Wish me luck guys - I'm just about to go to my supervisor and tell him I am giving up my PhD.

Did you just not start? Or are you just pulling our legs Zara. It won't be a first.

Tell us how did it go.
Just a story to cheer you up (it was told by my supervisor)- some years ago, one guy did not pass the 1st year report. he was very angry but comitte suggested him to quit. He did. Now he is a millionaire- made budiness in Asia. I doubt that he would have earned even half of it if he would stayed in Academia. So you never know what better things than PhD expect you around the corner:)

Respect to you Zara. Hope everything works out for the best. Life is indeed too short to do stuff you don't want to do.

Good luck, hope it all works out.

Well, it did not go well!! My supervisor was raging, and wanted to have words to me in his office - so I walked out the door!! Will have to get it sorted today - I'm a mixture of annoyed and cacking myself!!

good luck, let us know how it goes. Just stay calm and remember why you are doing it.

Zara

Don't know if you've me reading the thread I've started, but I'm researching an article on doctoral students who don't complete. I'd be interested in why you have decided to give up.

There doesn't seem to be a private messaging system on this forum, but if you're interested you can email me: miranda@expatwoman.com

Didn't mean to! Actually, I'm in sympathy, but I get your meaning.

no zara please think again before taking this decision. God it must be a painful moment for you. good luck!

ooh, what happened?

Looking back I wish I had the courage to quit in my first year. So good on ya Zara, for doing what you thought was in your best interest!!

But I was so scared to dissapoint my parents and my friends and family. After the first year was discounted because the project was complete tripe, I started again on a new project with a new supervisor. But after the first year, I should have quit.

Looking back, I had this moment, where I REALLY wanted to quit but felt I could not, as my parents would be so dissapointed and angry, and i would let everyone down.. i felt obligated to see it through.

and besides I had no backup plan and didn't know what else to do as job wise or career wise.

that pivotal moment, walking and wanting to quit, i wish I had the courage to do it, but it's now been 8 years!

and my mom saw how depressed i was yesterday and said, if i was really that miserable i should have just told them and it would have been okay if i did quit and it would not have been the end of the world..

but now, i'm just going to try my best to write my thesis and be over and done with it. and then move onto and find something i really enjoy and am happy with....

i know that i don't want to waste any more of my precious years on this phd. my supervisors still thinks i need to do more experiments, but i will refuse, i rather fail and move onto do something else, then be stuck in that lab and doing experiments i know will never work and be sentenced to another year. so i will simply write up my thesis with the data i have, and let the examiners decide, whether i fail or pass. i would rather fail, then be told that i have to spend another year doing more experiments, especially on an experiment where i know is not going to work. sometimes you have to learn to pull a plug on something. doing something over and over again will not change the outcome..

(i just randomly came across this old message, i was googling miranda)... hence why i'm a couple years late lol.