i know exactly how you feel - although i am perfectly happy doing my phd i do feel that my life is on hold a bit, as there is no way i could consider getting married or pregnant during it! most of my friends seem to be getting married in the next year or two and i do sometimes wonder how i am going to fit it all in! i will have been at university for a total of 9 years (wth the odd gap) which has kind of made me a running joke among my friends who did their 3 years then got on with 'real' life as they love reminding me!

to be honest, the lack of jobs around was a motivating factor for me too when choosing to do my phd! (yes, we don't all do it for the pure love of research *gasp*!). it is a shame that people are considering dropping their research through lack of funding. maybe it would be possible to finish your write-up alongside a full-time job once your funding runs out (as horrendous as that sounds!)

you don't say how far along you are with your phd, but it does sound (and no offence intended here) like it's a bit of a waste of time doing a phd when you have no interest in it. rather than working on something for three years and then never submitting, wouldn't it be better to perhaps consider leaving now and doing something you actually want to do? as far as i am aware, there are no penalties for quitting at any point (in some cases people have had to pay back a very small portion of their stipend when they leave, but this is quite rare i think) but would you want to have worked hard on a project and then just walk away from it right near the end? if i were you, i would take a good look at what other options are open to you in the job market, and maybe it's time to move on! good luck.

Hi everyone,

I know this topic has been covered a lot in the past, but I just wanted to know if anyone had any experience in the current economic climate, so bear with me!

Basically my partner and I are struggling to get a mortgage due to my status as a PhD student. He earns a 'normal' salary, and I have a fairly decent stipend. However, some mortgage companies have given us an outright 'no', and others say they will only take my stipend into account as a 'top-up' to my partner's wage, so will only lend us a small amount.

So was just wondering if anyone had managed to get a mortgage recently?

Thanks very much :)

i have heard rumours that it is 'frowned upon' to do all your degrees at the same institution - however i have never seen any actual proof of this! i say go where you will be happiest, a phd is a long slog and if you have found a project you want to do and a good supervisor to do it with then just go for it regardless. in some ways, staying at the same institution should be seen as a plus point (in my personal opinion anyway!) as it shows that you have developed and maintained good, strong professional relationships with your research group.

as to whether it will make you less employable in the future, you may well be asked about it in interviews, but as long as you can put a positive spin on it i can't see that it would hold you back too much. it might be an idea to try and make contacts outside of your institution over the course of your phd, maybe even some form of collaboration if at all possible, to prove that you can spread your wings beyond your group. but i repeat, if this project is the best one out there for you, then snap it up and don't worry too much about it!

hi, only you can decide whether a phd is right for you, but if you do decide to go for it then i would make a start right away, get that proposal done and start contacting potential supervisors. it is possible to start a phd at any time of year in theory (i started in july), and potential supervisors would be able to tell you whether this would be possible at their institution, if you could still get funding etc. if you can't find a place that starts before next year, at least you will have already been in touch with people and they will bear you in mind for the sept 2010 start instead.

re: the 8 ball thing

there are these toys called 'magic 8 balls' (as in an 8 ball from a game of snooker), and you ask it a question, shake it, and it gives you an answer such as 'outlook is bleak', 'ask again later', etc (as featured heavily in the toy story films :) )

think this post should be titled 'how it feels to be a phd student'! this is EXACTLY how i feel today, and i'm sure lots of other people do too! hope you feel better for having vented :)

ah, the trusty '8 ball in head' technique! sitting and waiting for things is the worst feeling, so try and do something to take your mind off interviews for a while. and think positive!

i am miles away from my viva (still in 1st year!) so i have no personal experience of this, but i would imagine that it is pretty overwhelming, as it is the culmination of many years hard work/blood/sweat/tears! so i think it's probably entirely normal to burst into tears at the thought of it no matter how confident you are! good luck :)

in my interview they asked me why i wanted to do that specific phd, which sounds easy but was quite tricky to answer in detail! they may also ask why you have chosen that particular institution/department, so have some answers ready! they shouldn't ask you too many detailed questions about the project itself, but i did have a fairly intensive technical interview where they asked me loads of specific questions such as what certain terms meant, what certain things stood for etc (i'm in pharmacology, so this will differ by subject). they also showed me some graphs and asked me to interpret the data. i also had a 'capabilities' interview, where they basically asked me to think of a variety of situations, where/when i have encountered something similar, and how i dealt with it. eg. they once asked me if i had ever challenged a senior figure at work with a new idea that went against their own work/ideas.

to be honest, my interview was horrendous and lasted all day, but i don't think this is the norm! i am based with an industrial partner, so they basically put me through the same process they use for employees. hope fully yours should be much less scary!

good luck :)

as far as i am aware, lara is right - deliberately setting out to do just an mphil is almost unheard of, and generally people only get an mphil when they leave a phd early for whatever reason. i would think that it is pretty unlikely that any supervisor would take you on for just a year, and it would be pretty impossible to get a qualification out of it simply because an mphil is not really offered by itself, only ever as part of a phd.
if you want to continue with research, then either do another masters (an MRes might suit you as they are research-heavy) or get a temporary Research Assistant post. personally, i would go down the RA route rather than just getting more qualifications for the sake of it. this can make you look indecisive and not commited enough to one particular subject area.

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my university has a graduate training office that deals with all these sorts of things - they have a template they send out to help students with this. maybe your uni has something similar? failing that, can you get hold of someone else's thesis (should be in your uni library) and copy their formatting?

first of all, what a nice choice to have, lucky you!
secondly, i agree with melsie, how well you get on with your supervisors is vital to how well you will do in your phd! go with your gut instinct as to which project really feels 'right' for you.
as i understand it, the wellcome trust phd's include a year of taught classes at the beginning, kind of like a masters, which is why they are funded for 4 years instead of 3. so do you want to be tied in for that extra year? on the other hand, four years funding instead of 3 could be a really good thing!
some people say that you should try to go somewhere different for your phd rather than stay at the same institution as it looks better for your cv, but sometimes staying put can be an advantage as you already know people in the dept, know your way around the labs, know where to go for support etc.
money shouldn't be an issue when choosing a phd but unfortunately as the money is so poor it does make it an issue for most people, so perhaps the slightly more generous stipend may help to sway you towards oxford? every extra penny helps when you are surviving on a low income!
there are lots of things to consider but i really feel that you should follow your heart for which project/lab/supervisor suits you best, as these are ultimately the most important things to help keep you sane for the next 3-4 years!
good luck :-)

hi, i'm funded by the BBSRC and we are also entitled to 8 weeks a year. i'm just over 7 months into my project, and so far i think i've taken about three weeks (2 weeks over xmas + 5 or 6 odd days here and there for illness/appointments etc). however i can't see that in future i will be able to take an entire 8 weeks a year, there just doesn't seem to be enough time to achieve everything! i think i will prob end up taking only 3 or 4 weeks a year, and even then i bet it won't be real holiday time as i'm bound to end up doing some reading/writing during my time off!