I love Wally's answers! I have very straight teeth as a result of 5 years of orthodontic treatment - BUT tea and coffee whilst thesis writing and working have stained them a little. Def. a appointment with a Harley Street Dental Hygenist would be a first spend with a lottery win ;)

Small purchases in my post-phd penury would be some new clothes, a bicycle, and perhaps a holiday. And a new mobile phone since I dropped it into water today and it is now only 1/2 working.

Lottery blow-outs would be a nice Georgian town house in London and a small pied-à-terre in some choice European captials. (got to have a property portfolio) ;)

Largesse to friends and family (nobody wants to seem a scrooge!)

Worthy causes (I may be a millionaire but I'm keeping it real): money to various education charities/trusts. some for support groups/awareness of male anorexia, and money for animal advocacy.

Take the time off work to get tested and relax for a bit. If you are the sort to worry a lot and need a distraction, just work a little less than normal. Try and pamper yourself for a few days. Best wishes.

Me too.

Ancient languages sounds amazing - and I think it is so cool you took a module in Akkadian! :) That will really help an application - just go for it! Good luck!

I get strangely happy when I find out people learn ancient or languages with few speakers :) I thought I was pushing it learning languages spoken by 9 million / and 400,000!!

Good luck!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!! Best of luck Dr.!

Thanks people!!! The seminar went okay, the students had some problems with one of the theoretical texts and that was difficult, but otherwise, I survived! :-)

Good luck, good luck - you are almost there!!! :) :) (up)

I am giving a 2 hour seminar tmrw to some MA students and I am very nervous. I want to look like I am an authority but I usually just end up flustered and sweaty!

Very nervous!

I'm worried they will think I am a fraud!! Any advice?!

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Congratulations and good luck!! I completed mine 2 months ago and it still feels weird to haver done it. Life will never feel normal again but I am so so glad to not be working in the thesis again.

I find work better than the thesis because the job is task based as opposed to endless work on one thing. I am busy writing a paper and a book proposal for the thesis. There are things to do. Since finishing I have regained the many lbs I lost in the trauma of the 3rd and 4th years - so I am thesis free and look and fell better than I have in ages.

Good luck writing up - let us know how it goes!

"The Interplanetary Journal of Mongoose Studies"

Wow! I actually wish that were real. I would be a subscriber! :-)

Congratulations!!!!

4matt. Great to hear you are learning Swedish!

May I recommend www.svt.se for webstreamed swedish television shows (you can watch whole shows). I like watching the nature show " Mitt i naturen" online.

This is a great dictionary too: http://lexin.nada.kth.se/sve-eng.html

Also listening to music will help, you should check out the band Kent, many of their songs are in Swedish too.

I would definately think about the possibility of spending time abroad and doing a PhD which crosses language/cultures in its scope. This will leave you very employable and competitive.

My PhD in history was on a British topic but I wrote part of it in Germany at an institute there and used some German sec lit. The doctoral students I met there were highly competitive as even if their topic was on Germany they were citing Anglophone and Francophone material if needed. Those students who had pan-European topics were in a great place.

Looking at the postdocs that are coming up in history is useful. Several I have seen at present are in Italy or Germany and are on pan-European topics requiring a reading/passive knowledge of 2 languages plus English. I applied for a history postdoc 4 months ago that required Swedish --- so people are really looking for PhDs with language skills.

So your supervisor is doing you a BIG favour by telling you this now. Using other languages in your thesis and papers not only makies them my thorough and credible but also more employable. Remember that US and other European PhD students are normally formidably equipped with other languages. I did my PhD in 18th century British history, and I am now realising how much I will need to improve my German and French to stand a chance of getting a postdoc in history.

Oh yes, and somebody below posted about archival work in other languages - they are right - it takes ages - and German old printed books from the 18th and 19th century make my eyes bleed!!!

Best of luck. I think it would be an exciting PhD to move abroad for a year and you could explore being hosted at another institution for that time. Your partner might well enjoy living there for a while. I have two friends out in Berlin who both love living there. One is doing a PhD and his girlfriend learnt German too and got a job.

Well, congratulations. These "mistakes" are minor and can be corrected in fuiture work. You have a merit, you clearly research well, and your scientific methodology was good. All this points to a promising PhD candidate.

And, to be blunt, if you are having doubts over a few missed incomplete references - wait until during the PhD when your supervisors rip your work to piecces wholesale as part of the learning process! So, enjoy having passed with a merit and look forward to the PhD! :)

Sorry to hear about everything you have gone through.

The MPhil is a advanced degree that requires many of the skills that a PhD does, however the PhD is a different and more advanced degree.

An MPhil does not have to be a consolation prize at all. It can be a degree taken in its own right. In my own field in the humanities many of the older more senior academics took MPhils in the 60s and 70s and were able to hold university seats with this degree. However, this would not be possible today.

A friend of mine in medical physics left her PhD halfway through due to departmental politics and was awarded a MPhil. She works in management now and her new employer in pharmaceuticals values her MPhil as evidence of her academic achievement.

So the MPhil does not need to be a consolation prize but for a career in academia a PhD is required.