PhD support group?

DrFluffy

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/gso/forms/gso21.pdf

Looks like they've now reined the life sciences in under one unberella...

(iii) Biological Sciences

D.Phil. theses should normally be not more than 50,000 words in length (approximately 170 sides of A4 paper), exclusive of bibliography, appendices, diagrams, and tables. In exceptional circumstances the permission of the board can be sought to exceed this limit, but in no case may a thesis be longer than 75,000 words.

misskool

I have no worries on the word limit, I'm well known for being overly succint. My supervisor often pads out my writing!! Most of my data is time lapse pictures...
and a DVD in the appendix. I'd love to see the look on my examiners faces when they pick up the thin thesis and flip to find a DVD.

studentphil

You should be able to write up 50000 words in 3-5 months no problem!!!

misskool

LOL, writing up is not the problem. Getting the 'correct' data is!

DrFluffy

misskool wrote:

I have no worries on the word limit, I'm well known for being overly succint. My supervisor often pads out my writing!! Most of my data is time lapse pictures...
and a DVD in the appendix. I'd love to see the look on my examiners faces when they pick up the thin thesis and flip to find a DVD.

Coola! Time lapse rocks! I did a bit of it during mine, looking at localisation of fluro-tagged proteins under different stress conditions (IR, osmotic stress, oxidative etc). Certainly not as technologically advanced as to have had a DVD.

I hated writing up, simply because my style is succinct. Great for writing papers, not so good for the drab restating the pointness over and over again of thesis preparation!

studentphil

Data, no problem, make it up a bit, we always did that in science and geography!!!

DrFluffy

studentphil wrote:

Data, no problem, make it up a bit, we always did that in science and geography!!!

Scary. Very scary.

As a minimum, you would get sued by whoever funded your doctorate if that came out...

Look at what happened to Hwang Woo-suk...

studentphil

DrFluffy wrote:

Scary. Very scary.

As a minimum, you would get sued by whoever funded your doctorate if that came out...

Look at what happened to Hwang Woo-suk...

I know I was kidding!!
But at school all the lab equipment was so rubbish that you could never get any results.

misskool

You never, ever misrepresent your data. You destroy your career and all your co-workers will never recover from the fallout.

Moving on to nicer things...
How old were you when you finished your phd OR
How old will you be when you finish your phd?

I'll be 27 (which makes me feel ancient!) but I worked as a RA for 1 1/2 years after my BSc.

studentphil

misskool wrote:

You never, ever misrepresent your data. You destroy your career and all your co-workers will never recover from the fallout.

Moving on to nicer things...
How old were you when you finished your phd OR
How old will you be when you finish your phd?

I'll be 27 (which makes me feel ancient!) but I worked as a RA for 1 1/2 years after my BSc.

24-26 is about the average age depending on if you do any work in the middle or what have you.

If you do a masters then PHD you are looking at about 25.

The sad thing is that you have lost 4 years earnings compared to your mates who got jobs at 21, they have cars, houses, holidays-- look how much making up you have to do,