Thanks for your reply. I know that the ex-poly supervisor has 4 current PhD students and six previously completed PhDs, with one 'drop out'. I'm not sure about the RG supervisor, but I will email him about that.

I spoke to one current student at the ex-poly. Everything he said was positive, and he's in his 3rd year, but he is quite a bit older than me, with a lot of experience in industry, so I'm not sure how useful his experience is for my situation.

Having visited a number of other institutions, visiting the supervisor at the ex-poly was a refreshing change. We got on straight away, had a lot in common (same undergraduate degree and institution, academic interests, sense of humour, etc.) and she is currently running an MSc program modelled on my MSc from Edinburgh, so said it would be good to get me lecturing on that. I had pretty much decided where I wanted to go, but ended up getting an offer for the institution that was originally my first choice, hence my issue.

Thanks again for your advice :)

Hi Everyone,

I'm in the process of choosing where to do my PhD and have visited a few potential departments. Out of those that I've visited, I'm having trouble choosing between a very good Russell Group university with a supervisor that I seem to get on OK with and an ex-polytechnic university with a supervisor that I seem to get on much better with. Both potential supervisors are well respected in their fields. If anyone could give me any advice on how to choose, I'd really appreciate it.