages telling me to ignore this or that, or not go to such and such a meeting, as it is 'nothing to do with me'. i'm sure people feel like they are doing me a favour by excusing me from these things, but the little child in me just feels sulky and left out :-(

perhaps the best thing to do is just not care! i'm pretty sure it's not deliberate insensitivity, people just don't realise how you might feel about being left out, and they think they're helping you out by not involving you. if i were you, i'd try and rise above it, forget about it, and write a fab thesis to show them all how important and significant you are after all! :-)

hi, an MRes is generally around 30:70 teaching to research, so 30% of the time will be lectures/tutorials etc and then the rest a research project. in my case, my grade was based on coursework from the taught part and then the majority of the marks from my project. it was weighted in a way that meant you had to complete all the coursework to get through the course and couldn't rely entirely on your project mark to get you through. i had no exams, only coursework/essays to hand in throughout the first part of the year, followed by the project.
as for using your final year undergrad work for the masters, the best thing to do would be to speak to the head of the masters course and discuss how much scope there is for devising your own project. at my university, they gave out a list of pre-determined supervisors/projects, and you could pick one. however, one person on my course did develop her own project based on undergrad work - she had to write her own research proposal and get the backing of a supervisor for the project, so it can be done. you need to find all this out from the people who run the course, as it differs from uni to uni, and from course to course.

i agree with catalinbond - a phd doesn't have to take over your life! it is possible to treat a phd like a job, and try to stick to working hours (i currently do 9-5ish). i'm only 7 months in, so maybe i'm being slightly naive, but i honestly believe that you can have a phd AND a social life!

in terms of choosing a project/devising a research proposal, perhaps a good place to start would be to look on findaphd.com, and search for phds within your subject area. you may not find one that exactly suits, but it would be a good place to start and get an idea of the 'hot topics' that are popular at the moment, and the names of supervisors/universities that seem to be best for your subject. from there you can target your reading a little more to fine-tune your ideas. looking on pubmed.com and searching for papers (time-consuming but necessary!) will also help you to see what is current in your research area.

i personally am doing a project where the research proposal was already done by my supervisors - this may be a good route for you if you can find one that is suitable, as it does mean that you don't have to come up with the proposal yourself. obviously the downside to that is that you are working to someone else's ideas - however you might be lucky (as i was) and just happen to find a project that fits you perfectly! it is very important that the project you choose REALLY interests you, as it will get boring at some point, and you already know how that feels! so you need to be passionate about the topic to keep you going when things get tough.

the best place to start is as i've said findaphd.com, but universities also advertise on their sites too. failing that, you need to come up with a research proposal, find someone you want as your supervisor, and contact them directly to see if they are interested in taking you as a student. your old university would be a good place to start to get help, especially if there are any particular lecturers/tutors you worked with who you got along well with.

good luck ;-)

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in most cases, a taught masters last one academic year, whereas a research masters often (but not always) lasts one whole year, ie. sept-sept. in a taught course, the vast majority of the course will consist of taught lectures/practicals etc, with maybe a short project at the end which may last a couple of months. a research masters is generally a few months of taught lectures, and then a large project (in my case it was 6 months lectures followed by a 6 month project, but this may differ subject to subject). in general, a research masters is geared more towards students who wish to continue onto more research such as a phd, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are a better choice! if you are deciding between a taught and a research, i would go for the one that is most relevant to you and what you intend to do in the future rather than worry too much about what type of masters it is. generally, a masters is a masters and as long as you get a good grade it shouldn't matter to a potential supervisor/employer which type you did, as long as the skills/knowledge you acquired is relevant.

hope this helps, any more questions then just ask! :-)

i started july 08 and i haven't written anything except my literature review (handed in after 4 months) which was 8000 words. to be honest, i don't feel i have time to write anything at this stage, and i know that if i did write, about 99% of it would be useless as my ideas are changing on a daily basis. that said, i do intend to start writing in the next few months or so, otherwise i am worried i will forget how! comparing yourself to others is always a bad idea as you never seem to have done as much as everyone else (reading this thread has made me panic!) so the best way to gauge progress is definitely in terms of feedback from your sup.

coming from a science background, i know nothing about the world of creative writing, but if the work is published and then they use it again in their thesis, then this is almost certainly self-plagiarising, unless they declare that the work has been published and submit it as a published piece of work within their thesis. it seems to me they are shooting themselves in the foot a little by self-publishing before submission, as i'm sure it would be more worthwhile to get feedback from the examiners before going down the publishing route.

the best thing to do would be to discuss this with their supervisor who will know all the rules regarding self-plagiarism, and they may well advise against publishing until after submission. i definitely wouldn't recommend publishing without the supervisors knowing about it, as this could cause a lot of problems further down the line!

hi,

to be honest, i wouldn't have thought that a potential PhD supervisor would care whether you had an MRes or an MSc, providing you got a good grade and it was relevant to the PhD you want to do.

obviously the MRes has a heavier research element (in a lot of cases an MSc spans 1 academic year, ie. Sept-July, whereas an MRes often spans 1 entire year). dependent on your subject, the MRes is generally 6 months taught + a 6-month research project, whereas the MSc tends to be more taught with a small project at the end. therefore, for the student, it may be better to take the MRes as it would be better preparation for the PhD in terms of managing your own project, coming up with your own ideas, working independently etc.

having said that, there is certainly nothing wrong with doing an MSc, it would be just as valuable, and i think the main criteria for choosing which to do should definitely be which is most relevant to the research you want to do in the future.

hope this helps, and good luck!!

ps. it might be worth noting that i am slightly biased as i did an MRes instead of an MSc!!!

CONGRATULATIONS! and it's lovely to hear good things about a viva! ;-)

just write a polite email saying how you are very sorry for the inconvenience but circumstances changed beyond your control and that should be the end of the matter! if this person hasn't actually done anything for you then that it is not fair of them to demand any money from you. if they continue to respond, then ignore them! these things happen, it wasn't your fault, and now you're wasting your time dealing with this person. they will give up eventually! and if they don't, keep all the emails they send and consider referring the matter to someone else - is this volunteer a student? if they are, then you can refer the incident to someone in your dept who should be able to deal with the matter. otherwise, you have done all you can and been fair to them so be firm but fair and then IGNORE them!

hi stressed,

i know exactly how you feel, i'm at the same stage as you and constantly feel like a complete idiot who has forgotten everything they were ever taught! i can also relate to the feeling of loneliness, as i am based with an industrial partner (i'm in pharmacology) and all the other people here clearly think phd students don't count as colleagues and pretty much just ignore me :-( it doesn't help that i'm based in a dept that doesn't really have anything to do with my topic so can't really talk to anyone about it.

fortunately i have a great supervisor here who is very helpful otherwise i think i'd just stay in bed all day with the covers over my head! have been reassured by various other phds that this is a perfectly normal reaction to doing a phd though... ;-)

as an undergrad, we always used to play the 'spot the arts/languages student' game - for some reason they always looked dressed up for a night on the tiles, whilst i was stumbling around in jeans, hoodie and trainers with hair like a birds nest!! i justify it by telling myself that at least when i DO make an effort to get dressed up (on the rare occasions i go anywhere worth dressing up for!) people will really be able to tell the difference and will be amazed that yes i do own makeup and a hairbrush!! (at least i hope they'll notice....:$ !!!) having said that, i'm in the officies of my industrial partner today so look vaguely presentable....!

PhD related:

1. write more!
2. get more enthusiasm for my subject by concentrating my topic on the parts i find most interesting
3. ask for help when i need it instead of struggling
4. procrastinate less

non-PhD related:
1. complete my half marathon in april without walking/giving up
2. buy my first house!

happy new year everyone!

i took a complete two week BREAK (spot the important word in that sentence anyone?!) because i felt i needed to. i don't feel any guilt and it certainly wasn't wasted time because i enjoyed myself! i now feel refreshed and ready to get stuck back into work today.

phdbug - i know that like me you are in your first year so don't put so much pressure on yourself! your entire life doesn't have to taken up with phd stuff, you can do other things as well. well done for having such a productive xmas, now those other things are out of the way you can get back to focusing on your phd.

happy new year everyone! :-)

thanks, that's the sort of thing i was after! especially as it means my uni moves up the rankings ;-)