Hi,
As the title suggests I am p/t PhD student, living in a different country to the Uni and sup. I am working with. It is hard going (esp with working f/t and family etc) but the hardest part is probably the not having anyone to moan to/run things by I think. A few of my friends and colleagues are good but it would be great to have other PhD students to talk to I feel.

I am in my 3rd year of Psych PhD and was just wondering if anyone else is doing this part-time or overseas and how they are coping with it all.

Thanks

Hi - I am full time but never really manage to do full time hours as family and kids tend to get in the way! I am also overseas so I can sympathise - I really miss not being on campus and it can get a bit lonely!

Hi!
I am a PT PhD student, from oversees, also working FT....
I am in my fourth and (hopefully) final year...

I manage OK so far (I think). It needs a lot of programming and you have to stick to your programme...........

======= Date Modified 26 Oct 2011 21:23:50 =======
I am a few weeks into part-time PhD, but not in another country. However, when I did my Masters I was in another state (Australia) to my university and supervisor and in the Australia the distances are so great, it might as well be another country (distance wise that is). I completed everything for that thesis by distance while working full-time, and it was hard.

I found I could talk a little to my grown children (two of whom were still at home) but only to point because I'd bore them and I really couldn't talk much at all to most colleagues, who asked after it politely but didn't really understand what it involved. So at times, when I was worried about something or upset or just needed a sounding board, I had to either use this forum or talk myself through it. (The supervisor was very busy and hard to contact at times).

This time round I am only a few kilometres away from my university and supervisor so the difficulty will mainly be with managing time-for example for our first meeting I have to actually take some formal leave from my workplace just for around 2 hours, because my workplace is so busy and the supervisor has a lot on as well. So I'm not so bothered about distance but will still have to work hard to manage time. However, I really think it is (and will be) worth it. (Emmaki-you have almost finished after four years part-time-well done! That is pretty amazing-I am hoping for 6 years).

Good luck and hang in there-you know even when you do find fellow PhDer's, your topics will be so different, you can only swap war stories-a professional dialogue about your topic is difficult because topics and knowledge vary so much.

Thanks guys, great to hear you are all getting on.
I found a bit of motivation this week and ran some stats and pretty pleased with my results!!:-)

I think that motivates me now. Am not due to meet my supervisor til Jan and last night did a plan for the next 10/12 weeks before then. Here is hoping I can stick to it!! With not meeting him that often it can seem like ages away but looking at it week wise it is actually not that far (trying not to panic.....)

Good to hear also I am not the only one juggling familyy and work life too, sometimes all that juggling means something has to fall (and usually its for me its the upkeep of my house, but I comfort myself with thoughts at least its not the upkeep of my children thats suffering.....;-)

Hi Vidmaria,

Nice to hear from you. I had the same experience and finished up recently. (I did my P/T PhD after having submitted after 3 years). I hear you on this one. Managing family, F/T job along with keeping up with demands of the University/supervisor etc. . . can be very tough. I think the only way to do it properly is to keep your sanity somehow. And I am glad you have made it to the 3rd year. Hope you can now try to channel your energies to finishing it all up and submitting the thesis soon.All the best. (up)

Cheers