Hey have you checked their guidance on this online? Looks like you need to be resident and not student for 3 years ..when did you finish your undergrad ? It does appear to be just a waiting game , if you can stay to fulfil that criteria then your fees status should change, good luck !

PI = Principal Investigator for the grant .. i.e who got the money in for the particular project. I would imagine your supervisor was a Co-I on the project proposal perhaps?

Hi,
perhaps it would be good to check out this earlier thread on it, as there were lots of good tips on there. I suggest a healthy mix of preparation + relaxation. What helped me was that I prepared lots and then took a week holiday to Spain the week before the viva :)
Good luck!

p.s. the waiting and the bit just before the viva is terrifying - but the fear was no reflection on the actual viva experience, it was, dare I say it; rather enjoyable in the end - having an extended intellectual discussion about my research with experienced academics who wanted to help me improve my thesis so that I could get it published.

Hi,
I just was reading through my thesis , looking something up and I re-read the authors declaration page... I had to sign and declare that 'At no time during the registration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author been registered for any other University Award without prior agreement of the Graduate Committee' ... I think you need to be really careful here.. especially if you have PhD funding and your supervisors are not aware of your registration for another degree programme. I would suspend or defer the MA for a year and put all your energies and time into your PhD write up. Good luck!

Hi Satchi!
I am sure there are plenty of online resources that can provide advice on this, but in my own experience I have learnt about the grant application process both at workshops held at universities I studied or worked at and through actually writing grants with other researchers. The best experience I would say is to have to a go, it is in some ways rather like writing a paper, it takes a long time and even when you have a great proposal it doesn't necessarily mean that you will get funding unforunately. I have had some successful grants and some not successful - but even when they are not successul you get feedback and you can feed that into your next application.

If you haven't had any direct experience with writing grants, you can still write about the skills that you have that are needed to do this well e.g. having great writing skills, ability to work collaboratively as a team (rare you would write a grant on your own with no co-authors or collaborators), awareness of the wide range of funding bodies available, and finally just showing that you are keen to learn about the grant application process and happy to go on training. Is there any funding that you have gained through your research work, e.g. travel grants, student bursaries or even PhD funding ? if so you can and should mention this too. Good luck!

p.s. if you have been officially informed you are one of 4 nomimees for 4 studentships it does look like a good outcome is coming your way :)

Found this online

'How to apply

Applications for ESRC Discipline, Pathway Development and Advanced Quantative Methods studentships for 2013-14 entry are now closed.

ESRC funded Network and Collaborative projects are still available with various deadlines.

Applications will be considered by academic departments and, following a departmental selection process, applicants will be informed if are being nominated for an ESRC WR DTC Discipline/Advanced Quantitative Methods (AQM)/Network/Pathway Development or a Collaborative Studentship. The White Rose Academic Quality Committee will review the nominations and decide on the final list of awards.

The final outcome is expected to be known by early April 2013 for Discipline/AQM and Pathway Development Studentships and the end of April 2013 for Network and Collaborative Studentships'

It is not 100% clear is it? looks like there is some kind of selection process though - sounds like you should hear soon ! good luck!

Ah I see! that sounds better then! At least with the increase in personal allowance to around £10k means you wouldn't have to pay a huge amount of tax/NI on the rest :) ... and as I mentioned earlier you may get the option to do extra for additional payment - e.g. if a member of staff is unwell and there a pile of scripts to be marked. I did loads of marking and teaching during my PhD - was good experience (and the extra cash helped!).

I would chase up the other potential supervisor with a polite email. Not sure how long it has been, but the academic may be away over the holiday period, especially as teaching finished 2 weeks ago! Definately worth chasing up to remind them... if no luck there then maybe best to persue other potential contacts... n.b. some lecturers would reply and some wouldn't - there is no fixed rule on that.. depends on how interested they are and also how busy they are at the moment!

Hi,
I am pretty sure that if you are a part-time student then you still have to pay things like Council Tax (discount only for full time) .. but you will get a NUS card and student card so other discounts e.g. on cinema and shops will still work. With regards to travel it will probably apply to some but not all...e.g. young person's railcard specifies you must be a full time student.

So, although being an TA too means you get less discounts, you may earn more than on a studentship??, and there may also be options such as extra teaching & marking that you could do at your institution for extra cash! You also 'may' get a better deal with regards to office space as an TA, i.e. you should get your own desk/comp etc. whereas sometimes as a PhD student you could be put in a large open plan area and expected to 'hot desk' which is not always ideal.. though this depends from university to university.

With regards to your current application and admin issues... in my experience admin delays and issues happen everywhere and it shouldn't put you off applying at the very least. If you are happy with the university generally and your potential supervisory team and resources available to you there that is the main thing! I would suggest you stick in an application and then at least you can still decide later if it's not the right decision for you. Good luck!

I am not sure how many typos and errors I corrected after submission.. it was quite a few ! which I corrected as I couldn't just leave them there - even though the examiners made no reference to typos, spelling, grammar, referencing, formatting etc. ! I had a friend who had a list of 100 + things to change (minor corrections). It is likely your examiners will not pick up on all of these things you have noticed as you will have read your thesis far more times than they have! (assuming they are mainly typographical) .. and in any case they can be easily fixed. If they are more substantial corrections then it worth making a list, so that (if asked) you can evidence that you plan to address and amend them following the viva.

Smoobles, That is so true, I would run through how I would answer viva questions in my mind almost without thinking about it consciously (probably dreamt about it too!)... and I'm sure that helped.
I forgot to say - Congratulations on submitting your thesis! that is a huge milestone in itself, so yes do give yourself a few treats and a break from it before you dive back in again in a few weeks time.
I was lucky in that I knew my viva date before I submitted due to my external examiner having to fly in from quite a distance which did help. Don't worry if you see any typos or minor errors.. indeed if they do pick up on them then it's a good thing as they haven't found anything more significant to comment on. I would really recommend a mock viva (and remember that it is usually the case that mock vivas are far worse than the actual one).. good luck -!

Personally I gave myself a few weeks grace and then got back into it.. do you know when your viva date is? I had almost a 2 month gap between submission and viva so I was able to have a little breather. The 2-4 weeks before the viva I did my most work, I looked online to find examples of the most commonly asked questions and then typed up all my responses to those, and also other questions that arose in the mini-viva I had with my supervisors.
I wrote (in note form) a summary of the whole thesis, and also a summary of each chapter to refresh it all my mind, and also noted how I would address any methodological issues that came up. I also did a quick lit search to check on any new literature that had come up in the field that I should be aware of. I also made sure I knew the methods and findings of the key articles/theorists in my thesis that I referred to often. I also did a bit of reading of papers my examiners had done (slightly different fields) to make sure I was aware of their research background and recent research outputs.... I also went on a week holiday to spain the week before my viva (arrived back on the Friday and viva on the Monday!!) Took my thesis with me on holiday and read by the pool on 2 days of the 7 which was actually quite nice ... I also made sure I had a nice outfit for the viva. and knew exactly where it was, so I could plan ahead on the day. Good luck!!

To clarify, I would always make reference to the figure/table etc. first in the text. e.g. Figure 1 displays data from Experient 1. Then present the figure, and then give a brief description of what the Figure shows - but as I mentioned earlier this is just my preferred method and may not be appropriate or indeed what is suggested for this particular conference submission. I would just suggest you adhere to all the guidance on the conference submission guideline.

I would usually present the table or figure before I describe it. This is just a suggestion of course and is my personal choice rather than a particular rule or convention - it really is down to your own editorial judgement and what is typical for publications in your discipline.

Hi Dan,
I am intrigued to know how you managed to get 7,000 words into 8 pages!.. in fact I was so intrigued I tried it... I managed it by using size 10 font, Ariel narrow and single line spacing. Of course though, the guidance for your particular conference will have it's own rules.
.. Keep to the word counts and adhere to any other rules they stipulate - they are there for a reason - or it will be rejected outright. Academic writing is all about being able to communicate clearly and concisely... it sounds like one or more of your sections is far too lengthy. Good luck! :)