Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brilliant news :-) so so happy for you, now enjoy your weekend, you darned well deserve it (gift) If I can emulate your humanities prowess I'll be a very happy bunny, just inspiring watching how you dealt with this completion period - wooohoooo!

Hmmmmm - we're in the same boat - I had 3 under 15 when I started the PhD and I'd say even more, just cos I'm in the boat and it rocks like hell, unless you can COMFORTABLY afford to self-fund don't go there! Its a nightmare, it really is - the further they get into secondary school the more expensive they become to keep/clothe/feed/school expense etc and the stress of financial pressures on top of the stress of a Phd is enough to drive you crazy and it affects your work. I don't have full funding - I have my fees paid and a scholarship (university) that is roughly half a research scholarship (mine is around £6 in total maintainance allowance) - I also work pt in the dept which gets me close to a full scholarship and its still really tough. Obviously we don't know your personal financial situation, but make sure that your family income is enough to comfortably absorb the fees, the cost of living, the cost of travelling for research etc etc. I don't mean to sound negative or patronising in any way but being there stuck at the coal face its so hard with older kids....

Hmmm.... depends what you mean by second rate institution - how second rate? From what I understand PhD places at most unis if self-funding are pretty easy to come by - they like fees.... ;-)

If you've got the chance of a funded PhD then as has been said it means that you've come out top in an extremely competitive field, that means something further down the line and if you look back through questions similar to yours you'll find we always say at PhD its not so much your institution, but your supervisor that counts. Another year really isn't that big a deal - are you prepared to pay out thousands and thousands to maybe finish a few months earlier? You could use the time to get your lit review etc ready so that you hit the ground running if you delay and take the funded option - although we all understand how frustrating the waiting would be. Depending on the supervisor of the funded position and quite how low ranking the uni is then you'd arguably do far better waiting :-)

Hello and welcome to the mad world of PhDs :-)

I work as an RA on a project my sup is running but it all depends exactly what yours has ongoing at the moment - they don't all have projects ongoing all the time that they need assistants for. As for whether its paid or you have to apply, again, it differs. I didn't have to apply for mine, but then I'm only on short-term contracts - if its more than 6 months it needs to go through the full application process (in my uni anyway). Again, pay is tricky - I get paid on the RA scale equating to just under £15 an hour, but it all depends what you're doing, what scale you're on, whether its an official position (mine is) etc etc. You can also be limited on the amount of hours you can do - scholarships tend to affect that - I'm on one so can only work a max of 10 hours per week.

Sorry to be so vague but its getting close to a 'how long is a piece of string' question :-) All sups are different, all expect different things from their students and I'm not sure that the rates of pay are standard depending on the nature of your work :-)

i don't think you can register for job seekers allowance if you are a full time student as you aren't looking for work. As for the misleading info relating to your course dates, that is just crazy, but totally what would be expected when dealing with them! They will have on their books that 'students' finish their courses in the summer, not in Sept, therefore you're lying, and so is your uni - beside the fact that every MA student I've known finishes in Sept!!! I would certainly contact CAB and also it would be worth emailing your MP - they are very easy to get hold of - if this is how they are treating MA claims then its wrong, they are wrong clearly and it needs to be sorted and fast!

(((((((((((((((hug)))))))))))))))))) utter nightmare :-(

Oh no, that's awful! Kids and computers certainly don't mix :-( Hope it dries out and works ok for you

Lol at the fear smelling printers... mine always behaves perfectly until I have a deadline then it wants to jam/run out of ink (how, its just been filled?)/screw up several sheets into messy ink covered balls etc etc - it knows when its needed!

No!!!! Oh Chris..... one day you'll look back on this and laugh... well, cry but you could make a fortune out of a book entitled - Thesis Formatting and Printing Disasters: One student's struggle to hand in a thesis - you'll be rich :-) one of those 'A Year in Provence' type books but with more pain and anguish :-) For goodness sake don't drop the darned thing on the way to the binders or this really will be the 48 hours from hell!

Generally speaking a 2:2 is 50-59%, 2:1 is 60-69% and a first class is 70% and above, that how it works with most UK unis I think. Most PhD programmes ask for a 2:1 minimum, sometimes they'll accept a 2:2 with a high masters (masters works the same - pass, merit and distinction with the same percentages as a BA respectively). As for funding that's far harder to comment on - to stand a chance you need very high grades as its so competitive, but then there are people who've been awarded it with lower grades - also, I'm assuming your a foreign national so the funding situation is slightly different and I personally don't know the details of it.

Well done you!!!! that's a brilliant result - you shouldn't have any problems with being accepted to do a PhD with a 2:1 at BA and a distinction at masters. It still doesnt' mean you'll get funding though... I have a first class BA and a distinction but in my area funding is very sparce, just one bursary for the entire humanities faculty last year! There are internal funding options, nothing like the research council funding but it adds up gradually. I hope that you are able to move on to PhD and again, congrats on your distinction 8-)

Its sounds as though its been a great day :-)

I've completed the data collection for the current section I'm doing
Inputted roughly half of the data
can begin data analysis hopefully tomorrow - woohooo :-)

*ok, so in the final thesis this section will probably be about 3 pages in total.. but hey, its several weeks less work left to do*

Nooooo! Oh that's horrible - you poor thing :-( This time tomorrow it'll all be over and you'll be able to crash out and indulge in some quality 'you' time complete with a massive bar of chocolate, huge bottle of wine and rubbish tv :-)

This other feedback sounds great :-) You've so got what it takes! I'm a firm believer in things happening for a reason and your perfect job is just around the corner - this one would have been c*ap ;-) Its sounds like an excellent 'performance' (for want of a better word) and that you nailed it so you're all primed and set up for the big one 8-)

That sucks big time - here, have a mince pie to soak up some of the booze (mince) Its never good when that happens, their loss (cliche I know) but its just gutting and I really feel for you xx