I overheard asenior scientist say that scientists in US/Canada make themselves known in the science world during their PhD and in UK you tend to make a name for yourself during a Post doc.

US/Canada PhD courses can take longer due to the amount of teaching many of the students have to do as part fo their TA funding. So US/Canada PhD students can be more attractive for academic posts because they have, onaverage, far more (and far better!) teaching experience.

In UK you can concentrate on your research and not worry so much about courses and teaching. So you can still be comparably as productive as your US/Canada counterparts during a PhD.

In the research tables the US dominate, maybe they do produce more productive researchers?

It's great to feel young, embrace it. I'm also 23 and a little concerned where the last two years went. Just the last two mind, the rest I can account for.

Sorry Piglet, this is unrelated to your initial query but all the best for your final decision.

Peter, how did your supervisor respond to your quitting and re-applying elsewhere. How do new supervisors respond to the fact that you've already quit one PhD and are considering a new one?

Dear all. I have been working on my PhD for six months. The research is cool (as cool as research can be I suppose), it's a pleasure to work with the group, my supervisor is excellent and it's a city so there's plenty going on but I'm very unhappy living here and I'm considering leaving. I left a uni which I loved and worked abroad in the Americas for a year and loved it there to. I would love to study in US/Canada but at the time the offer in UK, in terms of research, and money (!) was best here. Now I think I should do an MSc (which I also qualified for last year), rediscover my lost enthusiasm for all things biological and then do a PhD in US/Canada. Am I crazy to quit a PhD for an MSc?? Will I be offered a (very competitive) MSc (that I was offered already last year) after quitting a PhD?? Has anyone else started a PhD and then stopped to do an MSc instead?? Thanks.