I think the issue is not that they are no longer active, it's more than they moderate Mon-Fri only (and it's a public holiday in the UK today).

This problem could be eliminated/greatly reduced by changes to the registration system. There are various things other fora use that must be available.

I don't know if the message board software would enable this, but how about freezing a poster's account the moment one of their posts is reported as spam, and only unfreezing it (if appropriate) once it's been reviewed by a moderator.

It would rely on people using the 'abuse' reporting fairly and appropriately but would probably cause fewer problems than our current system.

Sometimes PhD supervisors have a specific lot of funding awarded which enables them to take on a student to carry out a particular project.

However, this project is 'competitively funded'. This probably means that the department/faculty has a pot of money which can be allocated to a finite number of students within the department/faculty. Accordingly, supervisors are invited to submit project outlines to which potential students could apply. None of those projects are guaranteed to be funded; rather they will review all the applications across supervisors and make studentship awards to the best 5/10/whatever per term/year/whatever.

So, yes, you can apply at any time, but you might have to wait till the next funding allocation meeting for a decision, and although theoretically you could start at any time, there may be some restrictions (e.g. September or January only). There is also the possibility that despite being a good candidate you might not get the funding if a lot of people are applying for other projects related to the same pot of money. If you happened to come along with your own funding and met the academic requirements, the supervisor would probably be happy to have you.

In short it would be worth contacting the department to find out the specifics of the situation.

Perhaps not making multiple posts on your own thread and instead waiting for other people to engage?

To be honest I'm not sure if you have got the right forum for your question. It is unclear why people should give you suggestions. It sounds like you are harvesting ideas for a project or a business.

Thanks for your efforts Reenie - this must be very frustrating for you!

It's not necessarily about mods deleting things - I suspect there is scope to change the registration process to stop spam bots registering in the first place. That might be a more effective way of getting on top of this problem.

Worth noting that a questionnaire is not a 'variable', unless it only asked a single question. Rather, a typical questionnaire will have generated a number of variables. How you relate these to the clinical test results will depend on whether the questionnaire questions have answers that are continuous ("How tall are you in cm?"), categorical ("What is your smoking status: current, ex or never?") or open ended ("Describe your symptoms"). The testing you do may also depend on the number of participants (i.e. sample size) and as DrJeckyll says, the distribution.

Do you have a specific hypothesis at the outset? Be aware that if you do statistical tests on a large number of variables, you may find a correlation by chance, which isn't actually meaningful or cannot be replicated ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_comparisons_problem ).

While you are waiting for your training, ask around your department to see if there is a medical/bio-statistician you could have a chat to about your study, before you collect any further data.

Good luck

Have you asked whether you could have a bit more time to think about the receptionist role? It's not unusual for people to be juggling several interview/offer deadlines at once.

Based on what it sounds like your career aspirations are, I would hold out for job #2 as it aligns more closely with your longer term plans.

I would definitely go to the interview for #2, regardless of your decision. Even if you decide to take the receptionist role for now, the other job sounds more like what you want to do long term, so it would be good to get the relevant interview experience.

spam

Yeah, this is a major problem I'm having. I'm so fed up with it. Right now, I should be working working working on it to do as much as I can before I start my job, but I am sick of the sight of it.

I know I'll get there in the end, but I'm finding it painful! I'm not sure that the motivation will get any better once I'm tied to the old 9-5 either...

I have 5 months left until the absolute final deadline for submitting my thesis. I am starting a new job in a few weeks time. The plan had been to submit before I started the job, and that should have been feasible. However, throughout my PhD I've had difficulties with lack of departmental project management support, and I've been involved with a number of external collaborations (at my supervisor's behest) that have eaten into my time with revisions and re-analyses. I can't change what's happened though, and just have to deal with the fact that I will not have submitted (or indeed totally finished drafting) before I start work.

I'm fortunate in that I don't need to relocate for the job, and it's only semi-academic so I won't be faced with paper-writing/grant-writing/teaching obligations on arrival. So it won't be as bad as if I were starting a post-doc. I guess I'm just looking for input from other people who have been in a similar situation. How did you cope with the work-thesis balance?

I'd also be interested in hearing from people who have had to submit at a stage when their thesis could have done with a bit more time. I hope it doesn't come to it but I can envisage a scenario where I just have to bite the bullet and submit, knowing that it might increase my chances of major corrections.

Thanks

Hazy

Out of curiosity, what routes have you been trying as a means to get research experience? You would be eligible to apply for research technician and research assistant jobs. If successful this would tick the 'research experience' box without recourse to a masters. It can also be a useful way of getting a foot in the door of a particular group with a view to starting a PhD later.

How flexible are you with respect to location? Are there any work/study abroad options which might be more financially manageable?

Seconding what bewildered said as this is a really really important point. For all the government bluster about needing more people trained in STEM areas, the career structure is not great and a lot of good people fall by the wayside. There is an obscene amount of wasted talent. Why do people train so many PhD students when there aren't the jobs for them all? Quite simply because they are cheap. Here's a recent blog post covering some of the issues from a US perspective:
http://thoughtsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/is-it-morally-acceptable-to-hire-postdocs/

So please do some homework on the likelihood of actually making it to a lecturer post and factor that in to your decision making. This will vary between fields and subfields, so if you're very focussed on the end goal of a lecturer post then make sure you specialise in an area that is expanding, not contracting.

I'd suggest trying 'Cross Validated' which is a forum like Stack Exchange but for statistics.

I do medical stats but have no experience of PCA/clustering I'm afraid.

Rather than offering money to strangers off the internet... have you discussed this problem with your course tutors. That seems to me to be a more appropriate course of action.