Reading this forus really is making me feel bad. I have an excellent stipend, supportive approachable supervisors, a great research group and after less than a year have published two papers. My research is going well and I will have been to three conferences/workshops this year with my semingly endless expenses account, which I also bought a laptop with. What can I do to aleviate my feelings of guilt? c'mon guys, someone else post something positive!

and your point is?

Errr- could we all insult you and call you names when things go from bad to worse???

In that case, reading this forum should make you feel even better. First of all, I am glad to hear the nice things are happening. You should not feel guilty at all. But perhaps you can use your experiences to make other people feel good by giving positive examples of your accomplishments.

Oh my god, you should feel happy and lucky.

congratulations, you made us to feel guilty now:) was it your purpose?

I don't understand this thread. Yes some people do have PhD's that are going well and have good stipends etc, at the moment I count myself in that position. However if I constantly said this then I would feel I was rubbing salt into the wounds of the people who are finding it not quite so plain sailing.

Instead of writing a thread about how you feel guilty for being in a good situation why not try to contribute to threads where people need help/suggestions/assurance or even in one of the threads that have nothing to do with anything!

H et al,

Sorry, there certainly wasn't any intention to rub it in or insult anyone, but when I was looking for a PhD and came across this forum, I was starting to think no actually enjoyed their PhD! I really sympathise with people who are finding any aspect difficult and I'll probably be back multiple times asking for advice when it gets tough for me, as I'm sure it will.

I've only just registered and will do my best to post constructive replies to future posts, but I think it's worth saying that doing a PhD can be great and there are many positive experiences too.

Excellent, everything sorted.

Welcome to the forum mc2006, I hope you will find it a pleasant experience....

We here so much negativity it's great to hear someones experience is positive. Don't feel bad, just enjoy it

My PhD is brilliant too. I got my PhD offer without even trying, have many publications, have been to many countries all over the world in conferences/symposia, have great funding, brilliant supervisors and a laptop with a memory stick and backup external hard drive (400GB)... There mc2006 you can feel better now

You just have to realise that in forums, people post things when they are on a downward slope. On an up slope, we go out, let our hair down and shake our booty! In general, I think almost every PhD student has both ups and downs. The downs are just more vocal.

Welcome to the forum!

But in most cases, people don't come to the forum just to moan about things; they need advice and they want to solve problems. Therefore the majority of postings are about bad things.

wow, a laptop with a memory stick!! you must feel really happy with that!!!

I love my memory stick. I just wish a certain company had the proper design sense to put the security thread on the stick as opposed to the cover.

Mia, I am sure you have some money. How is the bathroom suite coming along?