I do agree with this quote from one of the articles: "Higher education creates a more knowledgeable, civic and mature society with many unquantifiable non-economic benefits. Its advantages are multiplied in today's complicated, fast changing and globalized world", and for this reason I think more people with PhDs is a good thing... but only to a point.

Obviously more jobs are needed for people with PhDs and in order to change this, firstly employers need to be better educated on the advantages of employing someone with a PhD. Pay intelligent/better educated people twice as much as you would pay an average employee and I bet you they will be more productive and in turn the company will generate more profit. I would be interested to see some research on this anyway, but from previous experience, I have found people with an undergrad degree were much better employees than those without one and I expect this increases with people with MScs or PhDs.

Secondly, PhD students need to realise their worth if they don't get that coveted postdoc position and seek better employment (maybe gain experience in other work environments if they lack this). Thinking outside the box really helps here. I've already been thinking about other jobs that I could do that are still 'high profile' and well paid but nothing to do with research. The mindset of PhD students really needs to change, and yes, that does start with the universities and supervisors.

So, if I can't find a suitable postdoc, I think I will be able to still get a decent job, and I think my PhD should only enhance my prospects because I will use it to my advantage in interviews, by talking about the skills I have developed, not the research I have done. It will also be interesting to see how this pans out in a few years for me...

I don't like things you have to download. Why would you make a survey like that?

I didn't get a distinction in my MSc (Biology) but I know I could have... it's no different than an undergrad degree - you just have to learn the material back to back and then throw in some 'original ideas' that weren't covered in the lectures. I got bored with revision by the time my MSc rolled around and I barely revised so I just got a merit.

In your research project or thesis you just have to follow the guidelines required to get a distinction.

I think you are talking about US schools? I'm not sure how this works in the US to be honest. I think it would be ok if it was in the UK.

It depends where your funding is from. If you are research council funded then it will be more difficult because you have to mention this if you apply for other funding and they would give preference to applicants who haven't been previously funded.

You also need to think about how you would explain to your next potential supervisor that you started a PhD previously and didn't finish it.

Yes a PhD is 'fun' to an extent, but are you also prepared for stress when no-one knows the answer to your questions, no-one helps you, you have to do many repetitive experiments that end up not working and then you will be back at square one over and over again...?

Are you prepared for your supervisor maybe telling you you are not good enough, or you are not working hard enough, or you need to improve your writing/recording/analysing skills?

Are you prepared to learn your topic inside and out, write a 50,000 word thesis and defend this in front of examiners who may still tell you that your contribution isn't good enough?

Are you prepared to spend most of your day trying to balance reading, writing and experiments with teaching undergraduates and assisting your supervisors/other students with things that are nothing to do with your project?

Can you handle feeling isolated, demotivated, stressed, inadequate and unintelligent? Are you ready for this emotional undertaking?

If yes, then go ahead, you are ready for a PhD.

It's really hard being away from home and I expect that is contributing in a massive way to how you are feeling. It will get easier, but it takes a lot of time. Do you have many real friends in the UK? If not, try to join as many things as you can either within the university or in the place you live.

I think if you feel better about other aspects of your life in the UK it will make it easier to continue with the PhD, even if it does not turn out to be the experience you expected it would.

It will make it more difficult to get another funded project if you have quit one.

Hmm.. I think you need to fully understand what a PhD entails before making this decision. At the moment you seem to be thinking about 'will this benefit my career' but that question should be secondary to these: 'can I do a PhD?', 'Do I like independent research?', 'Do I want to be a student again?' and probably many others.

Well done! Welcome to PhD life!

From talking to PhD students that I see on a day to day basis, I would say that about 75% of them do not enjoy their PhD. This is for various reasons: bad supervisor, dislike of subject, poor understanding of what a PhD entails, frustration at little progress, feeling inadequate (imposter-syndrome), dislike of repetitive research etc etc. I wonder whether this would be the same in any job they were in though? I don't know, because most of them have never had a real job, so I guess they don't know either!

There are a lot of people, including myself, who love their PhD, even if we experience all of those things I mentioned above some of the time.

Whether other people like or dislike their PhD is irrelevant to you though. The only person who controls whether you will enjoy your PhD is you.

I think you will need to adopt some strategies for avoiding burnt out because a PhD is a 'marathon not a sprint' and you can't work at a crazy pace all the time. Personally I really value my friends, family and holidays and I don't feel guilty about taking time off (many students do). My PhD is fundamentally important to me, but I need a break and a social life to be happy and healthy, because obviously I can't complete a PhD without these things.

Positive things about my PhD experience: massive personal and academic growth, increased subject and non-subject knowledge, happiness, fulfillment, pride, great conferences, great lab mates, great times in pubs, nice meals out with friends.. it's a dream come true for me, even on the worst days when I've gone home to crawl under a duvet for a few days. Is that positive enough? ;)

I've had a week like this too. I've literally done exactly what the others have suggested and made a list and FORCED myself to do things from it. It's been really hard. I didn't manage to get everything done that I wanted to but I felt a bit better from just making a few tiny steps.

I broke big things done into very little things so that I thought I wasn't really doing the thing I should be doing.

For example instead of 'spend 3 hours subculturing' (which I really had no motivation to do) I had: 1. Make agar 2. Pour agar plates. 3. Label agar plates 4. Find cultures 5. subculture.

These tasks are much more manageable for me and I managed to do them.

I've done the same thing with the thesis where I have just thrown everything together in one document at the moment and I am just working through subsubsections slowly, rather thinking about each chapter, which seems such a daunting task to finish.

Take the summer off to relax!! It will be the last one for a loooonnnggg while...

But if you insist on preparing, do some reading around the subject, make sure you know the basics as well as the latest research, check out current lab members and what they are up to, think about what you will need to do for your research so you have a few ideas about it if anyone asks.

So you'll get a 2.1, not a great 2.1, but still a 2.1. That's what your offer was. You'll be fine!

It's not too bad now actually, I managed to convince a post doc in the lab to help me use it and he spent about 2 hours showing me the ins and outs of everything, which was way over the top but better than the alternative of no help at all!

He also offered to help me run my samples on it, which was really nice of him and we are going to do this next week.

I think some people just don't remember what it's like to work in a lab and that it is much more productive to get someone who knows what they are doing to help another person than let everyone figure it out on their own.

Try to contact your PI again.