Overview of pd1598

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Got a PhD in Teesside
P

Hello - please don't tell southerners but Boro is fine. It's a poor-ish ex-industrial town and has some problems that come with that, but no worse than plenty of other places. Good parts and bad parts but the town centre is generally OK, just a bit dated. There are also lots of students there now so you'll not be lonely or out numbered. The Uni is decent, small and friendly. You'll be fine, so long as you're not expecting Harrogate or Chelsea.

Source: from Middlesbrough, wouldn't want to come from anywhere else.

Well done by the way.

acceptance of offer
P

Yes, you can say you've changed your mind. It's your life, not the University's!

Paper request
P

The book is on Copac so your University should be able todo an interlibrary loan.

Good way to present multiple regression?
P

To compare your whole model with the null, area under ROC analysis is pretty cool. Otherwise tables is the usual way.

PhD or job? Help please!
P

Personally, I would take the job. Bird in the hand and all that. I would take the job, leave the PhD to someone who desperately wants it and will love it, and enjoy your time in the CS.

Feeling lost due to the strike
P

For the record I'm a lecturer but I wasn't at a striking University. PM you are always going on about needing to stand up for yourself, well that is exactly what the lecturers have done. I guess you just don't like it when it affects you or your daughter? I suppose you think a strike would still be effective in the middle of summer? Lecturers don't ask to become rich (most won't) but have asked for the terms and conditions they signed up to to be protected.

In relation to what students can do. You will need to be active in your learning, which it appears the OP has done. It might not be as satisfactory but the whole situation isn't really satisfactory. The Universities themselves will have to come up with a solution to mitigate the damage done, so personally as a student I wouldn't be too worried. It will be top of the Universities' agendas as to what they are going to do. The lecturers don't intend to damage their students' education, obviously. In fact it might be an education in people power. It is unfortunate that students are the innocents caught in the crossfire here, but ultimately (especially as most students support lecturers) they are both fighting for future students.

Negative results...
P

What do you mean by negative? As in - not as expected? Or you've done it wrong?

Almost written up, but feeling trapped
P

Wholly agree with PM - jobs are in short supply, take it and tell your supervisor you've got a job elsewhere, so will have to make arrangements to submit.your thesis.

Start PhD in 3 weeks: no supervisor or project
P

No, I haven't found myself in this position, but I think it is clear that you need to be contacting the University / Department with some urgency to get to the bottom of it.

PhD thesis and fake results on papers
P

Don't use any of the fake data in your thesis, that is just asking for trouble and you would be complicit in fabricated / fraudulent research. You say that your supervisor has been very open about adding faked data to the paper - that seems very odd to be so open to a PhD student. Does your supervisor agree that you should write the thesis without the faked data?

I just think that the idea of adding the data to your thesis and hoping for the best is simply playing Russian roulette. Think carefully - don't use any of the faked data or the findings from it.

Take some rest - it's a bad situation you have found yourself in, but it's not the end of the world.

Is it possible to fail PhD after resubmitting the thesis?
P

Grumpy mule, Im in a very similar situation to you, given minors technically, but which are actually quite significant! In currently half way through my 6 months though. It's good to know somebody with a similar result who has submitted the corrections! My supervisor says examiners will normally just accept corrections without too much fuss.

Interview task on 'strategies to boost recruitment'. Any tips
P

Good luck :)

Proving a hypothesis- how on earth?!!
P

Some would say (I think increasingly?) that you shouldn't try and prove hypotheses / reject the null at all, but should instead use other measures of confidence? But let's not turn this into a philosophy of science thread :).

If this is for PhD work I think you need to speak to somebody (e.g. your supervisor) quite soon to discuss the kinds of statistics that would be the most use for you. You also do need to read some beginner / intermediate books on research methodology, (Neuman is a good start) before you begin analysing any data. This is important, because if you begin writing the thesis / doing the analysis in order to prove a hypothesis, you will lose all credibility.

My viva experience
P

Hi folks

Used to post on here a lot more, but I've been so busy I haven't really been able to. Thought I would share my viva / PhD experience.

My PhD is quite left-field for for the area - humanitarian law but also statistics. Most lawyers abandon numbers at the age of 16, and so to write a PhD in law with lots of numbers is quite unusual. I had a number of problems within my own institution, with members of staff not understanding what it was I was doing. I was prepared to accept the blame for that, as I am supposed to ensure people DO understand it? Anywho, we decided to go with an external examiner at the top of the field. I thought this was something of a risk, but I needed someone who was sympathetic to the methods.

I went into the viva thinking minor corrections, but thinking there was a chance it could all go wrong and I could end up with majors. In the event, I have received 'minor corrections', with 6 months to complete them. The decision on the external was entirely correct, so one piece of advice would be to put a lot of thought into that.

Then I received the examiners' report and I was a little disappointed. I would say my 'minors' are at the upper end of the minor scale / lower end of the major scale. My sup thinks that it isn't that bad, and probably it isn't once I actually get involved with them. So I will leave it a short while, before cracking on with those.

After browsing this forum, it appears that doing a PhD is usually a terrible experience. I would say that my PhD has generally been quite smooth (subject to what I said above about people not getting it). I submitted on time, with no mental, family, or supervisor breakdown! I've also been appointed as a full time lecturer at my PhD university, with no publications (although some in the pipeline). So everybody, it can be done.

Any social scientists out there who use R?
P

You should try Field, Miles and Field 'Discovering statistics using R' :)