I'm a mature (44 with two young children) student (with distinctions in MA and MSc) who has just started part-time PhD - my proposal didn't pass through the research committee and I have to rework it - I have no problem with the comments about the methodology as at the moment that is pretty undefined (and I think will remain so until I can get a chunk of time in early summer to do some preliminary fact finding) but the scrutinizer has said that the aims are not at a sufficient level for PhD and are more like MPhil. I'm now wishing they hadn't accepted me straight onto PhD but had made me register for MPhil and then transfer.

I have tried and tried to rework the aims and I just don't know what they are looking for - I was given one example as a template and my aims don't seem to be at a different level or scope to that, my supervisors weren't very helpful in the early drafts (comments like "yuk" "don't like this - get rid" etc) and I really feel that if all everyone is going to do is say what is wrong without giving any guidance on how to fix it then I am not sure I can do this (I have to do it though for my job).

I'm trying to stay positive and focus on the good comments (eg the background and justification are very good) but it is really difficult to hold down a full time job (it's Sunday afternoon and instead of spending time with family I have a stack of undergrad essays to mark) I am yet again working. Not sure I can do this for the next five years...

Chris

Hi Chris,

I'm just at the end of a part-time PhD and I am full-time academic.  I won't lie to you, it was very tough and I don't have children. However, it is possible.  The main thing that I would do differently in hindsight is to make my supervisors help me. My supervisory team gave me the impression that you shouldn't ask for help as a PhD is a solitary piece of work.  I presumed that asking for help would be viewed negatively but I now see that I should have made them help me.  You need to be proactive. Obviously do as much as possible yourself but if you are stuck, ask them and don't let them fob you off.  Their job is to supervise you so make sure they do. My supervisors were too busy making money to bother much with me and although I almost have my PhD it took me 11 years when it could have taken 6 years.

It might also be helpful to find a few complete theses in your area and have a look at them.  It was only toward the end of my PhD that it occurred to me to do this and it really did help, particularly since my undergrad degree was in a different area.

My final piece of advice is to keep using these forums. Everyone here is really helpful and it's so good to know that you're not alone. I'm a member of academic staff at my institution so I don't mix with the full-time PhDs - not because I don't want to but just because it's not practical in terms of time. So this forum has been a great source of advice and kept me sane :p

Good luck (up)

Hey there

I also started my PhD when I was working full-time, and over the years I decreased and decreased my paid work, until now I'm a full-time PHD student. It is really hard and you do really need to consider whether giving up all that time, not spending it with your family, is worth it. I don't mean to sound negative, but I wish I had've known at the start that I would be spending virtually every single day of my life for years working on this, apart from the occasional holiday. I still would've done it, but would've done things differently and not taken on so much.

If you need this for your work and have to do the PhD, then maybe you you need to set some boundaries ie not working on Sundays for example. Good luck!

I'd love to be a full time PhD student but as well as everything else I am the main wager earner as my husband is a lot older than me and so apart from a bit of occassional work only has a pension. At least he is the main carer for the children but sometimes I wonder if I am missing out on too much of their childhoods that I won't get back...

I am also a mature student (40) with 3 young children and I really do understand what you're saying and how you're feeling. I only work p/t and am a f/t student, but I'm busy all the time and I feel dreadfully guilty that i don't spend more time with my family. I started my BA when my youngest daughter was 11 months old and haven't stopped since - 3 years of BA a year of MA and now 1.5 years into PhD. She was asked once where mummy lived (as in where does the dog live, where does the bird live, where does the duck live blah blah) and she said 'at the library'...... ah. I did have a conversation with my elder daughter the other day, I was on a total downer and saying about this kind of stuff (she's 15) and said that I felt that by doing this I'd let them down in some way. She looked at me as if I was totally nuts and said for heaven's sake mum, you'd have let us down if you'd not done this. She pointed out in a very mature way that through me doing this I'm achieving (hopefully) my potential, and that if she'd had to live with the thought that I'd stayed doing what I was doing just for them then that would have been an awful thing. I can kind of see where she's coming from. Yes I don't see as much of them as I could do (although again, it was pointed out that when I'm studying a lot of the time I'm working from home so here physically) but that it also has shown them how to get here if you see what I mean. Hard work, a lot of it, and you get the grades, you move on and up. Its very very difficult when you're a mum, a nightmare at times, you're constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place and no matter what you do often feels wrong :-(

With regard to your proposal, that will come together and will change constantly anyway. I have to have a meeting with my supervisor tomorrow and with the way my field work is going I can see the whole darned methodology having to change :-(