Fair enough. I suppose coming onto a forum and reactivating an ancient thread to ask for help is a bit desperate, especially with two days to go before a deadline.

Despite starting this thread almost eight years ago I have received email notifications to tell me people have been replying to it.

mwraza1, I can send you a 500 word research proposal of mine if that would help (and I can find it in the archives - i.e. my old laptop). Not sure if it will be much use to you but won't hurt for you to read over it.

Sounds incredibly unprofessional for a university to decide a proposal isn't up to scatch after they have invited someone to an interview and then withdraw the offer of the interview. I would be furious to be honest and I'd give that department a wide berth in the future.

Certainly when I was applying for PhDs the course tutors and lecturers were happy to give students references prior to finishing the MA. If this person won't give you a reference there is little you can do about it. All you can do is politely ask them again and expalin you want (or need) to apply for PhDs now, not in March, and so if they are willing to give you a reference based on what they know about your academic performance over the year, and not your final grade, could they please do so. If they say no again you your only other option is to ask other tutors/lecturers on your course - you have no other option. These tutors may also be more receptive to helping you with your proposal, or at least reading it over once before you submit it.

I assume from the fact you have to submit a propsal you are applying for a social science/humanities PhD. Whether you are applying to your current univerversity of a different one it is (in my experience) essential to have contacted a specific supervisor who is interested in supervising your posposed PhD and will 'fight your corner' and try to get you funding - 'blind' applications (where no potential supervisor has been contacted or epressed an interest in supervising the proposed PhD) are rarely successful.

Good luck with your application.

If they get a lot of applications for this - which they inevitably will in the current climate - they will think "why have entry level research job positions when there is an army of unpaid labour only too happy to do these jobs for free".

Volunteering is meant to be a few hours after work or on a weekend helping out in the community - not doing a skilled job for free.

I would only quit the ESRC 1+3 if you are absolutley 100% sure that this GES Fast Stream is definitley what you want to do and you have a guarenteed place on it. ESRC 1+3s are so hard to get I think that most people who have been lucky enough to be awarded one would finish it and then go into the field they want to after that.

In the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities most studentships are advertised in Jan - April, usually for a September/October start in the same year. For this reason studentships will be very thin on the ground at this time of year, universities will be getting ready for the start of the new academic year and postgrauate admissions will be working on preparing for the new PhD students starting this month or next.

Best bet would be to use the next few months to work on improving/updating your research proposal and application, ready to apply for new studentships at the start of 2012. I assume that science type PhD studentships follow the same sort of cycle, but there might be a few more of them advertised throughout the year. However, with cutbacks in university funding studentships or funding of any kind at all is going to become less and less common, and those that are advertised will have even greater competition. Good luck!

Sounds like your potential supervisor wants to have an informal chat about your proposal and plans. If this goes well and your supervisor thinks your ideas would make a viable PhD project (which he or she probably does since they have invited you for the chat) they will invite you to make a full application for PhD when you will more than likely have a more formal interview.

1. You say that one is expected to collect and analyze statistical data in psychology but I don't believe this to be the case. For example I have a friend who has a PhD in psychology. Their thesis was on educational psychology and they used qualitative methods extensively. Quantitiave statistical analysis would have been completely inappropriate for the issues they were seeking to understand. Psychology os a broad subject and can range from highly mathematical statistical approaches to qualitative appraches which are closely linked with sujects like anthropology. The important thing is that the correct methods (whether qualitative or quantitative) are used to investigate the topic in question.

2. All PhDs will, to some extent, involve gathering new data and analysing it. Although it will vary massivley between subjects all successful PhDs will, in the broadest understanding of the term, involve some form of generating/gathering new data and analysing this as part of their PhD work. A Phd must be original and therefore finding new data or information on the subject of the PhD is needed to achieve this.

3. Research councils class a full time PhD as 37 hours a week but in reality most full time PhD students do more hours than this. Combining full time PhD with a full time job would therefore be realistically impossible. Most people find part time work and part time PhD a real challenge!

Hope this helps.

I would still buy it if he has asked for the game. It has still got on the whole positive reviews and will definately be a good, solid game that is fun to play.

I think the disappointment lies in the fact that people had waited so long for this game and were expecting 100% amazing reviews accross the board, and instead it has turned out to be very good, rather than totally amazing.

If he likes racing and car games he will still enjoy the game.

I loved GT4 and had had high hopes for GT5. After all the delays with GT5 coming out it was going to have to be absolutely amazing o keep the critics happy and by all accounts it is just quite good.

Going to buy a game tomorow and after the reviews I think i'm going to get COD Black Ops over GT5.

If you have claimed the MPhil as a qualification in itself then to get a PhD you would have to start from scratch all over again.

I'm pretty sure that you can't 'top up' the Mphil into a PhD at a later date, and you certainly can't keep the Mphil and do a quick PhD in two years to have both qualifications.

I would include the references, better to have them there if they are needed rather than leave them off.

I would only included references to work that you have cited in the abstract itself.

hope this helps!

If you avoid main dealers and chains like (Halfords, Kwik fit and Mr Clutch) which are a total rip-off where you are only paying for the brand name, a service at a trusted local independent garage should't cost much more than £100 - 150.

Why bother with a service? They are not essential like tax and MOT etc. As long as its running fine and oil and coolant/antifreeze are at the correct levels (easy to check) then I wouldn't waste any money with services if the car is old or low-value. A full service history won't add any value to a car that is already past its best and already lost most of its value.

Save your money things that are needed to legally keep the car on the road like tax, insurance and MOT!

This is the link to the THE article:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=409323&c=1

There was an interesting article in the Times Higher Education with numerous proessors and people from the ESRC saying that there is not enough research students and researchers using quantitative methods and the UK's international status in social science.

I guess that the fact that PhDs that involve 'hardcore' quantitative analysis get an enhanced stipend from the ESRC shows that they are keen to get more people doing quantitative PhDs in social science.