Hi all,
I'm in my second year of a social sciences PhD, and have just completed a batch of interviews that now need to be transcribed before I can start analysis. I have 28 interviews at approx 60 mins each, which need to be transcribed verbatim inclusive of all pauses, coughs etc.
In a meeting a couple of months ago, my supervisors and I agreed that this was going to be a quite a lengthy process, and take up a lot of time which could be better spent. We agreed to submit a funding application to the faculty, to pay for professional transcription. I completed the form, got a quote from a recommended company etc...and the application was refused on the grounds that money for this type of thing is not routinely given out.

I'm super frustrated and anxious about this, as when discussing it with my sups it was agreed that the level of detail needed in the transcriptions is going to take up a lot of the summer period, and that outsourcing this was a good idea. Obviously they are not responsible for the committee's decision, but they designed my project and knew from the outset that it would involve transcription. Why didn't they secure money for this at the start of the project? It probably would have been easier for them to do/make a case for as FT academics, rather than me.

This really hasn't come at a good time as I'm becoming increasingly disillusioned with academia, the way the system treats people, the expectations placed on PhD students, the job prospects, whether my research even matters. This isn't helping me at all.

Anyway, I was wondering whether this is normal practice - have/would your faculty fund transcription to allow you to get to work on analysis more quickly? For context, my analysis is extremely fine grained (deliberately being vague in case any colleagues read this), and involves very closing reading of the data that usually pushes people into a fourth year to finish their writing up.

Sounds like you are off to a flying start with your experiments then! How many word is a lit review for BS generally?

I have much more of a direction now (i think!), I've narrowed down some specifics aspects that I want to address, and I'm also thinking of making the sample population much more specific (so a sub-group of the community I'll be looking at). I'm taking this all to my supervisor on Friday, so hopefully she'll be ok with it! I think now that I have a bit more structure, moving forward with planning my studies will be a bit easier.

Can I ask what area of bio you're looking at? I'm looking psychology of sexual health risk behaviour, so quite interested in epidemiology and disease transmission!

Hi evilpenguin, how have your first few weeks been? I know how you feel with the imposter syndrome, I had a period last week where I managed to convince myself that I should quit as I didn't want to do a PhD anyway, happily i'm over that now though!

How is your plan coming along?

Great stuff-hello all :)

What areas are you all working in?

I've had my first supervision meeting this week, and already the project is evolving from my original proposal, which looks like it may involve a change in methodology. So lots of reading to do around that.

Out of interest, if any of you are in psychology/socsci, how much training are you being given in research methods/practice etc?

Evening all,
I've just started my PhD in psychology and am finding it pretty overwhelming/exhausting at the minute. The sense of freedom to take the research in any direction I want is great, but also terrifying me at the minute.
Is anyone up for a thread where we can share first year stuff (lit review stress, review panels, productivity slumps etc!)? Any subject welcome :)

I have a place on a psychology conversion course, starting September, which is distance learning. Does anyone have any experiences with doing the online conversion-how did you find it, would you recommend it (or do you think face to face is better)? I have some experience of psychology through my job and a prior qualification, so I won't be starting from scratch. Even so, I'm aware the courses are really demanding and just wondered what people's thoughts were?

P.S Does anyone think online learning puts you at a disadvantage re career prospects, or will employers not care so much?

Thanks :)

Great points-thanks again :) I'll report back on Tuesday!

Thankyou! I thought I'd ask about teaching opps, facilities for PhD students (e.g is there dedicated office space etc).Would you recommend anything else?

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some advice-I have an interview for a funded PhD on the 5th (Media/Gender Studies) and feel pretty prepared in terms of knowing my proposal. I have a list of Qs the interviewers might ask and have gotten some answers ready. So far so good, I'm just not sure about the interview process itself. The email invite didn't say much, just to expect it to last for approx. 30 minutes. How many people are you usually interviewed by, and would you expect there to a long shortlist for this area of study?

I'm really nervous and hope it goes well, but with this being my first interview for my first funded application, I'm not expecting too much success! Does anyone have any advice on stuff I may have overlooked?

Thanks!