That's nothing - I'll be a 44-year-old 'empty nester'! (Kids will be aged between 19 and 24!)

Reading some of these replies reminds me how back-to-front my life has been - 10 years AGO I had a steady income, a career, a wife and kids, my own home etc... now I'm just starting out!

As regards where I'll be - or where I'd like to be - in 10 years' time, though: if I've managed to make a go of my academic career, I quite like the idea of living and working in America for a while; if not, I dunno... living on a houseboat somewhere, or running a tearooms in Whitby... something befitting an aging hippie!

You've got to admire the CBI's balls. They come right out and say they want more and more people going to uni precisely because that sort of well-educated workforce will help them make pots and pots of cash; but do they go on to suggest they might therefore be prepared to invest a bit more in educating that workforce, e.g. via an increase in corporation tax? Do they arse! The students are supposed to stump up themselves.

Don't worry - most people are looking to go straight from an MA to a PhD, and so won't have graduated (or know their final grade) when they apply. Remember, funding deadlines will already be looming by March/April, so even if you *were* graduating next summer, your application wouldn't look any different.

Having said that - there are reasons why you might want to hold off a year on PhD applications, especially if you want to give yourself the best chance of securing funding. Applying is a time-consuming business and will demand a lot of your attention alongside your Master's; and a confirmed final grade may just give you the edge over other applicants with only predicted grades to go on.

I waited a year on the advice of my MA supervisor, who took the view that my best chance of securing funding was to focus 100% on achieving the best possible marks my MA, *then* shift my focus to preparing the strongest possible PhD application. So I was able to spend a fair amount of time on my research proposal and other application gubbins (Case for Support, CV etc.), and had a Distinction under my belt at the time of application. Depending on how competitive your subject area is, it might be worth you considering taking the same approach.

Remember when interpreting your poll results that just because someone is funded for their PhD as of now, doesn't mean they didn't pay for their Masters themselves - I bet a lot of us are in that position. Some people have no doubt had to fund themselves for a year or two of PhD study before getting funding too.

I found writing my proposal a bit of a nightmare, largely because I had only a very vague idea of what it was supposed to look like - what to include, how much detail to go into etc.

So it took me ages - a good few weeks of a futile 'read more, write more, then cut ruthlessly' cycle - and only really came together when I got a firm word limit to work to (which was specified in relation to a particular studentship application). After that, I was able to think: if they only want something that long, they *can't* be looking for any more detail/evidence of wider reading than I've given them here.

Note of caution: from the little guidance I was able to find on PhD proposals, I think mine was very much on the short side at 500 words, so it may well be they're looking for something completely different from you. But it might just help to take a step back and ask, given the length of proposal they're looking for, what they're realistically expecting from you. A proposal is just a proposal after all, not a thesis, lit survey or end of first year report.

If you haven't done so already, consider getting some input from a couple of academics who know what's being looked for in a proposal - maybe someone you know from your Master's and someone involved in admissions to the department you're applying to. I was a bit cautious about asking initially - it felt weird to be showing a 'rough draft' to people I was trying to impress! - but got some very useful feedback.

God, this all sounds horribly familiar!

I spent no less than ten years in the hideous world you describe, ended up feeling like my brain had turned to sludge, and had very much the same concerns as you when I went back to do my MA. (Would my poor, office-battered mind ever function properly again? Could I still write essays? Had I just left it too long?)

In reality, my synapses soon started firing again once I started getting the intellectual stimulation I'd been missing, and I'm sure the same will be true of you. I couldn't honestly say I had any trouble picking up the art of essay writing again, and I'd have to admit - reluctantly! - that my work experience was probably helpful in some ways. For instance, it meant I'd had several years to get over my fear of giving presentations, speaking out in a group etc., so I was more confident than many of the younger students. And I suppose it had probably helped me pick up generic skills like time/project management. And of course, it meant I had motivation in spades, just because I was so determined NOT to end up back in the (*shudder*) 'real world'!

Anyway, one way or another I didn't struggle to hold my own against students who were fresh from their first degrees, and now I'm about to start a funded PhD.

So, my advice would be not to worry. The old, sharp-minded you is still in there somewhere, honest - you just need to let him out!

No, you don't need permission. As long as you cite your source correctly, you're fine.

(If we needed to get permission to use every single sentence quoted in our theses, I think some of us would need another 3 years to get them finished!)

Look, I don't want to be a drama queen about this, but... given that this is the sort of hilarious anecdote that puts people off the whole idea of allowing their organs to be used and abused by the medical profession after their deaths, don't you think it's just a teensy bit tactless to share it on the thread where I've just announced I'm reliant on the availability of a donated cornea to help save my eyesight?

======= Date Modified 10 Sep 2009 12:32:29 =======
Deleting this as it's irrelevant now the original post has been modified (basically just questions Harry's now answered).

Just wanted to share my woes.

I've just been put on the waiting list for a corneal graft, which is something I've always known I might end up needing - I have a degenerative eye condition - but really hoped I wouldn't. I mean... scalpels... eyeballs... ewww!

Basically my vision's started deteriorating in what's always been my good eye (grr!), so the thinking is that I should get my bad eye sorted out asap so that it's had time to recover from the op, and hopefully start giving me decent vision again, before my good eye isn't good anymore. (Hope that makes sense!)

Oh well... I suppose it's a good thing really that my condition's treatable, and hopefully the op will improve my vision, but still... not looking forward to it!

Maybe this is completely naive, but if the plan is still to send more and more people to Uni every year, surely someone is going to have to teach them? (OK, they might be paid for by higher tuition fees etc. rather than through government funding, but still...)

Isn't it 'teetotal'?

Anyway, I'm not aware of a suitable synonym. I'd probably go ahead and use the term (I think it's well-established enough not to be too informal), although I do wonder if it has implications of having actually *pledged* not to drink rather than just happening not to drink... I'm not sure everyone who doesn't drink would describe themselves as teetotal. (I might well not drink any alcohol this year or next, but I don't think I'd call myself teetotal.)

Sorry, that probably wasn't much help, was it?

So in future, I should be sure to decide on the purpose of my essay long before I have even the vaguest idea of what I'm going to be writing about?

Wow - I bet that will make it 'real easy' for me to 'persuade people to believe on something'!

I just can't wait to get more top tips at www.halfwitted-essay-advice.com!

I'd get legal advice - I don't know if and how copyright attaches to research proposals, but as I understand it, in the case of (say) a piece of creative writing, pretty much all you have to do to show copyright has been infringed is to prove that work was originally yours - the old trick is to post a copy to yourself and leave it in a sealed, date-stamped envelope. So if there's an electronic paper-trail here - emails sent to and from this person, or old copies of the proposal on your computer - I would have thought it should be easy enough to demonstrate that he's pinched your ideas.

But of course the question is whether copyright applies here, or whether it's some other sort of intellectual property law, or whatever; and what you can do about it! Looking at it from the other guy's point of view, he must surely be looking over his shoulder - you can *prove* he's stolen your ideas. Maybe you could be demanding a co-authorship or something... like I say, legal advice I think (or at least, advice from some experienced academic).

I'm basing this on my MA experience, but I think it's the same sort of picture for MScs:

Usually it's distinction, pass or fail - with distinction being comparable to an undergraduate 1st and pass being comparable to a 2:2. Sometimes there's a "merit" classification too, for people who do very well but miss out on the distinction - i.e. "high 2:1" type candidates.

Look carefully at the criteria for each classification on your course, as they can vary widely. For instance, you might need to get, say, 70+ overall to get a distinction, or you might just need to get 70+ on your dissertation or some specified proportion of modules and achieve some minimum standard on the rest.