Oh my goodness - the woman is utterly deranged!!!!! (sprout) I take it she didn't say why she couldn't possibly leave the email until the next day? Surely that is her decision - I have emails from people and from companies that come at all times of the night and day - strangely enough (being slightly saner although that is debateable at times) I can force myself to sometimes *whispers* not even open them at the time! So she is seriously suggesting that you write your email, save it as a draft, then write a post it note (always a good excuse to get a funky new post it note pad specially for the woman) and then attach said note to your computer to send the email, but only in working hours, and only if the moon is in direct alignment with jupiter, but mars but under no account be in the same area of the sky as venus!

Here kb - have a mincepie (mince), hang on, I think you need more... (gift), you deserve and need it!!!

Oh, really sorry to hear the rejections, gutting for you :-( its just the worst email (or snail mail in my case) to get! SocDave I hope the job works out for you, I know its a massive cliche and of little help at this point but I'm a firm believer in things working out for the best xx Have you checked with your respective depts whether there might be any form of funding available - I was funded for the MA but rejected on the PhD despite being top ranked (which is possibly more gutting than finding that they just don't like your proposal!) but when I told the dept (in floods of tears - it was a bad day) within a few hours they'd held an emergency meeting with the HoD, my sup, the grad dir and I'd been offered a second scholarship (I'd been offered one that would pay my fees prior to the results coming back from the research council) that didn't bring in anything like the maintainence grant a fully funded position would, but meant that I could carry on and survive (kind of). There are sometimes funds floating about that can be allocated to students so it might be worth touching base and asking - hey, nothing to lose, don't ask, don't get!

On the other hand huge congrats Mixilgt - well done you :-) That's great news, I do hope that some of the others will also get similarly good news in the next day or so :-)

Ahhh, so she has no excuse about her phone beeping and waking her then.... just that she's stroppy :p crazy behaviour!

I can see no issues whatsoever with asking for whatever help you need for the viva. It is extremely stressful at the best of times and dyslexia and other problems are no different to any 'visible' disability. I have mild dyslexia but I do have a condition that can affect my memory, particularly under stress, and my sups know about this and whilst I don't want anything special I hope that when my time comes if I falter it will be taken into account. Its not that you don't know your stuff, its not that you're a sloppy worker or lazy with your typing, its a condition where things are wired slightly differently. My son is quite severly dyspraxic and refuses to acknowledge it although he had the diagnosis at 7 years old. The amount of arguments I have had with teachers is nobody's business - from them moaning about his handwriting and neatness (bit difficult when your fine motor skills are affected) to not putting full effort into PE (again, gross motor skills - it took til he was 9 til he could catch a ball for heaven's sake!) On the basis of the problems I've had with him I think you need to not crumble under a label, but ensure that the playing field is level - it doesn't affect your work, your skill, your ability to be a darned good researcher, but it does affect the time it takes to do things and things like typos (you should see my sup's typing! - he's dyslexic) Its not sloppy, its not that you're rubbish at presentation, and you shouldn't be penalised in any way for it!

*back off soapbox*

I don't know, I tend to feel terribly insecure and like a complete numbskull half the time.... call it imposter syndrome I guess ;-) I'm sometimes feel like I'm waiting for them to realise that they gave me someone else's results and that actually I got a fail at BA, shouldn't have got the MA at all and that they'll laugh me off the PhD lol. My sup always tells me that confidence is my biggest problem and that I lack it - but I don't, I'm just rubbish :p

Oh, and pm'd you back Bug x

Lol, there are people who are positively nauseating in their perfection - have it all, looks, body, brains.... blah (sprout) But its quite right, I'm sure she looks at herself in the mirror and sees a million things that no-one else sees, I'm sure she too has sleepless nights, bad hair days etc and just made herself look wonderful on that day. No matter how gorgeous and how gifted she'll be as racked with insecurties as the rest of us ;-) And yes, I think its possible to have a crush lol, but remember, she's not you and maybe she looked at you and thought bloody hell, 3 stars???? (then went away and sobbed quietly into her pillow wondering how she would ever achieve such astounding feats of amazingness)

Oh dear.... she is a one isn't she..... !!!! Of course you've done nothing wrong - if its that bad why is she checking her emails at that time? I send emails at my convenience (sometimes in the early hours) I don't expect a response immediately - if it was that urgent then I'd ring.... but then there are few things in life that need a response like NOW late at night. Just ignore her or yes, use the disclaimer, might come in useful ;-) Either way this is her problem not yours, maybe she'd had a bad day or was just in another of the moods she seems to get into sometimes from your posts lol. Either that or write emails, save them as drafts and send them out enmasse at 7am - makes you look uber keenbean ;-)

Oh Delta, I do feel for you, it must be very hard to work like that.... its a shame when people are great, ermm, people, but rubbish supervisors. I have friends who have the same problem, their supervision team are the life and soul of the party, loved by students and staff, but omg..... You most certainly aren't alone though which is the bigger shame of it, when people are prepared to work this hard for this long and put their blood sweat and tears (quite literally) into their study they deserve good supervision. Having said that, with the way things are for you when you pass then it is all down to you, to your skill, to your knowledge and hard work and nobody can ever take that from you.

Wow, I'd say for 8 months in you're going great guns, you're in a different area to me but have done a fair bit more than I had I think by that stage - your lit review is HUGE! I didn't have any kind of methodology written up until around 10 months in from what I remember so you're going well :-) No worries there I wouldn't have thought ;-) And lol at the hardened veterans, we wouldn't laugh at you so much as look back and say awwwwww... remember when we still loved it :p I'm about to start my 3rd year and I wouldn't say so much hardened as neurotic, jumpy, vaguely depressed and demotivated mess lol lol lol. Keep up like that and you'll steam through it :-)

Yay, great idea! My supervisor is fantastic, I really can't rate him highly enough! He is so supportive, so encouraging, ok, so I drive him nuts at times and he can be very firm with me, but he seems to have the right balance of pushing me and encouraging me to get through this. I've been lucky in that he's been my supervisor right through from BA so I've worked with him a long time and he knows me and how I work better than I know myself! We had an assessment of the dept a few months back and a few PhD students were asked to go to the meeting to discuss doctoral supervision and three of us were his students. It sounded like the Prof X appreciation society in there at times. Only one student that i know has moaned about him but that particular student I think didn't appreciate any form of criticism which didn't help. The rest of us absolutley adore him and I really can't think of a better example of a supervisor - if there was a text book supervisor it would be him! yeh, I moan about him at times, get annoyed with him lol, but I know that what he says and what he does is for my own benefit and his sole aim is to get his students to be the best that they possibly can be and he goes the extra mile to help us. He returns work within days, he replies to emails same day (and will apologise if he hasn't), and so far (touch wood) every one of his students have got through BA, MA and PhD with flying colours. He's a firm but fair marker, can be a bit of a nightmare with that but he doesn't believe in not saying it how it is, but the way he says it is considered and helpful. I'd hope that if I ever make it through this and possibly into academia that I'd be able to be half the teacher, supervisor, researcher and writer that he is, if I did that I'd be a very happy girl!

Can't be long for you guys now - don't stress about the letter date thing - its the way these things have always been - in the bad old days (i.e. til a couple of years back) they were sending out successful and unsuccessful letters day in day out for over a month - the timing didn't make any difference. I can't understand the use of snail mail - or maybe snail mail for official purposes but an email as a confirmation - its crazy - but its the system and its a lot better now than it was! Don't quote me on this but I doubt you'll show up as having a grant until you've signed on the dotted line - not showing as having one probably means nothing at this point - it isn't confirmed until you accept.

Its so hard but at least you know it'll be in the next couple of days - hang in there(sprout)(turkey)

Good luck for today everyone - fingers tightly crossed for you all, hopefully the wait will be over soon :-)

The whole 'male pmt' thing just makes me cross! (what doesn't right now?) I mean, its caused by the surges and drops in FEMALE hormones and cramping of the uterus. Whilst I accept that men have MINIMAL amounts of female hormones they do not have a uterus, they do not have to put up with bleeding for a quarter of their adult life, they just like to muscle in on everything and think that they can claim this kind of thing for their bad moods. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. For goodness sake let us have SOMETHING - bloody hell, they even claim to have phantom labour pains - get the message boys, you do not have a uterus, you cannot possibly claim to have anything close to PMT or labour..... so there (sprout)

It is hard with kids, possibly in a different way, I don't know..... I have 3 kids, I started my BA when my youngest was 11 months, they are now 17, 16 and 6 years old and trying to give them all they need while at the same time running a house (I also have a menagerie) making sure I don't ignore my husband, doing my p/t RA position and a f/t PhD can sometimes feel like utter hell. Nothing gets the 100% it deserves and so you feel that you're letting everything down that little bit and pulled in a million ways at once. I have got a bit fed up sometimes with young students (no offence!!!) especially at BA when I had a baby moaning they were tired and worn out - I wanted to scream lmao - my baby never slept, no more than 2 hours at a time and never during the day til she was gone 3, I had the other two young as well and I look back and wonder quite how I did it - still can't work it out lol.

I love the mechanic analogy - very good :-) Not sure it works with my discipline lol but yeh, 'doctors' work very hard, they go through a lot of training (not as much as we do though) and I have utter respect for them but I get really cross when my work and my (hopefully) eventual title is poo-pooed on the grounds that I'm not going to be a 'real' dr. My grandmother told me the other day that I shouldn't even call myself 'Dr' when I finally graduate as I'd be taking the title from people who deserve it!:-s She isn't someone you can ever reason with, and quite frankly I wouldn't want to bother, she's bigotted and an inverse snob and keeps telling me that its time I stopped wasting my time and everyone elses and accepted my place and got a job in Tesco - they have some going you know :-s It used to really upset me even many years back when I was at school and she asked me what I wanted O Levels for... but now, well, I really don't care!

Oh poor DanB, and they all looked like Shakira and could dance like her too!!! :-p