Anup,
I suppose I could say I dropped out for a number of reasons. I didn't really like my project very much. I had a supervisor who was extremely hands off and wasnt very supportive when I needed his input( he was also a backstabbing little s*%t )

There was serious pressure to deliver on the project. I wasn't even 5 months in and he was already making threats about "changes of personal on the project"

I would say poor project management and interpersonal problems combined to scupper any hopes of the project being a success.

I knew under the circumstances that I wasn't going to produce what was required by my supervisor so there was only one natural conclusion: leave before I get kicked out.

In essence, I jumnped a sinking ship and it's the best decision I ever made. Some people might think its nothing other than taking the easy option when the going gets tough. But I think it was a smart decision to make.

bana: Don't feel like you should stay because you dont want to disappoint anyone else. You were doing this for yourself in the first place, so if you find now that this really isnt for you, then walk away.

If you really want to leave then do so. Forget about what anyone else thinks.

Dropping out of a PhD will have little or no impact on your future career (outside academica anyway). Most of the people who will interview you for jobs probably would never have dared go near a PhD and so are not in much of a position to judge you for dropping out of your PhD.

I can say that dropping out of a PhD hasn't done me any harm Im off to do a masters at a very good uni in october

In some respects I agree with both kenez14 and jouri on this. Although I dont believe in accepting a position purely on the basis of the prestigue of the uni ( the mistake I made )

I can only assume Jouri was at Cambridge and things didnt work out too well? ( hence the rather negative view) I'll have to say even though my time wasnt very successful there, I know plenty of people doing doctorates there, who have had no major problems.

Cambridge is a great university and a lovely place to live.

My advice is my all means accept the offer, if it is really what you want to do and if having a Doctorate will be of great benefit to your career prospects.

Considering that a PhD is 4 years of hard graft: if the PhD is not going to enchance year career prospects , I would steer clear

I can't say I care much for trout but you can't go wrong with a nice bit of battered cod and chips!!!

If I do recall correctly Olivia? Your troat recipe suggestions began a number of months ago amidst a rather amusing 3 day episode involving a rather disturbed individual who decided this forum would be a suitable platform for him/her to unleash their wrath against the west

I have to say I was quite impressed when I heard Brian May got his Doctorate. He kept all his PhD notes up in his attic, wrote up and submitted something like 30 years later. what a pro

If it is what you really want to do then go for it.

good luck

I would not sit back and take all this crap but I think you need to be clever about this. Write all your complaints down on paper and discuss them with a third party: Someone in your department or college who can give you independant, impartial advice on how to proceed. Then approach your supervisors thrashing out all the issues and discussing how best to address them. If they dont play ball, then consider taking it further up the chain of command

NO matter what you do, try your best to take out all the emotion out of your dealings with your supervisors. Getting angry and upset will get you no where!!! stick to the facts and be professional.

I can understadn your situation.When I had my first year review I kind of knew my report wasn't great but my supervisor had told someone close to him that he read my report, liked it and had no problems with me. When it came to my viva, it was a completely different story. he nothing short of tore me a new one!!

If you fail it's not the end of the world and your parents shouldn't hate you. All I can say is, best of luck and I hope it works out for you

Boys and Girls,
I'm hurting a little bit at the moment so please be nice for a while. Anyone else think it is was a cruel way for Chelsea to lose?

Rob

I'm going for Drogba to score first and Chelsea to win by penalty shootout.

sm888,

Sorry to disappoint you, I've been slacking off the past few days. Im sorry, ill pay more attention in future.... Mean while back at the ranch: I'm sure you're thinking up plenty of constructive comments to make on the subject matter

You might not realise it, but you will have learned a lot during your PhD: knowledge and skills which you can sell to prospective employers. Chances are if you are applying for jobs outside academia the people interviewing you won't have PhDs and so won’t be in much of a position to judge you for dropping out.

I totally agree with comments by Matt, PC_Geek and Badhaircut. It does take quite a bit of courage to quit a PhD.

There have been a number of people on this forum who argue that dropping out constitutes nothing other than failure and is just a case that the person bottled it because they couldn’t handle the heat. But these kinds of comments typically come from people who are fortunate enough to be sailing through their PhDs and can’t understand why someone should ever drop out.

But regardless of a persons reasons for wanting to quit, why not quit? Life is too short to be doing something that doesn’t make you happy. People quit all the time. They quit their jobs for all sorts of reasons: because they aren’t getting paid enough, the job is too stressful, they might not have an aptitude for that particular job. Regardless of the reason, people leave their job and no one bats an eyelid. Why should a PhD be any different?

Imperial do some really cool research into the application of robotics in surgery!! In fact, I think the worlds first robot used in surgery was developed at Imperial. I had an interview for a PhD there and I have to say the people impressed me quite a lot.

might be worth a look if you are interested in bioengineering

I tend to agree. I've come across a number of European students ( French and German for example ) at undergraduate level who really impressed me. Also they do 5 year undergraduate degrees with about 40 hours of lectures and labs a week!!! and PhD lengths tends to be longer in western european countries than in the UK

I suppose its easy enough to make direct comparision between the third level education systems of two different countries but it's a rather silly statement to say that the british education system is known to be harder than many overseas universities.

"The English academic system is known for being much harder than many overseas unis"

That's one hell of a generalisation. Id like to see the evidence for that!!