======= Date Modified 21 09 2009 19:09:30 =======
Hi guys, I'm new here so don't be too hard on me!

I've been in my position as a post-graduate student for 8 months now, and whilst the project is interesting in its underlying concpet, I am not enjoying it. Has anyone else quit a PhD after such a short time, and gone on to do another PhD? I am currently doing an organic chemistry based PhD, which I thought would be good for me to do way back when I didn't even have my degree confirmed, but I now realise that I am more interested in materials chemistry (indeed, my undergraduate project was concerned with superhydrophobic surface formation).

What can I do? I feel like I'm stuck now. :-(

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Matt

Hi there,
Yes, a couple of PhDers quit between 3-18 months of their studentship due to various reasons and restarted another elsewhere. No point carrying on when you know you are unhappy. The PhD is always there but don't exchange it for your happiness, here and now.
Trust your instincts. Good luck.

I left a PhD over a decade ago after falling seriously ill. It had funding consequences for my department (reduced how many awards they could receive), and it also had funding implications for me. When I reapplied for another PhD I had to declare that I'd received so much prior funding from another research council and this might reduce my new PhD funding. Luckily I was awarded a full grant in the new area (for part-time study), and it was so radically different that the old funding wasn't counted against me. But if I'd been applying for a new PhD with similar funding in the same subject area a funding council might reduce the number of years they would fund because of the prior funding arrangement.