I quite agree, some of my closest friends I met on a baby board when we were all pregnant 7 years ago - some of us are fairly close geograhically and still meet up, go for coffee etc, others are spread over the country but we try and arrange a meet once a year or so, I think I've met in person all but one of them now and she lives in SA so that bit trickier lol! I'm down in East Anglia so don't know if anyone here is close? I think the great things about dedicated boards like this is that by far the vast majority are genuine unlike some forums and you can make friends with people.

Hi, its difficult to say but depending on your extenuating circumstances its a possibility. Do you have a masters? Often the result of a masters (if its good) will over-ride your first degree. I wouldn't necessarily go for a less reputable uni, it won't help you long term, the advice here is always to go for the best supervisor in your field. Email them, speak to them, explain things and ask if they would be interested in supervising your proposed study.
Sorry I can't be more help but I'm pretty certain that there are people here who've had a 2:2 and gone on to get onto a PhD programme with excellent results.

Ouch!!! I always have the same problem- I write far too much and have to chop massive amounts out BUT it always makes it better :-) I think my best one was when I wrote 10K words for a 3k word BA essay - that hurt! I still haven't sussed the whole 'writing to wordcount' thing, I write and then go through and take out anything that detracts from the over-riding theme, repeats anything, generally fluffs things out a bit to take it back to the core.

On the lenience question I'm not sure of the rules in your uni but at mine they have a 10% ruling - 10% either way is fine and main arugments mustn't be in the appendices (although I tend to chuck a few in). I think if I remember rightly that my MA thesis had to be 10-12k words and I submitted close to 13.5k in the end. One thing my sup said to me is that they can tell if its over through the sheer size of it and page numbers but if all those words are necessary and are interesting then they don't notice as much. It really is a skill that you have to master in the end as when you come to submit to journals and things then they are far far stricter.

I'm hoping to meet up with Bug too when I go up to London to carry out some research :-) I haven't met anyone else on here (that I know of lol) but would love to. I don't get the impression that anyone else is on my campus which is a shame, it would be great to meet people and not feel so darned isolated - just me and my abominably behaving computer (which would go on a flying trip out of the window if I could afford a new one!)

Glad you're feeling a bit better now. For the record I agree that you should go with it - sounds a very frustrating situation but don't shoot yourself in the foot and turn down a publication.

I personally thing that marxist theory is one of the classics. Maybe its not as cutting edge as the latest catwalk designs but I think its something that simply never goes away :-) I've always loved Marx since the first year of Sociology A level lol - fantastic to read, can't say I agree with him lol, always comes across as a bit on the paranoid side to me but cracking all the same :-)

Lol lol lol, oh dear, no never apologise - indeed, the ruling goes that he who smelt it dealt it, and he who denied it supplied it!!!!! :p And yes, the silent but deadly ones are the worst - you poor thing, must have been horribly embarrassing. Don't worry, the woman probably thought the man had done it - they are the worst for that kind of thing ;-)

I don't think its so much not being able to come up with a business idea during a PhD, that could happen, its more that that's not normally 'why' you'd do one. Chuff is quite right that for most of us it wasn't so much wanting to do one as not being able to imagine not having done one - not having done that research if that makes sense. When I was planning it I was so caught up in the research that when I thought for a few days that it wasn't going to happen I was in something approaching mourning! The idea that I'd never know, never have done that research and that worse still someone else might end up doing it - utterly gutting. Its a really hard road, extremely hard work and that something inside you needs to be there - the passion for it - cos when the going gets tough that's all that keeps you going! Most of us hit really rough bits, we all have times where we just don't want to be here anymore, the thought of opening the darned laptop or reading another book on that god awful subject is more than we can bear but I think having had that drive and passion deep down somehow pushes you through lol. Financially it is a nightmare - funding is sparce (check out some of the funding threads for examples of how tough it is to get it - these are top people - the unis will only put through the very best for funding and still they are turned away). I got a scholarship that paid my fees and around £6K a year.... the research councils pay more like £12K but you aren't allowed to work to supplement that beyond 6-10 hours a week - its tough financially, really tough - another example of why you should really only do this if you're 100% certain that you can't live without doing it ;-)

Having said all that, if you think its right for you then go for it! It would be good in terms of making you an expert in an area of your field and it may well lead on to bigger and better things for you but make sure you know why you're doing it before you sign away the next 3-4 years of your life :-)

I wouldn't have thought that an MBA or a PhD would give you a business idea as such and don't kid yourself you'd have time to ponder those things while doing it - its hard work, far harder work than I've ever done out in the big wide world :-) You get so focussed in on your research that you have little time for anything else. Having said that, its a great thing to do, but maybe not for the reasons you want to do it. I wouldn't say your age is an issue - I'm 40 now and have another year to go minimum so will be 41/42 when I finish. I think you need to really consider your reasons for this and what you want out of it in the end. It won't necessarily give you any business ideas but would give you time to focus on something that you're interested in.

======= Date Modified 13 Aug 2010 17:24:31 =======
All depts and all universities are different - in my uni some depts allow first years to teach, mine doesn't. Teaching at the uni isn't obligatory and isn't linked in any way to funding - its simply a 'job' that you can apply for. You'd need to speak to your prospective dept to find out their rules and regs in this. As for timetables - well, with PhD its not anywhere near as structured as with a taught course - again it differs, from what I can gather those who need to use labs have more of their hours determined for them, whereas on other types of PhDs its a case of work when you want, just make sure you work enough to get it done. The first year is always a bit strange - quite disjointed and confusing as you get yourself into a working pattern that's ideal for you and you won't find anywhere near the guidance that you've had before regarding hours/workload etc.

I study f/t and also work p/t 10 hours a week - that's the maximum I'm allowed to do with my scholarship - again different sups view things differently if you aren't funded - mine frowns on full timers working any more than 10 hours funded or not, others allow it... I'd say 2 days you could possibly manage, 3 days would be pushing it - you just wouldn't have any time to yourself and may well burn out fast. Don't underestimate the hours you'll need to put in at times - mine vary, some days (especially approaching submission dates for my board papers) I'll work 10-18 hours a day, 7 days a week, at other times I'll work only a few times a week (I'm very deadline driven - massive failing on my part). Either way you'll need to effectively put in 4-5 days a week study to get through this in time. Gone are the good old days (or bad old days depending on your viewpoint) where there were limitless extensions and friends of mine took 7 years f/t to complete! Now its normally 3 years minimum to submission with the option of the 4th, completion year, I have an end date that I have to meet unless something serious goes on but extensions are a nightmare to obtain as the unis are so strictly monitored on it now and want all their full timers to be done on time. Having said that doing it p/t you're looking at spending the next 6 years on this - that to me would be a nightmare - no end in sight - but then you can work that around other committments - i just wouldn't want to have it hanging over me that long and want to get out there and do something sooner rather than later :-)

I'm not sure what funding is available for p/t study, its also a bad time for it, the funding is normally arranged in the spring but it might be worth your while searching for funding opportunities and finding out if any is available. Hopefully some of the p/t study people will be along in a bit and will be able to give you some better advice

I think many people have been in similar situations, at the moment I hate every minute of my PhD, I can't think why I even began it right now or what I want to do with my life. I've also suffered with depression on and off my whole life and the last year has been pretty bad (I'm also end of 2nd year). The thing that keeps me going is a kind of determination not to quit, that I want to see something through to the end and if I've put so many years into this hell then I'm damned well going to get something out of it at the end. Is it worth it? I don't know for myself and certainly not for you, only you can answer that Coop - nobody can tell you what to do or even really advise you that much. Is it worth carrying on for less time now than you've done already, get the doctorate and move on, or is it better for you to shelve what you've done, see if you can get a masters out of it and then start the next stage sooner.
You don't say how old you are, maybe I'm so bloody minded as I'm already in my 40s and have let a lot of things go - I don't want to do that again - there is nothing worse for me personally than 'what ifs'.
I'm sorry not to be more help, just to say that a lot of people feel very similar at various points in their PhDs, its a hard road and you have to be bloody minded to get through it. Having said that, if you do manage it then noone can take it from you, you've achieved something against the odds and its not just the academic side but also the emotional and mental battle that a PhD entails - its not an easy road, if it was then it would be worthless :-)

I'm exactly the same! I managed to do a bit today but I'm finding it incredibly hard to do anything constructive for some reason at the moment. It makes me feel terrible, raises my stress levels further which acts as a vicious circle because then I'm too uptight to sit and do anything. I've written maybe 500 words today :-( That's the first 500 words this month - HELP!!!!!

I've seen on here people suggesting that when you're stuck in this rut that you do something very quick and simple, just something small to get the ball rolling - I keep promising myself I'll do that but having a deadline just a few days away for a paper for publication (see above.....) is meaning that I can't do that, its all or nothing.... and its ending up as nothing :-( I've got to face my sup at work tomorrow and I know that he'll ask how its going - dammit! Why can't I just knuckle down and get on with it???

I think we need to face the truth purplecat that they don't let you pass your viva unless you have a few screws missing ;-) We're hopefully joining an elite group of slightly deranged and unstable peers lol lol lol lol, I'm already half way there!

We all waste many happy hours here :-) Its what we do lol! Welcome to the madhouse!

I've actually been told that its quite a good idea to present the work as then you officially 'own' that work and anyone trying to steal it will get caught out rather fast, particularly if the work is then published. Its possibly slightly different in my field, once I've published some data I have there is no way anyone can touch it without it standing out like a sore thumb - but I have been advised to adopt the tell nobody and if you tell them you have to kill them approach with work in progress, especially as my findings are rather worryingly radical and threaten to create holy hell when published *gulp* My sup is trying to get the worst of it published this autumn so that its out there and can't be replicated which would be handy in some respects and terrifying in others!