Nice to meet you both! I am very busy revising for my exams at the moment, but I managed to find time to submit my research proposal. :-) How are both your PhDs going?

Silver

Hi everyone! I'm new here so I thought I'd introduce myself. I'm not actually a PhD student yet, I start this October, but of course I'm already thinking about it! It's great to meet you all and I hope I can learn from the experiences shared here.
Silver.

Wow, that's fantastic news! Very well done, even better with no corrections to make. I hope I can be as successful as you in the future. :-) I wish you all the best!

I have never used those services before, or anything like them - but I think I would advise that you don't go down that route. If you think that you don't have the time to balance both the job and the PhD thesis, perhaps you could talk to your supervisor about it?

Silver.

Thanks Smoobles, I think I see it as a bonus as well, but yeah, being told would have been nice. :-) Also a good point regarding the interview. I guess trying to make three different supervisors see things your way is a challenge!

I'm sorry to hear that things are tough, eading. I hope things improve for you.

Silver.

I'm new to these forums and I only know the surface of the back story, but thought I'd say well done anyway. So, congratulations! What an achievement. I wish you all the best for the future.

Good idea with the first meeting. I'll have three supervisors, so I think some plans of action are required! @Athena, I'm glad having more supervisors made it more interesting for you. It's definitely worth having different opinions, especially if they're seeing things from a completely different viewpoint. Only trouble of course is conflicting advice on a specific task... but hopefully that won't be too much of a problem!

Hi wowzers,
I'm sorry about your situation. The only thing I can suggest is going to your other lecturers or contacts within the university and asking them for a reference instead. If you have/had a personal tutor then this person would be ideal. From my experience I find that students can apply for PhDs without their final grade, usually their course grades so far are considered, so it really shouldn't be a problem.

I also agree with what XJR said about 'blind' applicants. In order to really secure your place, you have to contact your potential supervisor beforehand and discuss your proposal. It was exactly the same for the third year 'self proposed' projects; you had to get in contact with someone in your interest area, go over your project proposal, and if they were interested then they agreed supervise you.

Thanks for your replies guys. It seemed to me like it should have been mentioned before, but I'm not really familiar with the norms. :-)

Long story short, I just applied for a PhD (which was actually offered to me, the application was to finalise things) with my chosen supervisor.

Upon receiving my application, my supervisor told me that he will actually be getting in two other people to co-supervise me; one person is from inside our department, the other is not. I don't know who either of these people are (thus I don't know if I want them supervising me). Personally, I am very fond of branching into other departments and making connections, but I am slightly irritated that I wasn't told this information prior to my application.

I don't think I get a choice/opinion in the matter. Am I justified in feeling irritated, or does this often happen with PhDs? Any advice is very much appreciated.