I completely agree with the last couple of posts - it is absolutley essential to have time off during your PhD. I do labwork and took a month off at the end of my 1st year to go to New Zealand (had been saving for a VERY long time) as that seemed like the best time to do it - my supervisor was absolutely fine with it as he was happy with progress. Took a few weeks off last summer but will not take much this time round as it's my final year. Do what you want with the time you have free - don't feel like you HAVE to work all the time, or you will go crazy. For a cheap getaway, maybe around Europe? Go with friends and relax - you need to forget completely about your work sometimes, you will feel much better to tackle it after. A PhD is not all doom and gloom, I say go for it! ;)

I would say if you're really sure of persuing a PhD, not to bother with a masters (for sciences anyway). I went straight from my BSc to PhD and it hasn't caused any problems - I worked as a research tech for a few months inbetween. Have you thought about taking some time out after your BSc? Maybe to sort your head out and get some experience in your field. PhDs are available all year round, so you can take as long as you need. I don't think the added pressure of fees (which is ridiculous - my friend has to pay >£1000 of bench fees as well?!?) and intensity of a masters is worth it in my opinion. But that's just me, I'm sure it's worth it for many others.

Hi moomin! I use siliconized eppendorfs for a lot of my experiments - v good for maximal recovery of material (I work on chromatin). You can get them from Sigma (product no. T4816). Pretty sure that's the right one! :)

I share an office with my supervisor! :o (plus a postdoc and another PhD student)

I usually work 9-5 mon-fri in the lab, sometimes a bit less and sometimes a bit more. Probably go out once or twice during the week and do a bit of work in the evenings. The weekend is for partying :) People in my lab come in at the weekends, crazy fools! I need my weekends to get away from it all.

I'm doing about cancer science. What does your research involve?

I'm a month and a week into mine and I've constantly been in the lab - no time for reading a lot!