Hie Guys,

I have been reading some of the posts and it seems that there is some really cold sholuder stuff going on esp to students from overseas.

I agree that some of the questions are a bit, well how can i put it , awkward esp when you think that some of these things are staright forward because you have lived and learnt here all your life.

please lets help without putting each other down. better not to post than to hurt someones feelings. these pple dont have the same priviledges we have. explain what you know in a human manner

PLEASE DONT ATTACK ME FOR THIS POST

I think the reason why this resentment occurs is that the majority of the posters here have had to go through severe hardship and struggle to earn their PhD. They have been misunderstood, under appreciated and ill paid, but have a certain esprit de corps about being resilient, independent and able to think laterally.

When someone comes along and expects their poorly written, vague and overly optimistic request to be taken seriously, it grates. The underlying subtext that someone that clueless and unwilling to do even a cursory google search is often regarded as disrespectful and not illustrative of doctoral calibre material.

i totally disagree with the whole phd calibre text.

Like I said, it is better not to post to a thread than to post to tell someone to do a google search, amd might i add in the most disrespectful manner possible.

doing a phd doesnot make oneone better off that the next person. we should all remember that they was a time that you were not what you are now.
all i am asking is that we treat our fellow international students with a little bit of patience,

and by the way if i got accepted by cambridge, i will not let anyone tell me that ia ma not pdh calibre

I actually meant to say doing a Phd does not make you more human than others. It might make you better off but REMEMBER be nice to pple on your way up because you may meet them on your way down.

life has taught me this lession: life is like a wheel, one time you are up, the next you are down.

Forgive me for my seemingly, overrated philosophical rubbish, but I am rather disappointed with the lack of modesty by the so called educated amoungst us.

I beg your pardon sir, for the poorly written post had not idea it had to be thesis standard on a post grad forum

Simuzosha,
I have to say, I agree with Badhaircut on every point and I am a foreign student.

The kind of posts you are refering to basically imply:

I am from country x. I graduate with degree. I want PhD in feild y. Go find me a supervisor, project and funding and don't forget the coffee either...

Many of these people don't appear to have done any searching of any kind for studentships or funding or certainly not made much of an attempt!!

I think many of the regular posters on this website go out of their way to provide onfo for people who are in need, but it is quite insulting to the people of this forum when people are asking for help without making any obvious effort to help themselves.

Am i being unreasonable? someone please back me up!!

If you put in the keywords PhD and UK into google: The first entry that comes up in the search results is this website and this website has prety much all the information you need about PhDs in the UK.

How difficult is that?

I understand your point.
but what I am saying is having came across such a post do you either

1. Ignore the post and go on to more reasonable quetsions

or

2. answer back 'you need to go and do a google search actually better still forget about doing one because if dont know how to look for one you have failed before you even started

Remember, the amount of information available in some foreign countries is not much at all. infact these pple maybe on paying intenet cafes and have very little time. I am not making excuses for anyone. but I am saying if I were you I would take option 1.

it your call. even the dullest amoungsts us have feelings too

Even the dullest amongst us need to realise that PhD research is tough and that a lot of self motivation and independent activity is necessary to even make it through the first months, so if they don't learn it early on but expect spoonfeeding, will that make their life any easier?

"Forgive me for my seemingly, overrated philosophical rubbish"....

You are right about one thing. You are talking rubbish.

I agree that it is better not to post than post in irritation, and I do try to be helpful if I think I can.

However - Badhaircut totally nailed the feelings generated by some of these posts.

I REST MY CASE - TRAIL DISMISSED DUE TO LACK FEELINGS ON THE FORUM

I have been thinking about this thread a lot while having my dinner. I do often thik about this issue when I see these train-wreck threads but it is not quick and simple thing to try and explain my thinking.

There is a very big difference in information and cultural understanding across different countries. I worked have worked in 6 African countries and they vary a lot. I think it is very hard to understand and very hard to explain the misconceptions people routinely have about how easy it is for white europeans to do things.

For example - when I was in Zimbabwe one of my colleagues (with a good science degree) commented that all pop group/artists in the west were millionaires. I tried to explain that this isn't trur - a lot of people are less or not very successful but he would not believe me. And in general, people thought that westerners could get what ever they wanted - a nice house, a good job - so why not a PhD? And why might they think this?

Well the media access is VERY limited. It does nothin in it's choice of programmin (upstairs downstiars, eldorado, nanny) to interfere with this image. But most importantly - this is how the white people in Africa live - especially some countries. Remember that e.g. after WW2 white Zimbabweans had the highest standard of living in the world by far - where even quite ordinary jobs got you a luxary bungalow, pool and servants. There really is a feeling that in the west you can get what ever you want and there is no struggle - no poverty - no financial worries at all.

Smilodon

I dont get it, are you tyring to imply that I am suggesting that I have the same 'unreasonable' mentality that the african you spoke to has.
I THINK WHILE THEY MAYBE GENERALISATIONS ABT THE WEST, THE SAME MAY APPLY ABT AFRICANS