What do you mean aloha, are you suggesting there’s something more difficult in life than a PhD ?

Shani, he often doesn’t believe me. You hit the nail on the head with “until somebody else says the same”. It’s infuriating, and it does put me off. In a nutshell we’re going through a bit of a ‘crisis’ just now. Although I can’t decide if it’s exacerbated by the stress and lifestyle associated with my PhD. I find myself reluctant to make any big decisions during this really stressful time.

If my PhD runs over by more than a few months I’ll have to get some form of paid work, even if only part-time. My gripe is that not being in academia he doesn’t realise that the majority (at least at my university) of PhDs take longer than the funded time period. When I try to explain the status quo it ends up sounding like an excuse.


MamboCat: My boyfriend’s a teacher

Does anyone suffer from a really unsupportive partner? I’m nearing the end of the funded part of my PhD, and it’s looking more and more likely that I won’t be finished on time. I admit that in the early days of my PhD I had difficulty getting motivated at times, and I often took days off. I wasted a lot of time!

I’ve been warning my boyfriend over the last 6 months that come September the money will run out and I won’t be finished. He seems to think that if I really want to I can finish on time. He doesn’t believe me when I say a lot of PhDs take more than the allotted 3 years. He reckons I should be working all the time to make sure that I finish before the money runs out. I just don’t have the energy to do that. Anyone else suffering from this kind of agro? Any ideas on how best to handle it?

I was based in the physics faculty but i had a lot of contact with the engineering faculty.

I completed my masters in Canada and i would say i didn't meet a single student that finished there PhD in under 4 years. In fact, 4 years was the minimum duration, with the majority of students completing in 4 - 6 years. It's my understanding that grad school in both Canada and the states is consdierably longer than the UK.

Those UK students that only go to 4 years should think themselves lucky, imagine 6 years of this hell .

Is anyone else doing a PhD just because the alternatives are so unappealing? That basically sums up why I’m here and possibly why I’m struggling to do any work.

The last two months have been awful, it’s been a real struggle to get myself in to the office. When I’m in the office my time is split between bebo/facebook/this site. I just have a real lack of motivation for it all and I don’t know how to change it. Before I started my PhD I was so sure this was the perfect career for me. Now I feel like I’ve ran out of options. Anyone else feel like this?