Hi everyone ! I been hearing alot of people dropping out from the course after the 1st year. I went to the interview at Leeds and some current student told me one of their collegue dropped out because he and the supervisor didnt get on . Then I went to another one and somone told me a friend of their dropped out as well because the supervisor dont talk to him.
Even during my masters , one of the phD student never got on with the supervisor and actually complained about him to his superior. (Also she think the supervisor have a prefer student as well) .

And after goingon this forum , alot of you guys have mentioned that you hated the supervisor and thinking of switching.

SO IS THIS OFTEN ?

I would probably say no this is not a problem. You only ever hear about the ones that DON'T get on with their supervisor and not the ones that do. I am not saying there are bot supervisors out there who aren't any good but don't instantly assume ALL supervisors are bad.

Well it's not rare but there are degrees to this problem - from mild to serious. I certainly don't hate my supervisor - he's quite pleasant. I just don't get any supervision which can be frustrating and isolating.

I previously dropped out of a PhD after my first year but in that case my supervisors were OK but there were other problems.

You are wise to talk to other students and get some feedback. If students regularly have problems with particular supervisors then that will be common knowledge in the dept and worth knowing.

Do you guys have trouble with your co-workers (other phD students) as well, because I know some people can be very competitive and not willing to help at all and may actually in fact do the opposite . I asked because that happened to me when I was doing my project in my Masters degree. Complete nightmere it was !

Also I find the undergraduate who is doing a final year project also seem to be very selfish and uses other people reagents without asking and contaminate it !

Can't people change supervisors?

Hi Masters,
When I initially undertook my phd, I expected to work in a professional environment where people went about their business without backstabbing and bitching.

But from the very start, office politics dominated in my project. I never had any problems with PhD students but I had major problems with the post doc I worked with.


my advice is: keep your nose out of office politics!!!