Signup date: 19 May 2010 at 8:33am
Last login: 24 Sep 2018 at 8:31am
Post count: 589
Hi TreeofLife,
I had a very similar viva experience and I also got minor corrections. I have experienced the micro-aggressions in the viva. I went to the viva knowing that I will not fail, as I had a two-digit number of publications (journals, conferences, book chapters, technical reports etc).
My 4-year PhD was overall a positive experience (apart from the financial exploitation side of things). But the viva stays in my memory as a stain. They were late. The nicest thing they said was " there is enough for a PhD". They were unpleasant throughout. The external was talking to me slowly (because I am foreigner I assume, despite living in England for a decade). It did not shake my confidence but it reminded me of how important it is that we are gentle and kind to each other.
In any case just finish the corrections and forget about it. Maybe some day there is a PhD by publication (where people contribute to something) and there is no need for vivas.
To all of you out there, choose examiners wisely. They should be nice people and good scientists.
I also wanted to collect some characteristics of participate and case studies. As I didn't know which factors would be important, I used extensive standardised questionnaires. Developing such questionnaires might be a project on its own. The key here is standardised
Good advice already!
I just want to add that "things are slower" is an illusion that deceives many students. You might not have the day-to-day to deliver specific outcomes, but you have milestones you should be hitting every six months or so.
I can't speak for other PhD experiences, but my PhD was harder than my previous job (I ran my own practice as an engineer) both in terms of long-hours and intellectual effort.
I have to deal with such issues of open aggressiveness from individuals from my cohort even post- PhD. I think it is very much related to the few academic places available, and the large number of PhD students produced in mass. People feel insecure and view me as a competitor to their success. It is hard to deal with this issue. I have my own issues of feeling like an outcast since childhood (for various reasons), so I can't deal very well with aggressiveness/ rejection etc...
Passive-aggressive disruption when working quietly using loud music, drawer-banging, loud phone calls etc was the preferred strategy from another individual in the open space. But I was less concerned about that.
Hi SecondWing,
I had to look up the term! Sorry. Yes, it is quite common (that's why it has a name!).
A friend of mine didn't manage to get a new academic position after moving cities, but as a couple they have a better quality of life in the new place now.
Some other academics work from home most days of the week and commute two-three days etc. Commuting in these cases varies from 1 to 3 hours. This is particularly true for London academics that are often out-priced by the rent. In those cases they are flexible, but that might not be achievable if you are lab-based.
Hope it works out for you.
A control group can be unethical. If you start an intervention that there is evidence that is beneficial for a group of people, then you deny these benefits from the control.
So, one way to go around this problem, is to offer to the control group an improved version of the intervention next year.
I don't know exactly how many words, because I did mine in latex, but it was really short, 165 pages with lots of images graphs and tables included. I estimate it was 50k (maximum 100k). Possibly in social sciences :) passed with minor.
People who write more than 80k have a strategy: bore the examiners to death, make them lose the will to live, become suicidal etc :)
Finish the PhD. The PhD is training on how to do research, the topic is largely irrelevant. You have a fellowship and a supportive environment, which is just as good as it gets.
Apply for a postdoc anywhere you wish. My undergraduate degree is so different from my postdoc that people just stare at me when I tell my story :) in the department I did the PhD you could find architects, psychologists, mechanical engineers, physicists, mathematicians, epidemiologists, medics, chemists, microbiologist, economists working on the SAME project :)
Good luck!
PostgraduateForum Is a trading name of FindAUniversity Ltd
FindAUniversity Ltd, 77 Sidney St, Sheffield, S1 4RG, UK. Tel +44 (0) 114 268 4940 Fax: +44 (0) 114 268 5766
An active and supportive community.
Support and advice from your peers.
Your postgraduate questions answered.
Use your experience to help others.
Enter your email address below to get started with your forum account
Enter your username below to login to your account
An email has been sent to your email account along with instructions on how to reset your password. If you do not recieve your email, or have any futher problems accessing your account, then please contact our customer support.
or continue as guest
To ensure all features on our website work properly, your computer, tablet or mobile needs to accept cookies. Our cookies don’t store your personal information, but provide us with anonymous information about use of the website and help us recognise you so we can offer you services more relevant to you. For more information please read our privacy policy
Agree Agree