Which country did you get your masters in and which country are you applying to? Which country did your friends get their masters in?

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You are only doing the PhD parttime - 15 to 20 hours is fine!

I don't know how you manage to work fulltime and then do 4-5 hours work per evening but well done!

Definitely stop checking your emails at weekends.

With the viva if you're borderline and if you pass it gets rounded up, that's not too bad. My uni did that actually. But the cases I'm talking about just got rounded up. That's what I don't agree with. I wouldn't want an increased grade that way anyway; if I didn't really achieve it then it's worthless to me. I'd feel like a fraud.

It seems a bit strange they all have the exact same research interests and are at the same institution... Do they all publish work together or something? Are you sure one is not the PI and the others are PhD students/postdocs etc?

In any case, they will definitely talk to each other and I would advise against applying to them all. PIs with similar research interests at different institutions know each other and I know they talk about which students have contacted them with proposals. They may think you are not particularly interested in them and just want any PI/project if you apply to them all.

Are you applying through findaphd.com or just randomly contacting them?

Something like this has never happened to me as I don't do that kind of research but I think what you've said about emailing the transcript and summerising the rest to see if they agree sounds fine.

Depends on the institution and discipline. Many people in my area don't have MScs and those that do don't usually have distinctions.

I personally don't think universities should round up grades. I think it's misleading, unfair to other students and devalues the qualification.

I know someone who got a 2.1 with 58% and someone that got a 1st with 69%. I don't agree with it.

I doubt many academics bother to check the percentage; they are just interested in the classification.

Most employers wouldn't have a clue about MSc classifications. I expect for PhDs it's looked on slightly more favourably than just a pass.

You can PM me the survey. Thanks.

Hello,

I'm sure the people in the lab have no problem with you; they are probably just busy with their own work and that's why they didn't speak to you.

I think that you will still be expected to give the talk... You still have three days to prepare which should be plenty of time. It's probably better to do a bad talk, using your illness as an excuse if you need to, rather than not do it at all. Honestly - sometimes in life we have to do things when we are feeling below par. It's difficult, but we have to just get on with it.

I would imagine if you are successful in getting on to the program then you could do the same as everyone else. It might make it slightly more challenging in terms of knowledge as other people on the program may have taken more relevant courses but you can obviously catch up with a bit of extra reading.

This is about applying for postdocs but I think it's applicable for PhDs too.

Harsh but true...

http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,151811.0.html

I agree with incognito's comments. You definitely need to be more specific in what you are interested in and the techniques you have experience in. You could also add something more personal about you; how you work with others, how you overcome problems etc.

You should probably try to sound a bit more scientific and professional too.. "I have done a couple of diplomas in herbalism" should maybe be changed to something like: "Having completed two diplomas in herbalism, I am very familiar with this subject and feel that I can make a significant contribution to this study". Or something like that.

You also need to ensure that your sentences are grammatically correct. I'm sure someone else can provide better clarity on this using the correct grammatical terms but I know this sentence isn't quite correct: "and developed an interest and have been fascinated by their complex structure". It should be something like: "and developed an interest in, and have been fascinated by, their complex structure". This may seem to be a small difference but it doesn't read correctly without making this change.

You also shouldn't start a sentence with 'which'.

I also wouldn't use the word 'fussy', which I can see you realise has negative connotations since you have added something in brackets after it. You could say you are 'particular' when preparing solvents or 'take great care' or something like that.

In summary, I would suggest the following:
1. Make the cover letter 1 page of A4
2. Talk half about yourself, your interests, your background and why you would be suitable personally for this PhD
3. Talk in the other half about your previous work, your experience, your skill set, your previous use of techniques or similar techniques they mentioned

I hope this helps and good luck!

I'll happily take a look :) I think it's ok to post as long as you want to post it.

Someone mentioned on here a few weeks ago that PhD students were covered by employment laws. Also, just because you haven't signed a formal contract, doesn't mean that you aren't actually covered by a contract. Things like offering of an agreement and acceptance of an agreement constitute a contract - I can't remember he exact details of contract law, but it's something like that. The acceptance of our PhD offers means we are covered I think.