I just started my PhD. Last semester my primary supervisor has read and sent comments on my proposal, my secondary supervisor has interviewed me online. So I thought I had a good start. The moment I walked in for our first meeting, my primary supervisor said "you were doing X and Y, right?" and I said no and explained my research questions again and showed them my abstract and table of contents. My primary supervisor then said it is very narrow, not very interesting and that I should shift to something else. Now I'm doing only one part on one of the initial research questions and looking from a new perspective (not the government but the end-user's). Rest of my proposal and research questions have gone to waste and I feel unprepared for this new subject. Is it common among new PhD students? I worry that they think they made a mistake by choosing me :(

My supervisor is teaching a course for masters students and she said I should follow it. I'm not responsible for exams or anything but I feel like I should still prepare for class. Some of them are familiar from my own masters but overall it takes time... I feel like I should drop it but it would not leave a very good impression.
What do you think, is it common among PhD students to take masters level courses?

In April, I told them I accept their offer for the PhD programme and obviously they did not take anyone else in that place. I was going to be self funded. Now I learned that another school has decided to give me a full scholarship and the amount is huge since I am an international student. I really want to accept the scholarship and enrol in the other school, it is most logical thing to do financially although the first school might think it is t rude and unethical since it might be a bit late to take someone else (August). Do you think I will be in trouble?

I'm an international student and though I've lived in the UK before, I'm going to do my PhD in a new city. Since I don't know anyone and don't know the city well I've applied for university accommodation and got an ensuite room. Later I read that its a very noisy area and that postgrads don't have separate buildings..It would mean I would have to live with noisy undergrads, I'm not even sure if I want to have friends that young. Since I already accepted the accommodation offer it would be costly to get out and also I don't know how reliable gumtree or spareroom.co.uk ads are. I would still need to see the house before renting and I won't be coming to UK until september. I envy people living with other PhD students for having a quiet yet social environment and started to regret my accommodation decision. It makes me very unhappy, any recommendations?

I guess it depends on your field but i would try to continue in a different university. There are plenty of good unis in Europe and they have programmes in English. I had friends who gave up on academia, then hated the private sector and started another phd programme from the beginning.

Uni A replied my last email and told me they would only interview me if i havent accepted another place. I was trying to prepare a polite email to tell them that i have accepted elsewhere (as i mentioned before) and only wanted to see if their programme was a better fit for me and was going to apologise for taking their time. before I could send that email, Uni A co-supervisor emailed me and gave me the date for the skype interview. Should i go ahead with the interview or tell them about the other place in an email? I told them that before and the fact that they told me they would interview me only if i havent accepted another place made me think it was pointless. Now this skype interview offer confused me..

So if i send an email and say i'm more interested in their programme and if they reject/do not reply, wouldn't it be very bad if my new supervisor hears about it? I'm trying to find the right place but i'm not used to these things.. I wish I was funded by an external source so I could apply to all universities and choose the best one.

So do you think i should contact the supervisor from Uni A and say something like i would still accept your offer even without funding or would it be too weird? I'm also afraid its too late since they already know about the other university.

I've applied to a good programme (lets call it A) and when i did not hear from them for a month I've applied to another uni (B) which is much higher in rankings. University (B) sent an offer but didn't give me any scholarships, since i didn't hear from the others I accepted B's offer. The assigned supervisor never contacted me, it was always the law school assistants who emailed me.
Then Uni (A) contacted me and sent tons of suggested amendments, soon after a professor contacted me and said i should amend some parts and we can have an interview online. (This professor supervised the phd of the one from Uni B - thats how experienced she is...) My other friends, who are doing their PhDs, told me to be honest so I replied and said I am very interested in Uni (A), but I have already accepted another university and that I would still apply for Uni (A) scholarships, I also sent her the amended proposal... Since then 3 weeks have passed and I think she will never reply.
Then another university said my proposal needs amendments too so now I feel like my initial proposal was awful and I'm wondering what is wrong with Uni (B) for accepting me so quickly although it is clearly more prestigious than the others? Is it possible they take international students without much consideration to receive more money? Should I have lied to Uni (A) about the other programme? What should I do?

My prospective supervisor already has 8 students and she only contacts me through the assistants so far. I already accepted their offer and now another university is also considering my application, that potential supervisor wrote so many constructive comments on my proposal and wants to interview me. Although I accepted the other one, I'm not sure if I should still go to the other interview. I like how this other supervisor pays attention.
Also should I mention I already accepted another offer?

I think it requires brains and courage to admit that you would have a better future doing something else. I am in a similar situation, although I accepted the PhD offer I sometimes think maybe it would be better if I just go back to practicing law. I think everyone has similar issues when there is more than one option and quitting does not necessarily mean you are not good enough. On the other hand I would suggest you try a bit more, it seems like you have lost your enthusiasm but maybe it will come back when you take a step back and try to picture yourself doing something else. Good luck.

My problem is I have applied to couple of universities. I have recently received an offer from a very prestigious university with a very good supervisor but failed to get a scholarship from there. I thought about it until the deadline and accepted their offer.
About a week later one of the other universities contacted me (months after my application) and said one of the professors wants to interview me but I should not consider this as an offer yet. Within this second school there is one scholarship left and if I get it, it would be very very helpful. On the other hand if I do not get the scholarship, the prestigious one seems like a better fit. Should I still talk with that professor and make amendments? They already informed me there is only one scholarship left and I chose to go through with my application. Would it be really rude if they accept me (without a scholarship) after all these correspondence and then I choose another university? Their rankings are not that different, one of them is 6th and the other is the 17th..
Is it normal to talk to the school and a potential supervisor as if you are coming and drop it the moment you don't get the scholarship/get another offer?

I did my masters in Cardiff. It's a really nice city and it is cheaper compared to London. The uni is very good, (Russell Group). I can only talk about the law library but it was quite good. Postgraduate centre allows you to study quietly, meet other postgrads and attend postgraduate events/trips. Night life is not so bad, since its the capital of Wales there are tons of things to do but at the same time it is not very crowded so it is a perfect combination for a student. The campus is inside the city so Bute Park, City Centre and most of the student accommodation is within walking distance. Everything is easy and people are quite supportive. I would certainly do my PhD there if there was supervision..
Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck

I received an offer from Nottingham for a phd in law but did not get the scholarship. I have also applied to other universities who are not as good and they are also interested. I don't know which one is more important: funding or the prestige of the university.

I applied to 6 UK universities for a PhD programme in law. 3 of them rejected me around the same time, saying that they cannot provide supervision in my field. I have seen that there were relevant academics there who are willing to supervise students next year so I guess I was the problem... The other 3 universities (Queen Mary, Edinburgh and Nottingham) are taking really long, their webpages say it takes around 6-8 weeks but it has already been over 10 weeks now. One of them sent me an email 2 weeks ago saying that my documents has finally reached to law school from the admissions office but that was it. The other two still says "undecided" on their portal. Should I just give up and assume I am rejected?