Hi, thank you for your advice

Unfortunately moving in with partner before getting married won't be something my parents will be happy with as they are fairly traditional minded. I was angry this situation with my sister cropped up now as we had been planning to get married in the near future before it all happened, we just didn't know when exactly. My partner is quite understanding about it now he understands more about what it involves, he's always helping me with my presentations and is very interested in my work generally which is nice. One of the main reasons we were thinking to get married during the PhD is because we both want to move abroad to work and I would love to post-doc abroad, so we figured by getting married during the PhD, we can make that move fairly quick after I submit and pass my viva.

"When I started my PhD, I firmly promised myself that it would not take over my life, and anything I wanted to do in terms of my personal life would be done."
It so nice to hear this from someone else, because I was intially scared when I begun my PhD as it didn't get off to a good start, that I would end up putting my life on hold and pushing the wedding right back til after it was done, but I guess I just need to make sure I go about it the right way and it should be fine. Luckily we both want a simple wedding so that should make it easier. And maybe by the time the big day comes around things are in a better place.

Thank you both again for your help
:-)

======= Date Modified 27 Sep 2012 15:30:24 =======
Hi everyone

I am currently doing a science PhD and have a year left in the lab and a year to write up after that. I am still living at home with with family as I have done through undergraduate, and at times it can be stressful with juggling family life whilst trying to study at home etc. Now I have a certain amount of responisiblites at home (e.g. looking after parents who are getting old and the pet) but this last year has been a bigger struggle which is mainly due to my sister and her essentially making me now contemplate whether I should stay at home with my parents (and her) to finish my PhD OR if I should just get married to my long term partner so I can move out of there and maybe complete my PhD better being away from her.

To try and sum up what she is like, the words spoilt, bad tempered, arguementative, selfish etc are a few that come to mind. The arguements with her are just to much and being under so much stress with the PhD, I am starting to wonder why I am putting myself through it? Me and my partner have spoken about marriage plenty of times but will I be stupid to think I can plan my wedding, enjoy it and not let it interfere with my PhD to much? I don't want to rush into getting married to get away from her and then still end up with something disrupting my PhD. Should I just stay at home, deal with her issues and wait to get married afterwards? None of my family understand what a PhD involves, why my experiments run on a weekend etc and I feel they will all make writting up very difficult because I am already struggling. I don't want to move out, I would rather get married and then move out - but I feel like this is almost casting a shadow over getting married as if it's a way to escape family when we have wanted to get married for the past few years but thought we should wait until we both finished studying first.

Haven't been able to focus on my work all day so thought if I get this out atleast, it might let my mind focus and hopefully get some advice from other students who know what it's like to be doing a PhD, none of my friends are and so their advice (which I appreciate) doesn't always seem possible or the right thing to do.

Thanks for reading

Hi i am currently finishing off my final yr and i went for a talk about a phd. The supervisor then offered me a research job because of my experience n sed that i can take up a phd one yr later and combine the research job with the phd.

I am alittle confused as to how this would work in terms of timetabling my work? and was wondering if anybody has done this/is currently doing this/knows of anyone who as I wanted some advice on what i should do. the research tech job would involve working on the project with him and so would link in with the phd i suppose.

I am reli confused on this, what do you guys think i should do?

see i have always wanted to do something that will mean i am helping others and have also always found science very interesting so i naturally chose to do science at uni. i did a professional placement so i cud get some work experience and improve my lab skills. the phd is for strokes and researching preventions n therapies for stroke. many of my family members have been affected by stroke n during my 2rd yr, my gran who i ws very close to suffered a major stroke and tried to recover from it from march through to sept, when she passed away. in sept i also begun my placement (my 3rd yr) and during that year i had a chance to reflect on my degree and lossing my gran, this i when i decided i want to dedicate the rest of my career to researchin strokes and hopefully one day find something to help reduce the horrible effects it has, or increase the chance of surviving or even prevent such major strokes form occuring in the first place. this phd is perfect for me and i really do want to get it.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR COMMENTS AND HELP x

I am applying to begin straight after my degree finishes. my A-leveles are chemistry, biology and maths and statistics. i briefly mentioned them should i not at all?

Hi, i was just wondering about how to write a really good personal statement for a phd application.  So far i have spoken about my degree why i chose it as it allowed me to do a placement, my placement company and job roles and A-levels.  I was going to continue more on my degree and perhaps what i enjoyed studying and experiments we carried out.

The guidelines say to explain why you want to study at the university and that particular phd.  how would i write about this without it sounding fake almost.   Its hard to explain, but i really do want this phd as its the area i wish to continue studying in and i'm finding it hard to word it correctly.  Also i was wondering what else i should include in my statement.

Any advice would be appreciated greatly, thank you

thank you for that. me n my b/f are going to sit and talk through it all very soon. what is your timetable like for the year? do u only get xmas hols and summer? and how long are they or does it vary from each uni?

Hi, this is my first post of any kind in on this website, although i have used it to search for PhD's on numerous occasions.

I am a final yr Biochemist, with one years placement experience and i am currently looking for a PhD (looking at stroke)

I am having difficulty deciding on the uni/PhD i should apply and was hoping for some advice on what i should be looking for. should i be concerned just on the PhD details itself, or the uni as well?

Also, my b/f doesn't want me to move, but most of the PhD's for Strokes i have seen are based in other towns, about 1 1/2 hours drive away - and i really don't know what to do. i really want to do this PhD and feel we can still continue our relationship and as my 1st yr will be his last and most busiest yr, i feel that it will be ok, after that i thought maybe he could move to my town or something.

Any advice on what i should do would be appreciated as i am really confused and don't want to upset anyone with my decisions, most of all my b/f

Thank you