Well, lonely I don't care about, but I'm likely to find high stress and very long hours rather unpleasant. Another thing is that I'm not sure if I have the creativity required to carry out good original research (it's difficult to say, because I've never been tested in such a manner). Taking a Masters might be a good idea, though I'm not sure when the deadlines are for starting next year, so I may already have missed the opportunity. I've also been wondering - is further study a good idea when I'm "only" quite interested in the material I've covered so far, as opposed to having a great passion for it and being really enthusiastic about continuing to study it? (if that sounds like a rhetorical question, blame my communication skills - it's not meant to be)

I'm a Maths and Statistics student in the final year of my undergraduate degree, considering the possibility of a PhD, but I don't know whether or not it would be a good idea. I'm quite intelligent, and I've done well in my undergraduate degree (expecting a good first), and found much of the material to be fairly interesting. However, I don't have any particular ideas about what sort of research I would want to do for a PhD. I'm also curious as to the greater challenge of a PhD - I know it's substantially more work than an undergraduate degree, but just how difficult is it likely to be, and what sort of working hours are generally required? (I wonder about this because I'm not good at handling stress). If there's any other information about me that would help anyone give advice, please just ask.