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I am a foreign student in the UK. I am not sure if what I am experiencing is bullying at all because its a strange concept to men my age where I come from. There Is a "colleague" (thank God not in my group) who picks on me constantly. I dont mind occasional snide remark and to be honest at times find the veiled criticisms of others hilarious and I can take a joke. However one lady picks on me constantly, whenever I walk into a room she would have a retort ready for her friends. Its usually worse after 5.00 pm when most people have left.
Ordinarily I would have stood my ground and answered back but in this case I am a guest in this country (overseas student) and am funded by other people tax payer's money so I d rather just suffer in silence and wait to finish my studies. I have lied low for so long but its getting to me now and I cant stand her anymore. I hope i wont lose my cool soon and say something I ll regret

Does anyone else feel like this or its just me who is paranoid?

Thanks

======= Date Modified 11 Jan 2011 00:04:49 =======
Hi Missylow
I am now on my third year and totally understand how you feel. I am in a so called "good uni" too and i d like to assure that you ll be fine. I definitely dont consider myself as clever as the people I work with but I am convinced I will be able to submit on time. It takes a while to getting used, just give it a few more months and things will be clearer (both your project and the field you work in).
You should not assume that the rest are not having a tough time because they dint tell you. I have had some really tough times in the past two years and cried occasionally but then somehow I would think my lab mates would think I am always fine.
I am sure you ll be fine
All the best

Hey
I am in the sciences and managed a paltry 7.8% (a poser), can someone break it up for those of us who English is 2nd or third language please, what's the difference between geeks and nerds? I may have this wrong but is geekiness associated with a high IQ and could that be the reason why someone would want to be seen as a geek?

Hi Coop,
You may have as well picked your words from my mouth, I have been on my project for just over a year now. I am extremely unmotivated at the moment because nothing I am doing seems to work for the past couple of weeks. I have a troubled personal life that has bashed my self esteem and confidence pretty badly even in the best of times. Now that combined with my stuck project  for almost a month is very frustrating.
I have read many threads of people thinking of quitting before on this forum but I never thought it d occur to me. I am embarrassed to admit that it crossed my head for the first time yesterday, I know I am not going to quit because i love research and my project as a whole, I have had doubts of my abilities in the past when I was having tough days/weeks but this is the first time I asked myself if this PhD thing is for me.
I am fortunate to be in a very supportive group, I know there are even harder times ahead, my consolation now lies in my resilience. So to cut a long story short Coop you are not alone, hang in there and the bad times will pass (Talk of a blind guy helping another to cross a street)

There are lots of good movies so its hard to choose one, The Good the bad and the ugly and American Pie are my favourites,

I am glad you enjoyed it, I have never written a paper before but I ve heard of the trouble through, at least now I know what to expect when that time comes

======= Date Modified 02 53 2009 21:53:36 =======
Hello everyone,
I couldnt resist sharing this on this forum. Enjoy and feel free to comment about the peer review system.

:p

http://astro.berkeley.edu/~mwhite/referee_funny.html

hey Michelle, I do enjoy my PhD, its been about a year since I started I have learnt alot I still have a long way to go. I work with wonderful colleagues at the cutting edge of their respective specializations, I have superb supervisors whose previous students are flourishing career wise, I manage my own time, I choose what to read and when to read it...... there are many things to love in a PhD. I think it all boils down to why you want to do a PhD in the first place.
There are downside as well; realising that your work may never translate into anything useful or tangible, living abroad thousands of miles from everything you ve been used to, different cultures, patronizing attitude or people who make you feel stupid at times, going on for weeks at a time without anything working or any results...... I am sure you ve read many of these on the forum before.
You ll be fine, the advice given on this forum was really useful for me when I started and it still is so dont worry at all
Good luck

I would suggest you contact as many universities as possible that offer the course you are interested in. Starting with googling like someone just suggested seems like a good place to start. Try the British Council website and Commonwealth scholarships.
Good luck

Thanks alot I will contact him more oftenly

Hi
I am a first year 5 months into my PhD project now.So far I have done extensive background reading, a literature review and identified protocols that i will need to get along.Unfortunately I now feel stuck because most of the techniques I require are new to me. The rest of the guys in my lab have been very helpful so far but I have gotten to a point where I have to see my supervisor to progress because their work is slightly different from what I want to do. I feel that I am a bother to see my supervisor every time I have a trivial question or for a lab demonstration. Besides that I am stressed because I go to the lab everyday just to read and head back home without doing anything substantive towards my study objectives. There is a neighbouring lab where there are experts in my kind of thing and I am considering going to see them but then am not sure my supervisor will approve of it.
Has anyone else in the forum gone through anything close?

go to http://ec.europa.eu/education/external-relation-programmes/doc72_en.htm
good luck

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Thanks alot guys, it means alot to know I am not alone going through this. I feel better now I am definitely going to try out everything you guys suggested and see how the next couple of months go. Thanks again

Hi, forum,I am only a couple of months old in the UK, I havent made friends at all, i have never been popular not even back home but then neither am I a loner. I am used to having friends, laughing and arguing alot. I work in a fairly cosmopolitan group in one of the "big" Universities. I spend most of my time in the lab, the library or office with my colleagues (post docs). I havent had the chance to meet fellow PhD students. I have met a couple of undergrads from my country in a neighbouring University but I find them childish and too intent on partying and drinking. Most of them come from rich families anyway and are not under the kind of pressure I am.
At work I feel like I am not really fitting in like I should, I get the feeling that people are reserved and conversation is kept to a minimum. We occasionally go for drinks but I cant follow most of what they talk about. It has started to get me worried if this is how its gonna be for the next three years. I just started and was very excited to get here and now the doubt begin. I am thinking of taking a social skills course or something. Am I the problem? Did anyone else feel this way when they got here? Thanks