I only had 4 appendices and I labelled them A, B, C, D. I gave the figures and tables in each appendix caption titles so that they automatically updated if that's what you mean?

I think some people do find writing up harder than others, but it's also probably partly because you are a distance learner and so don't realise that may people feel this way.

20,000 words is totally doable within the next months and it's normal to unpick things from the previous day - this is generally good I think because you are able to improve it, as long as you are eventually moving on to new sections of course.

Have you had any feedback on your chapter drafts so far? You are probably just being unnecessarily hard on yourself.

It totally varies. My PhD was three distinct chapters with little overlap, all of which are publishable (I hope!) papers. Other friends of mine have PhDs where each chapter is consecutive and they will probably only have 1 paper (but probably better quality than my three).

It could be that your whole PhD is just one minor contribution to a paper. Or it could be no contribution to a paper at all, but just a contribution to the field that you have never published. Or everything you tried to do failed, so your only contribution is a negative result - might not get you a paper, but it will still get you a PhD.

I wouldn't worry too much about thesis titles. My supervisors made me change mine at the last minute to something more specific from my previously generic one and I hate it... but I guess it does better reflect the thesis content.

Bad idea for science. Now people will get into even more debt and there will be more people with PhDs competing for jobs. And a 9% repayment rate? Bit steep. People will try to survive on the whole 4 years of a PhD with £25k for living expenses. That's going to be fun when your lab mate with funding next door gets more than twice that.

Of course labs will start advertising PhDs with no fees to pay (great!), but no stipend either (not so great), to make PhDs look affordable - cheap labour for the labs.

It will probably also create a division between people with funding and people without, with the latter looked upon less favourably, like they weren't good enough to get funding.

It's very difficult to get funding for PhDs in the UK unless you are a UK/EU student.

Pretty much the only way is to apply to funded programmes that states worldwide applications are accepted.

The problem is likely not so much with your project, but just that universities don't have funding for you.

Is it possible your government could fund you? That's your best chance. The vast majority of non-UK/EU students in the UK are funded by their governments or employers.

If people can't write their own SOP I don't think they should be doing a PhD to be honest. It's not that difficult to look up the requirements and write something. But then again, I guess there must be people out there that want to pay for your services.

Ok, you do have to remember that you are supposed to be quite independent by this stage and it may affect your marks if your supervisor gives you too much assistance (this might be why you are not getting specific advice) On the other hand, you do need to be able to make some progress. I think you need to be honest with your supervisor and ask for some more help, otherwise you might not make the deadline.

I don't know anything about environmental conservation but I know reputation is really important in the US. I would go for the top-tier related one. You can always specialise more later.

Google drive is very good at searching through all folders simultaneously.

To be honest though, my data is organised in folders so I tend to know where to go to find it.

You are not going to be able to submit this work for submission elsewhere.

I would advise going back to your uni and asking for another chance at submission.

I'm not what sort of PhD you are referring to in your last paragraph. You won't be able to get a PhD on the basis that you are resubmitting this research with another professor and especially when you have already been examined (and passed!) for it.

[/quote]

Another way that helped me was to think that it was irrelevant if I thought the changes were pointless - the Viva was the chance to convince them that it should be done my way, rather than theirs, and I effectively failed to convince them of this. So even if I still thought my way was right and their way was wrong, I should just accept that from an examination point of view, I'd already had the chance to convince them of this and failed, so I should just get on with the new task, which was giving it back to them the way they wanted it to be done. You don't have to believe that they're right, but to accept that you didn't manage to convince them that your way was.[/quote]

This is so true, and exactly what I totally failed to do in my viva! I found it very difficult because my external was intimating and just kept telling me I was wrong, so I believed him, I mean, surely a professor knows more than a PhD student, right?

Wow Grumpy, that does sound like a great opportunity! Super jealous! But well done!

I would take it because that other lectureship isn't guaranteed anyway.

But if that lectureship comes up and it's permanent, you might want to take it because there's no guarantee there is going to be any jobs available in the next 12 months!

HazyJane is correct - all my formatting and headings were the same on every document, including the one I was pasting into which is probably why I didn't have any problems with this.

5.30 is the earliest I've been in... and that was a Saturday too!

But generally I'm a lateish starter, I like to do things in the morning (like exercise, read, clean...) so I usually get in around 9 - 10.30 and leave around 6-7 on a normal day, or 8.30-10.30 pm when I was writing up and writing papers.

The latest I have stayed is 00.30 I think.

I kind of like it when there's no-one around too actually!

To get out a slump, I just keep working, I make it to coffee time, I make it to lunch, I make it to dinner, and slowly but surely the day is over and I can go home. Eventually it becomes easier and the slump is over.