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Hi All,

My name's Izzy. I've just started a PhD in international economic law and I'd like some advice. First off, are there any other first years -- particularly in law? If so, please introduce yourselves and do tell a little about what you're working on, what your uni's like, your supervisors, etc. (I'd like to know I'm not alone!)

My experience so far is that I find the PhD experience very, very different to the Bachelors and Masters in that I feel isolated. I had mates on the other degrees and people I could moan to and, of course, go to the pub with, but now it's just me. Literally just me. I roll a bunch of books into uni, sit in the library for a bunch of hours and go back. In fact, most of the people I went to uni with don't understand why I decided to go further by doing a PhD. I'm still trying to articulate a sensible reason as to why I'm doing it to myself as well.

In addition to the isolation, another thing I find is that I am not really clear as to what I should be doing? I would really love the second and third years to advise in this regard. The only thing I'm doing at the moment is putting words on paper. While doing my Masters I found I am unable to 'research' and then write subsequently -- so now, I'm just putting words on paper and trying to add clarity to my research questions, objective and what I envision in my head that my thesis would look like. Is this sensible or totally off? I have no teaching responsibilities and I'm moderately certain, at the moment, that I don't want to be an academic -- so I'm not too fussed about writing for journals, etc. I am only concerned about passing my PhD and writing an excellent thesis.

So, from the forerunners, any advice would be very, very helpful. As for the newbies, please introduce yourselves.

Thanks.

Thanks a lot for your comments. It's certainly helpful. I did think about going abroad for the course as well, incidentally.

I'll definitely heed the advice to keep writing and clarifying my research further.

Lizzy here's the post with the postgrad tips, it was right under my nose!

http://www.postgraduateforum.com/threadViewer.aspx?TID=10400

good luck!

Hi Izzy,
Welcome to the forum, been hanging around here for almost 5 years now and I've got the viva to do. So, I can probably write pages of what I think of the whole process but I will only give you few tips as it's a learning curve and you do get experience along the way.

1. Start a research JOURNAL-it could be what papers, books, articles etc you read, what conference you attended-with important bits as bullet points (keep this till the end, DO NOT throw away anything even it seem stupid after a while.

2. Get to know people in the first 6 months-from the admin, library desk to highest ranks-go to social gatherings, start NETWORKING-not aimed at getting something now-but for later life

3. Use a reference software from the beginning-write notes for anything you read-they can become very useful when you have dry runs in writing

That's all from me ...ohh..abt being isolated ...I felt that the whole first year after that I didn't have time to think about those things ;-)


Good luck...share you worries and help each other...

Isolated, that is probably the best way to describe the PhD process. I bit the bullet and joined a sport society on campus for two reasons. First, get some exercise, something non-mental going on in my life. Second, Easy way to meet folks. Sure, most of them will be non-PhD's and won't understand where you are coming from, but you will have some social life, even if only for 2 hours a week. It helps, a lot! Also, go out to the pubs/clubs/cafes/(your fancy) to find non-university friends. It may seem odd, but you will want to scream and hide from your thesis, and they won't want to hear much about it beyond the 'what are you doing' initial bits. You will find the academics as time goes on, people from your department or people at the guest lectures, etc. etc. etc. Go to the guest lectures, start a reading group (or join one), talk to the staff as you are likely to be considered sorta-staff to find out what is going on in your department or school.

One of the first things I did was go to the library and check out a few theses that had passed. This can be useful to help if you are the type that likes to have an example that you can build a model or process from. That and you can see what a passable thesis looks like. Some that I got a hold of, I would have not liked to pass, but it lets you know where the bar is.

Good luck and enjoy the next 3-4 years.