======= Date Modified 14 May 2012 16:46:55 =======
Hi everyone,
As you may recall from my previous posts, I am a first-year PhD student, and as a part of my programme, I am taking some additional courses in research methods. As a part of one of these courses, I am working on a group project, for which we need to conduct a full-blown quantitative study in a very short period of time. Having reflected on our experience as PhD students so far, we have decided to conduct a study of factors that affect our satisfaction (or dissatisfaction! ,)) with our life as doctoral students. We are trying to get as many responses as possible from PhD students from different countries and academic backgrounds, and hope that we could get meaningful results that could be useful to students, supervisors and universities.
If you are interested in participating, please use the link below to access our questionnaire.
http://go.bath.ac.uk/PhD_Life_Survey
I could also share the results of this exploratory study here, if there is enough interest. Also, if you have any questions about the study, please feel free to PM me.
Thank you and apologies for yet another 'please fill out a questionnaire' post!
A quick update: just to avoid any confusion - the survey is aimed primarily at current PhD students or those who have completed their research recently, hence there is no 'completed' option in the question asking about the year of the programme you are currently in. Thanks to the helpful user who has raised this issue!

Hi everyone,

As you may know from my earlier post, I am in my first year of a PhD programme, so I am taking some research methods classes this year. For one of these modules, we are conducting a research project on satisfaction with one's PhD experience. This will be an exploratory study, and we have conducted several focus groups before starting to work on our theoretical framework. Unfortunately, neither of our focus groups included history, philosophy or literature PhD students, and we would really like to get a perspective of students of those disciplines. I know it's a lot to ask, but if there's anyone who would be willing to be interviewed or answer a few open-ended, general questions through a message, please do let me know. :-)

Our next step is a survey, and I hope that I'll be able to share the preliminary results with you guys sometime in May.:)

Hi everyone - thank you so much for your replies and suggestions. These are all very helpful, and I agree that preparing an agenda before the meeting should help. I do try to send them something I've done/written before each meeting, but as I now know, it doesn't necessarily mean the discussion should focus on it. I am now supposed to write down my ideas and send them to the supervisory team, so that might be helpful as well. I am also trying to understand what made me act like a rather stupid teenage girl in that meeting, when I can confidently tell other students about the things I've read and the ideas I have for my research. Either way, thanks again for all your support - it's always good to know you're not alone, especially since PhD can be such a lonely experience!

My main issue with finding a partner amongst other PhD students is that there is a high probability that we will end up spending our time together discussing academic issues. On the other hand, as several users have mentioned here, it is also difficult to meet people from outside the university. Even when I do meet someone, I usually end up boring them to death, because, after all, why would they listen about my quest for a perfect theoretical framework/methodology?:) It's strange that I never cared about having a boyfirend before starting a PhD, and now I (kind of) wish I did!
Agree with the others, however - you should definitely speak to that girl in the corridor. Good luck!

Hi all,

Apologies for starting another 'feeling down'/'I'm not good enough for a PhD thread', but here goes...
I'm in the first year of my PhD, and I am also required to take some research methods courses this year, so I have to work on both my own research and the course work for those. I have been trying to define/refine my question since October, and I've been reading a lot around my topic. I've also been doing well enough in my courses, although they keep distracting me from my own work. Recently, I had a meeting with my supervisors, who are always very understanding and helpful. I'm not sure what happened, but it seemed like my IQ just dropped as soon as the meeting started. I couldn't answer the simplest questions! We ended up going through the stuff I already knew, simply because I failed to show them that I knew it all. I could tell my supervisors were getting really frustrated, because I was wasting their time. All in all, it was extremely embarrassing, and I spent the last few days thinking about what I could/should have said. I just feel so stupid and still not sure why this happened - why couldn't I express myself properly? Am I really not good enough for this? Worst of all, my supervisors probably think I'm a complete idiot now, and it's all my fault. What should I do?

Most of the PhD applicants have probably gone through the process of writing, revising and editing the research proposal based on the supervisor's/prospective supervisor's comments. I finished the initial version of my proposal in December and sent it to my prospective supervisor, who got back to me saying that the proposal was good to go. I only submitted my application several weeks ago (I'm working full-time, so it took me some time to get in touch with the referees from my BA/MSc schools), and then, last week, I received a very confusing e-mail from the programme administrator. In short, I was told that my potential supervisor found my proposal underdeveloped and wanted me to revise it. He did mention that the choice of the research problem was good, interesting even, though. Not only did I find this really confusing given that the professor seemed to have already approved the proposal, but I was also advised that he was too busy to provide any detailed advice. The problem is, I'm not sure what I could/should change in my paper, and I wouldn't want to take a shot in the dark here. I was thinking of sending him a brief e-mail with just a couple of sentences describing my ideas on how to change the proposal and ask if he approves - would that make any sense? I also have to say that I've applied to two other universities. For one of them, I had to completely re-focus my research question/problem, following the potential supervisor's comments and suggestions. I could probably use the same approach for the proposal I have to revise, but I'm not sure it would fit in with that professor's research interests.
I'm really just looking for some level-headed advice here, so I'd be grateful for any comments - thanks!