You can add a co-author whenever you want but they have to be contributing something substantial to the project ie design, data collection, writing, supervision etc.

Generally people don't add co-authors after data collection has finished in order to build a relationship - it would be more common to do this at project design stage.

I think you are talking about the American system where one would have discussed their work with their committee many times.

I do, but I doubt they care.

It's also best to have these conversations face to face if possible.

Do the PhD. Seems like a fantastic opportunity to me, with no risk at the end of it as you can return to your job if you need to.

After my masters I took a well paid job for 5 years before quitting to start a PhD. It hasn't always been an easy ride (4th year unfunded, difficult to find a job after) but I've never regretted it and now I'm in an academic job so things couldn't have worked out better for me. Staying in my previous job would have meant years of stress only to then be made redundant so this was definitely the right decision for me.

Do make sure you know what you're letting yourself in for with a PhD though - relearning the basics and being subordinate to your supervisor can be particularly challenging.

Yes for a few different reasons, for example, reviewers may accept and then not actually review the paper and the reviewers may be split so the editor needs to bring in a third reviewer. Both cases require the paper to be sent out for review again and this will take a similar time as before.

My advice is to distract yourself with other things and just wait for them to get back to you.

Yes, apply anyway. You've got nothing to lose and I expect you will find a place somewhere.

I think you need to talk to someone about this. Can you to the pastoral care support people within your department or the student counselling service? Can you talk to your supervisor or another academic for guidance?

You need to talk to your adviser. Just be honest and say that you are really interested in this particular aspect of your work and you want to be able to spend more time on that. That may be possible, depending on how your PhD is funded.

At my uni, the external and internal send official lists of corrections and then if minor corrections the internal looks at the corrections and accepts/rejects and if major corrections then the external does this. In either case, they then email the exam board to confirm once they are satisfied with the corrections.

When they are not satisfied with the corrections, they can then ask for more corrections (there are several cases on this forum where this has gone on for years), or they can fail the thesis in extreme cases.

It really all depends on the examiner unfortunately. If they are reasonable or don't really care either way, they will probably accept your justifications if they are valid, but if they are unreasonable then it's likely to be their way or the high way. The exam board cannot pass your thesis without their approval.

To cut one third of a thesis though, for no particular reason other than it's 'repetitive', seems a bit much to me, especially as one person's repetitive is another person's keeping everything flowing in a long document.

I would cut something to show willing, but if it's genuinely not repeated then don't cut those bits and explain why you have chosen to do this in your report back. Does your amended thesis go back to her or the internal? In my case, only my internal checked my corrections that were given by my external, so there were a couple of corrections I didn't do and I gave justifications for this and my internal didn't query it and it was fine.

Any reason why the person supervising you didn't go to the hospital as well?

Also, maybe ask why they don't design resit exams in the summer like every other uni.

Is she telling you where to cut it? I would be so annoyed about having to remove 150 pages!

Very limited, go on your university website and see what help they offer. Also check out this: https://www.postgraduate-funding.com/gateway

It is quite common for supervisors to be slow with feedback. It may be that a week's deadline was simply not enough time due to the many others demands that your supervisor probably has placed on her.

Who is giving you these strict deadlines for article submission? Most deadlines are pretty flexible in academia.

Often you just have to accept that you don't get the feedback you want when you want it. Could you ask a colleague to look through things for you?