Hi,

I'm giving serious thought to quitting my PhD after three years and five months, and wondering whether I will be able to leave with at least an MPhil and sanity intact. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

I've made so many mistakes: wrong topic, wrong university, wrong supervisor, wrong habits. I knew after a year or so that it wasn't really working out, but I managed to pass through my mid-point progression (at eighteen months) and convince myself that I would pull my finger out and get the work done.

My supervisor is nice but lazy and not the brightest, and has never set me any proper deadlines. I'm not self-motivated enough to make that arrangement work, and he has very rarely contributed anything of any worth to my sham of a thesis.

I had a real desire to quit shortly before the 2 year mark, but my girlfriend, parents, and friends convinced me to stick with it, as it wasn't long left and I'd already spent so much time on it. Not really true: I've become utterly depressed with my lack of progress. Weeks pass with nothing to show. The enthusiasm for academia has completely left me.

Everyday is an attempt to rouse my spirits and shake myself into writing, but nothing comes. I'm in a writing up year now (after being granted an extension) but spent October to Jan working full-time in a well-paid job in financial services to support myself as my 3 year studentship has ended.

I dreaded the thought of returning to the PhD, but now I have, things are cranking up and my supervisor is talking about booking the external examiner for my Viva. I'm not even close to submitting - still a big case study and conclusion to write up, not to mention editing the rest.

I know that I would not regret quitting as I detest my PhD, but would like to know that I will at least come away with an Mphil.

One of my friends is a medic but some two years before she graduated she was making sure all her correspondence referred to her as 'Doctor'. I wonder whether there are any PhD. students who do this well before they gain the qualification?

Aussiechick I am sure you are more than ok to use the title. Enjoy! :-)

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Double post

Cheers Heifer and Cornflower.

Heifer - Great tips on local sites and much appreciated! I will def follow advice up about the gym (from that you can probably deduce what city I am in!) as I have been looking for a decent one. I will also check out local museums over the next week or so as I have plenty of free time. Nice to hear from someone who has moved around departments as well. And I think you are spot on about the research community being more important than Uni status. Puts my mind at ease :-)

Cornflower - Good to hear you have settled well in the NE, I am hoping I will find my feet as quickly as you. It sounds as if you are in a similar boat to me with regards to socialising with UG's. It is not so much that I dislike who I am living with, more that I find it difficult to relate to them and probably vice-versa. You don't realise how much you have matured yourself until you are confronted with what you were like at that age. Still, living with just one person who likes sports or decent music wasn't too much to ask was it?? :-/

I have had two 'gap' years if you like (one after my BA and one after my MA) so I know it can be hard getting back into an academic mind-frame, let alone the prospect of living hand-to-mouth. Let's hope I hit the ground running :-S

I will pm you sometime.

Best.

Again, thanks for all your posts. Bleebles you are right, 'dire' is too strong at this early stage. I hope I will get on with all my flatmates, and like I did, I am sure they will mature as the year unfolds.

Problem is I moved in after everybody else as I was away on holiday, and I kind of feel I have missed out on the 'bonding' process. I am not really bothered about rowdiness/noise as it is to be expected from freshers, it is just from my initial impressions they do not seem like my kind of people - ranging from obnoxious to over-sensitive.

It is in big contrast to my first year as an UG where I felt I made lots of friends with relative ease. I'm only 24 and I am up for some fun, it just seems much more of a struggle this time round.

Perhaps this is what is frustrating me more than anything, and maybe why I am viewing my PhD in such a negative light.

Once I get to work I'm hoping I will stop being such a miserable sod :-)

Thanks for your replies everyone. I don't have any intention of walking away - that would be pretty foolish since I haven't even properly started. After getting the original offer from my uni I was really happy. It may just be the dire social situation (living with freshers and in a tiny room) may be getting the better of me. Probably need to face the fact that I am here primarily to work, and my social life will have to take a back seat for the next few years. Once I enrol and start cracking on with my thesis I am hoping there will be a bit more structure to my day. I do have a mate from my old uni who is now living in the same city: we are meeting up Wednesday for drinks, so its not all bad. Just would be nice if I was sharing a flat with some like-minded people.

Hi everyone! I am a new poster here, and could do with some sage advice. I am just about to start a PhD at a University in the North East of England, yet before I have even typed a word of it I feel pretty downbeat. In terms of academic standing it is worse than my previous Uni (Redbrick Uni in North-West) where I gained my BA in History and MA in Cultural History (both first class). Now, I had chances to remain at that aformentioned Uni to do my PhD, and although initially I was very keen, due to a lack of funding and also a split with my then long-term girlfriend I thought I would give education a break for a year to see what would come up.

In hindsight perhaps a bad idea, I was unemployed for three months after handing in my MA dissertation (I had sinced moved back home), I then managed to get some temp work back in the North West which was also interspersed with a bit of travelling in Borneo/Malaysia. On my return from travelling I was a bit dissapointed with the amount of funding and number of studentships on offer - a shared feeling, I'm sure. At this time I had a few ideas for a PhD project - I have after all, covered a lot of ground in both degrees. I saw a studentship offered (at NE Uni I am now at) with a good yearly stipend, and although the subject matter was quite different to what I have previously written about (more of a media and communications PhD than a history one), I managed to 'bend' my research interests (sexuality, gender studies) to fit the criteria and flesh out a proposal.

To my suprise it was well greeted by the department and I was offered the studentship by the panel. In the meantime I was also applying for a PhD at my old uni (as well as some others). And again, I was offered a place by my old department but again it was unclear whether I would again be able to get any funding. There was a bit of an impasse where I was not sure quite what to do - better supervision or actual money and a fresh start in a new city? I chose the latter as I could simply not afford to self-fund a PhD and with the recent split with my girlfriend I felt like getting away from the NW.

Now I am in the NE I am having my doubts. The place does not feel home to me yet. There is no PG accommodation at this Uni so I am forced to live with 5 freshers. Apart from one, they all seem v young and immature (that is something coming from me) as well as distrustful of me as a PhD student. They don't seem to understand the concept of a PhD studentship and it is frustrating trying to explain over and over why I am actually here. (I keep getting asked my 'A' level results ffs!)

I don't actually enrol until this Fri and hopefully things will thereon improve - I get my own desk to work at, and hopefully I will make friends within the PG community which seems fairly large. I just can't escape the feeling of isolation that is already setting in. Two main worries: did I make the right uni choice, have I turned my back on history as a subject?