hi, I am also a new PhD student. And I am new to the UK too. the 1-year taught portion only starts next week but I am already suffering a bit of reading fatigue...

two chapters of my thesis are due one year down the road..so i am really not going let myself relax too much

meanwhile, i m hoping to have some interesting experiences in this new environment :-)

btw, this forum is sheer great! I really should visit it more often (up)

Recently a Preston University (US) had made stories in newspapers in Singapore. But sometimes I really get a sense of futility about graduate studies, and possibily even undergrad studies. Let's forget about the degree mills, nowadays so many universities offer so many programmes, giving qualifications to so many people, ending in a situation where almost everyone is a MSc/MBA/PhD....so what's the point...the value of these qualifications have debased so seriously that I come to doubt the meaning of this all....we are living in the best of times, and the WORST of times!

oh, my god, reading this thread is like reading a horror story....I am a new PhDer due to commence my candidature in October. I get fully funded and my supervisor is the director of the research centre that I will be working under. She seems to have high expectations of me because I tried all I could to impress her during the interview. Sometimes I feel a bit insecure about the research, becasue the topic hasn't emerged in full shape yet....and so many stories of break-down, failure, and unreasonable examiners are making me very nervous...:-(

but it's really great that I found this forum where i can see how other PhDers are doing

let me wish everyone, including myself, all the best

well...anyway, researchers are supposed to be nerdy...what's the use of dressing so gorgeously only to bury oneself in books. It's rather a distraction. I would even go so far as to say, in order to get the PhD properly done, one shouldn't look too tidy all the time