Submitted back in June 2014, just informed yesterday 8/12/2014 that my minor corrections have been accepted and I'm clear to graduate. 6 years part-time while holding down full-time work (and a young family) throughout. PhinisheD!!

This thread is indeed three years old, but thank you for the good wishes! I'm happy to report that the wedding went wonderfully, we've had a beautiful son (now one and a half years old), and last week I finally submitted my thesis :)

Hi Elissavet - go for Old Norse! The sagas and eddas are absolutely incredible - give it a few weeks and you'll be completely hooked. Don't worry about the language aspect - that will come, or you might choose a thesis topic that doesn't really require in-depth language analysis.

But more importantly - the world needs as many dead-language scholars as it can get. In the past five years my university has shut down Old Norse and Old English, probably to make room for more MBA courses or some such rubbish.

Best of luck!

Hi Incertus,

I'm doing a part-time PhD in Eng. Lit. too - I'd say absolutely go for it! It's very difficult to find spare moments in which to write, but it's inching towards completion! I've considered dropping it a few times, but I can imagine I'd be exactly like you - I'd have a nagging desire to finish what I started for years to come.

Best of luck!

Hi Chococake,

I work full-time and I'm doing a Phd part-time. So yes, I work 5 full days a week. At first I tried to squeeze in PhD in the evenings and weekends, but found I was just too tired, and want to spend that time with my partner. Now I get the laptop out on my long commute to work every morning and back home again in the evenings, which guarantees at least two hours of work on the PhD every weekday. It's not much, but the PhD is ever-so-slowly taking shape. Reaching 80,000 words still seems a long way off though!!

Ha! - sounds like a bargain for $30... seriously though Walminski, you SHOULD be awarded the ULC's 'Doctor of Motivation' for all your helpful posts on this forum...

Perhaps one day when you're a highly respected professor, you could casually hang your 'Dr of the Universe' certificate up on your office wall alongside your real qualifications and watch your students' and colleagues' expressions when they see it..

Humph... I bet they even equate having an MBA with a PhD! At least we all know the value of a PhD, even if the Bureau of Statistics doesn't...

Congratulations!!!!

I just have to announce this here: I'm getting married! I took my girlfriend hiking up into the Australian Alps and proposed to her on the (romantically-named) Mount Feathertop! Huzzah!

In other news, I've settled into a good routine on my long commute to work every morning and my thesis writing-up is coming along nicely. I guess the thing to do now is to try and get as much writing done as possible before we have kids ...

So... did anyone here invite their supervisor to their wedding? I think I'd like mine to come along, but I don't know what the other guests would make of him! (He's a tad eccentric and a world apart from my non-academic friends and family).

Sorry to hear about this, Cornflower. Perhaps it would be best to look up some old friends (who are good listeners) and get everything off your chest rather than bottling it up...

With the research, perhaps you'll soon come to value the PhD (and everything it involves - concentration, routine, a goal to work towards etc) as something solid to hold onto amid the chaos?

Haha - glad I'm not the only one who has had this problem! No, she's not an academic - we're very different people, which is generally a good thing! We have a great relationship in all other respects – the PhD is one of very few sticking points.

It looks like reserving myself some sacrosanct PhD time is the way to go. Thanks for all your comments!

I've read a lot of posts where people write 'thank god my partner/bf/gf is so supportive when it comes to the PhD' etc etc - does anyone have an unsupportive partner?

I'm finding my partner's lack of support very discouraging. I'm working full-time and doing the PhD part-time as something of a 'hobby'. It's probably not going to dramatically further my professional career, but I really want to complete it. But I'm finding that I have to snatch a few guilty hours here and there because any long stretch of work is regarded as a waste of time by my partner - time she feels would be better spent with her, with our friends, or helping out in the garden etc.

I suppose my question is: what would you say to someone who regards your PhD as a six-year-long waste of time? Do I lay down the law and demand a block of sacrosanct uninterrupted PhD time every weekend? Wait until she falls asleep every evening to rise, zombie-like, to work at the computer?

Thank goodness for the anonymity of internet forums - I needed a chance to vent!

Ah yes, - imposter syndrome! I really struggled with it in my first few months of candidature. I felt that I'd somehow tricked the university into letting me do a PHD. I eventually managed to dredge up some self-worth, but the imposter syndrome resurfaces whenever I present a paper. I remember the first time I presented I was up on the podium rambling away about this and that when I noticed with a shock that quite a few people were taking notes - I thought, 'You can't take notes on this! It's rubbish!'.... but the subsequent questions and comments were all helpful and positive.

Best of luck with your conference!

Congratulations Dr Sheena!