I got an e-mail from an administrative staff regarding two projects I applied to, saying something like this:

Unfortunatly project A has no funding, but project B is different therefore you could still do it if you are interested.

I am quite confused as I am not so sure if they are going to give me an offer if I say I am interested (sounds too good to be ture to me...) or they just wanted to tell me something about the funding issue.

Just wondering, how long dose it take for your previous/current supervisors to send their reference letters for you? My supervisors did not send their reference letters yet after one week of them getting the request for references.

Yes, that's just irresponsible. But on the other hand you also avoided a not very reliable supervisor who might ruin your PhD or even your career otherwise. At least I would not be very fency to work with this kind of supervisor if I have other choices. Better find out this earlier than it is too late.

Anyway, thanks a lot for all the great advices. I was told that they will give me the answer next week. So for now I can only wish for the best, and prepare for the worst.

I apply for a few places and got two reply so far.

A prospective supervisor said he will serious consider my application;
Another said something like: "there is an attractive possibility of winning a XXX scholarship if you......".

Should I be optimistic about this or they just being polite? Since one of them also writes my reference and will know every place I applying for, I don't want to show an impression of lacking commitment by applying too much universities if he really think I have quite a chance.

I got some publishable result on my MRes research but I can only get a pass due to bad course marks.
How do this compare to a distinction when apply for a phd?