Well, not long to go now. 5 weeks until the hand in date.

Have almost finished my first draft ready for my supervisor to look at. It will be a relief to get some feedback because he was ill, and then went on annual leave immediately afterwards, and I haven't had a meeting with him since early July!

It is doing my head in just getting up and coming sitting in the box room and working all day by myself, but it's nearly over now. Phew.

Obviously I meant 6 per week....

Depending on where your funding comes from, there may be a limit on the number of hours you can work. With my ESRC award, I can do a maximum of 6.

My supervisor has asked me if I want to take some of his seminars. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for teaching/marking.

I was in a similar situation recently with my MRes dissertation supervisor.

We hadn't arranged an official date for him to give me feedback on some of my work, although I expected this before he went away on holiday. He ended up going on holiday a week earlier than he told me he was going to, after cancelling an important meeting with me.

I went to see my advisor (who also happens to be the head of my course) and she emailed him for me. Although he was on leave he replied almost straight away, and although I could tell from his reply that he wasn't impressed that I'd gone to my advisor, he sent me my feedback a few days later.

Maybe your second supervisor may be able to get a response and if you're lucky maybe even some feedback from your supervisor. Yes academics are entitled to be away and uncontactable at times, but it really is unprofessional to promise to do something and then not do it.

cmcowen- I can't wait to get my ID card and stuff (how sad am I?). I don't get any of that stuff until I register on 1st October.

Luckily though my masters dissertation is related to my PhD. I do still feel a bit nervous about starting though as my supervisor more or less developed the area I'm working in and is very well known. It will be great moving to my new university though (Loughborough) as there is a huge research group, rather than the 2 lecturers at my current university with an interest in my area.

Hi,

I am coming to the end of my masters in pychology, which I started after doing a joint honours degree in psychology and creative writing. During my undergraduate degree, I wrote an extended essay as a dissertation which was 6000 words.

I did feel a bit behind in some aspects of my degree, as other people had a lot more experience of carrying out empirical work (which I hadn't done). I felt a bit nervous at the thought of carrying out a project (which involved contacting people over the internet and arranging to meet them to interview them) but it was fine.

Writing up the 15,000 word dissertation (almost done now!)has been tough, but if you are capable enough to have gotten a place on a masters course you will be more than capable of writing the dissertation.

Now, at the end of my masters, I'm one of the few people on the course who has secured PhD funding and the fact that my degree was joint honours doesn't occur to me anymore.

I just wanted to post and say how excited I am to be starting my PhD soon!
I am doing my masters at a differet university and I can't wait to move away and start at my PhD, because it really is the university for the area that I'm studying.
I have had my heart set on a PhD for the last 3 or 4 years or so, and I feel so lucky to have gotten funding. The Uni sent the confirmation through in writing yesterday so everything is pretty much sorted now.

I'm going house hunting next weekend, which I'm realy looking forward to.

Anyone else waiting to start their PhD?

Iv'e been told I'm going to receive installments of my ESRC award every month. Sucks as I am just finishing my masters and have been living off a career development loan, and won't be paid until the end of October. Luckily I still have quite a bit of my graduate overdraft left to see me through.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I went to see my second supervisor (who doesn't have anything to do with the project academically) in the end. She sent him an email which he replied to straight away, although he had been ignoring the emails I sent to him. He sent back an angry reply, which he copied me into. We exchanged a few emails and sorted things out and he has given me some feedback on the work I have already done.

I was a bit worried about complaining to someone but he really was out of order.

I'm just glad that I finish soon and I'm doing my PhD at another university!

I have been trying to get hold of someone in academic advisory at my so that I can speak to someone outside of my department first but I haven't had any luck (everyone seems to be on holiday!). I think I'm going to have to arrange a meeting with my advior but feel weird about it because he isn't some anonymous person, we are supposed to have this relationship and he is marking my dissertation.

What do people think? Do I have a right to be mad or am I blowing it out of proportion? Maybe it's NORMAL for supervisors to be like this and I'm just expecting too much, I don't know.


....Wow, that was realy long. Thanks to anyone who made it all the way through!

My dissertation is due in on 12th September, plus allowing 3 or 4 days for binding. This means that I'll have 2-2 1/2 weeks to rewrite my whole dissertation once he has gotten round to reading the draft after his holiday. I am doing a qualitative analysis which he knows I haven't done before, and now I can't get any feedback on what I am doing. I know as I'm at masters level I can't expect to be spoon fed, but still.

I don't feel like he is giving me the support I am PAYING for and I'm so angry that he ignored my email before going on holiday after cancelling our meeting. Of course people are going to go on holiday, but I expected him to tie up loose ends with me before leaving, rather than thinking "f*ck it, I'll deal with it when I'm back".

We arranged for me to send him a draft of my introduction last Monday, and I haven't heard anything back about it. We haven't arranged for me to send him anything else, or the dates I can expect work back from him, as this is usually done at the meeting with the advisor.

Anyway. He DEFINATELY, 100% certainly told me he was going on holiday on the 25th (I know it was the 25th as I had to arrange the meeting with my advisor). I sent him an email on Thursday asking if we can meet this week before he goes away. No reply. I emailed him again yesterday and got an automated message back telling me he is away and can't respond to email until the 18th August.

OK, I just want to vent and get other people's opinions on this.

Recently my dissertation supervisor developed a habit of standing me up. He has cancelled meetings on 3 seperate occasions- one time leaving a note on his door asking me to come back 2 hours later, and didn't turn up then either.
At 3 points during the year we have a compulsory meeting with our supervisor and a secondary advisor. This was arranged for last week but he emailed the day before (the only time he actually cancelled in advance was when there was another member of staff involved) saying he was ill. He asked me to leave a copy of the form that is supposed to be filled in during the meeting in uni for him, so that him and my advisor can go over it. I have heard nothing from him since about this and have a feeling that when I check in his pigeon hole where I left it, the form will still be there.

I'm starting my PhD in October, and am 'one of those people who never go on holiday'.

Am currently quite jealous of the people on my masters course who are going away this summer, but with my career development loan and lack of job all year it just isn't possible.

But I do tend to be rubbish at taking proper time off and taking my mind off things and I'll probably go mad if I attempt this during my PhD. Good thing I'll have my grant coming in from October, so I can get away for a week or two.

If it's The University of Manchester you'll be at (rather than the Met) on the days when you really must buy lunch out instead of making something at home, avoid the main refectory (the one on Oxford Road near the library).

It is way too expensive, and you can get a 'sub of the day' for £2 from Subway which is just down the road!