PhD support group?

crazyscientist

studentphil wrote:

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,

I am 23 now and will be 24 when i finish.

As for losing out on 4 years pay. My PhD is funded and i do teaching work to supplement it. I do have a car and a house - but not much time for holidays! My mate worked out the other day that we would have to have £19,000 jobs to take home the same as what we do for PhD (cos its all tax free). And TBH, the majority of the people i know from undergrad degree are working in admin type jobs earning much less than that.

ffeindadifyr

talksalot81 wrote:

I have 200 written and I guess I might make it to 220 once complete (pt 12 times roman, 1.5 line spaced). This seems to be on the longer side for the physics thesis from those in my area. However I have seen some well over 300 and others barely 150. I was never given a firm guide on length.

In writing times I have been encouraged not to be too long if possible. There seems to be a bit of a drive to shorten the text.

We weren't given any guidelines on length - but I know from what I've heard over the years that external examiners prefer a concise thesis (so they can read it on the train, on the way to the viva :rotfl: )

Mine was about 180 pages including all the refs and declarations a.s.o. 1.5 line spacing - this is sort of the average length in my field - Semiconductors/Surface Science

ffeindadifyr

misskool wrote:

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

I agree, I spent 3.5 yrs getting the data and doing the data analysis and 6 weeks writing the entire thesis.

misskool

studentphil wrote:

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,

I'm beginning to think there is no 'average' age. Everyone should do things at their own pace. Shuffling yourself through the system doesn't do you good.

I am much more motivated about my phd having already had research experience!

Jobs at 21? I'm all for the avoidance of real life for as long as possible. :cool:

misskool

ffeindadifyr wrote:

I agree, I spent 3.5 yrs getting the data and doing the data analysis and 6 weeks writing the entire thesis.

Sounds like how my thesis is going to be. I want to submit by Christmas but it seems like I'll be working in the lab until then..... :rolleyes:

studentphil

misskool wrote:

I'm beginning to think there is no 'average' age. Everyone should do things at their own pace. Shuffling yourself through the system doesn't do you good.

I am much more motivated about my phd having already had research experience!

Jobs at 21? I'm all for the avoidance of real life for as long as possible. :cool:

Some of us like me have to meet the real world and earning at 21, you are very lucky that you can avoid it so long.

ffeindadifyr

As has been previously mentioned... in the sciences a PhD is as well paid as a job if you take into account the extra tutoring and demonstrating you can do as well as the fact that there are no income tax /NI and council tax to worry about!

Misskool - Just keep going... but try and work out if you have enough data for your PhD - in the end I discovered that I had a lot more than what I needed and although the last 6 months experiments were the best results I could have started to write my thesis up 6 months earlier and still passed.

It's a delicate balance!

What research are you doing?

cupid_s

our limit for science theses is 100,000 words. But there's also a tp limit of 300 pages. And i can't see how it's possible to fit 100,000 words into 300 pages.

studentphil wrote:

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,

I am actually quite offended by that comment. I am getting pretty poor funding compared to most scientists on here I imagine, luckily hubby gets quite a bit more but we don't feel at all sad about 'losing 4 years of our lives'. In fact we've gained an awful lot and will have the benefit of doing (pretty easy acutally) jobs we love for not a bad wage. I know people who started earning at 21 and were earning a whopping 14-15k a year. After tax a whole 1-2k perhaps more than the average science PhD student picks up. I can manage without that much for 3 years to be able to earn more at the end of it all.
One thing - we own our own house we bought it when we were both 22 (and incidentally got no help from our parents with deposit etc). Will you have your own house by next year? In fact out of my friends the only other one with a house already is another PhD student. All the ones who got jobs after their first degrees are still renting. Just cos you are a student doesn't mean you can't have your own house, car, nice holidays etc. This year we went to thailand for 2 weeks holiday, and we're off to amsterdam for a 5day break in a couple of weeks. Last year we went on a 6 week holiday to thailand, australia, new zealand and new york costing £6k, and in the same year went on a lovely 2 week caribbean cruise. And next year we're hopefully off to south africa for a wedding.
How are me and hubby missing out by being students please tell me?

studentphil

cupid_stunt wrote:

our limit for science theses is 100,000 words. But there's also a tp limit of 300 pages. And i can't see how it's possible to fit 100,000 words into 300 pages.



I am actually quite offended by that comment. I am getting pretty poor funding compared to most scientists on here I imagine, luckily hubby gets quite a bit more but we don't feel at all sad about 'losing 4 years of our lives'. In fact we've gained an awful lot and will have the benefit of doing (pretty easy acutally) jobs we love for not a bad wage. I know people who started earning at 21 and were earning a whopping 14-15k a year. After tax a whole 1-2k perhaps more than the average science PhD student picks up. I can manage without that much for 3 years to be able to earn more at the end of it all.
One thing - we own our own house we bought it when we were both 22 (and incidentally got no help from our parents with deposit etc). Will you have your own house by next year? In fact out of my friends the only other one with a house already is another PhD student. All the ones who got jobs after their first degrees are still renting. Just cos you are a student doesn't mean you can't have your own house, car, nice holidays etc. This year we went to thailand for 2 weeks holiday, and we're off to amsterdam for a 5day break in a couple of weeks. Last year we went on a 6 week holiday to thailand, australia, new zealand and new york costing £6k, and in the same year went on a lovely 2 week caribbean cruise. And next year we're hopefully off to south africa for a wedding.
How are me and hubby missing out by being students please tell me?

Dont be offended by it as it is hardly an important comment. You are slightly better off than self funded PHD students which I was really thinking about when I put that.
Please do not be offended.

cupid_s

Ok i know you didn't mean it in any not-nice way.
Self funded PhD students have to pay about £3.5k per year bench fees. As well as keeping themselves. So if you look at my hubby who picks up 13k (no tax or n.i. remember) he is actually over 16 grand better off than someone who self funds. So it's a whole lot better off not slightly.
I only pick up 9.5k. But still I'm better off to the tune of 13k compared to someone who self funds.
If someone does fund themselves in a science PhD, to be honest I think they're a little bit mad. I would never consider it. Luckily science PhDs are in general well funded. I think this is the reason why so many people do then, and then that is the reason why you can't do much with just a science Bsc of Msc - cos more and more people have a better degree your Bsc/Msc becomes kinda worthless in trying to get a sceicne related job. It's much easier in a non-science subject where just a Msc will get you a decent job.