PhD support group?

melancholly

aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

more savage comments on my writing................ so bl**dy depressing........... hard not be be upset when people are negative - especially when other people reading the same manuscript have been really positive.... it's all so subjective and annoying and i shouldn't take it personally but i do!

(in case you hadn't guessed, i'm not having a great morning!)

misskool

talksalot81 wrote:

Been looking for better treatment if that counts... radiotherapies. Happily we have found some good stuff... unsurprisingly the UK funding bodies are not willing to fund it (interdisciplinary is impossibly difficult).

That is quite surprising, I've seen quite a lot of money going into interdisciplinary research in the past few years, I thought that was the brand new thing.

Welcome to pug_in_a_bed and missejackson.

hey melancholly, you can do what I do and just assume that people are jealous about the great work that you're doing! If what you're doing is quite competitive, some people are just going to be savage about it to try and hold you back. One of the papers in my lab has been held up over silly little things for almost a year now.

talksalot81

misskool wrote:

That is quite surprising, I've seen quite a lot of money going into interdisciplinary research in the past few years, I thought that was the brand new thing.

That is where money is going, but it is not so much true interdisciplinary. There is alot of work going on with one discipline working with something from another, but when it comes to actually obtaining information common to one discipline out of the elements of another, it falls flat on its face. The problem is the funding councils work on key words. In my case I do physics and work with biologists. So I am trying to get fundamental info from biomolecular systems. So our proposals get sent to biologists who know nothing about physics and thus get bogged down in detail which we dont care about or it goes to physicists who dont understand the biological aspects (which is much less of a problem). In the current climate, it takes only one negative comment and you wont be getting any money.

ollyshaw

melancholly wrote:

aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

more savage comments on my writing................ so bl**dy depressing........... hard not be be upset when people are negative - especially when other people reading the same manuscript have been really positive.... it's all so subjective and annoying and i shouldn't take it personally but i do!

(in case you hadn't guessed, i'm not having a great morning!)

I know exactly how you feel!

sciencegeek

Hello everyone,
Having completed my PhD recently and just found this thread i thought i would add a few encouraging comments for those in the middle (or just starting) theirs. I did a science subject so I dont know how relevant my thoughts are to non-scientists but here goes...

Money
I was lucky enough to be well funded (MRC + CASE) but doing a behavioural lab based PhD I knew i would never finish within 3 years (its almost unheard of). However, I found that with careful budgeting it is possible to self fund for up to 1 year after the funding ended (save about 3k per year). If you do find yourself a bit short of money see your student services for hardship awards or talk to your supervisor. Supervisors usually have access to some kind of slushfund from which they may be able to give you some help. Im sure they would rather you finished your work than were forced to leave for financial reasons.

Publications
I have not published any papers yet (1 is in preparation though) and i still managed to get a great job i really enjoy that uses the qualification and skills ive learnt. Dont worry about not publishing during your PhD, there is plenty of time for that in due course. Concentrate on getting your thesis written first!

Stress
Be prepared to work long hours - like a previous poster, I handed my thesis in at the end of my fourth year (2 days late as it happens) but I had to work around 20h a day 7 days a week for the final month to achieve this (i had not been slacking previously either!). You will probably feel like death during the final moments of your course but if you manage it you will have a qualification that you can be truly proud of and noone can ever take away from you.
By the way, almost all of the students i have known agree that the majority of your good results will come along during your final year so dont worry if things are not amazing from day 1.

Stopping
One other thing, if you really find its not for you, dont be afraid to stop. You could always convert your work to date into an mPhil and leave with a decent qualification. I know several people who decided it was not for them and stopped their studies and never looked back. In my mind it is incredibly brave to know what you want and decide to stop. It should definately NOT be looked at as any kind of failure.

I hope someone can take heart from this.

All the best.

ollyshaw

Cheers Sciencegeek, your post is the only thing that has really lifed my moral (re my PhD) for ages.

Olly

hostie

Hello, I thought I'd come and say hi on this thread too since I will be starting my PhD in October. I have already had a bit of contact with a few of you on other threads.

I know how you feel Melancholy about the negative comments. The other side of the coin though is that if you don't get frank feedback it is difficult to improve. It is all very subjective.

Thanks to sciencegeek for the info too, though I am also an arts student.

What do people think about 'organised library visits' etc? I am considering going on one next year which is to Paris because I suspect there will be material on visual arts that I need there. Unfortunately I don't speak French (the library and archives visit will be conducted in English). I could go with my partner who speaks French but thought this might be helpful. On the other hand I dont want to waste my time traipsing around libraries that will be of no use to me. Are there any arts students around that have been on similar things? If you read this ages after I post it (29 Aug) maybe reply by PM.

Thanks heaps.

crazyscientist

Hey

Welcome hostie, but no sorry i don't know anything about foreign libraries. I'm lucky if i leave my lab never mind the country!

Mellancholly - don't let critisism get you down. Writing up is hard work but you'll get there in the end.

pug_in_a_bed

hostie wrote:

Hello, I thought I'd come and say hi on this thread too since I will be starting my PhD in October. I have already had a bit of contact with a few of you on other threads.

I know how you feel Melancholy about the negative comments. The other side of the coin though is that if you don't get frank feedback it is difficult to improve. It is all very subjective.

Thanks to sciencegeek for the info too, though I am also an arts student.

hurray another arts student!:hello:

Basil_Fawlty

pug_in_a_bed wrote:

hurray another arts student!:hello:

Booooo... arts students

After my exam performance there's no way I'm doing a PhD :rotfl: a good thing too judging by what some of you poor mites go through Good luck all of you :T