======= Date Modified 31 May 2010 12:26:10 =======
This might be a bit naive of me, but surely they would all like you to finish your PhD, and want you to be happy with your research etc, especially if you are on a government scholarship (at least this was/is my experience on a 2-year funded MREs). It sounds to me that you are quite worried about what your supervisor would say if you left your job, so maybe the best thing would be just to explain the situation to her. You say she's nice and supportive (ok, she also said to you not to screw up the part-time work), but maybe she will understand that it's a bit too much for you right now.

If you quit your PhD you might regret it sooner than you think. If I may ask, do you have any alternative plans?

======= Date Modified 29 May 2010 12:46:42 =======
Agree with CB, go and see a couple of potential supervisors, and see whether you would be able to work with them. I have been accepted to do a PhD at the department where I'm doing my MRes and during these two years I met quite a few lecturers, and some of them offered to supervise me when I mentioned that I would like to carry on with a PhD. So I kind of did the rounds, talked to all of them about my project, and it turned out that even though some of them were experts in my area, I didn't think I could have worked with them for 3+ years. I ended up with two great sups, though at the end of the process and cannot wait to start in September.

Thanks UnderVerse and Bilbo! Will check out those books as well. I'm doing area studies, so our departments are not divided up the traditional way, but by areas, so yeah, one has to be quite interdisciplinary. My first degree was in the social sciences and linguistics, then jumped ships to the humanities, so I have quite a diverse background, which has helped me a lot, and that was one of the things lecturers liked about my proposal. Thanks for the advice again! :-)

Could anyone recommend a good PhD how to book? I have a look at some of them, mainly Authoring a PhD by Patrick Dunleavy and How to get a PhD. The 'Authoring' book was really helpful, I quite liked that one, but the other one not so much. My only issue with Dunleavy's book was that to me it felt that it was more for social science students. Does anyone know a book especially for humanities PhDs, or a book that has more on the humanities? Cheers!

We had this at the uni where I did my undergrad degree (in the UK). When I was first year, we would have a lecture on social theory by an experienced lecturer, but then the seminar would be with a third year undergrad, who also marked our essays for some strange reason. Some of the essays were then second marked by the lecturer, though not all of them. In the end it turned out that the third year undergrad was way more harsh in marking the essays than the lecturer was. Guess poor guy was afraid that he will be accused of grade inflation or something, so he really under-marked everything. We did complain about the whole process, though, as a lot of the time we asked him something in the seminar and his response was that he will look it up for us for next week. Well, thank you very much, I can look stuff up for myself outside the classroom. I think they scrapped the whole thing after 2 years, too many complaints.

======= Date Modified 25 May 2010 23:47:27 =======

66 for an average is quite good, I would have thought. We had an MA class (ok, I know you were talking about undergrads, but still), where there were the 40 of us, 18 people failed and the rest of us didn't get great grades either, even though most of the people I talked to said that they thought their essays were good. Now that was harsh. 66 is good, IMO.

Congrats on the abstract!

:-) That was hilarious!
Medicine? Ok, that's not a PhD, though you do get the two little letters before your name. I know someone who did a master's in chemistry and then went into medicine, seems like a good choice. (But then I'm doing humanities, so I wouldn't really know.) :-)

Thanks Chrisrolinski! I have read quite a lot around my topic already, my MRes dissertation is on the same topic, just different era.

Going to Greece for 3 weeks, though it's a kind of working holiday, I will still have to do some writing up on my dissertation. Hopefully also going to Italy for a couple of days in September, if my paper gets accepted. Fingers crossed.

======= Date Modified 24 May 2010 09:37:03 =======
Hm, wrote a post, I thought I sent it, but obviously did not. Anyway... I completely agree with jepsonclough. My supervisor has been great, but at the beginning we laid down some basic rules. If I want her to look at anything I send it to her at least a week before we are meeting. Or if I can't for some reason we try to arrange for a time when she's not too busy, like now, and then I can send her my work 3 days before we meet. But we have to arrange that first, which is, in my opinion, perfectly reasonable. I never expected her to be available at the drop of the hat, as I know perfectly well that she's very busy. Even so she's been extremely generous with her time, sometimes we end up discussing my topic for 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Cheers Sneaks! Nah, definitely not buying a puppy. Did you buy one at the start of your PhD by any chance? :-) Getting a mentor is definitely a good idea, thanks!

I'm starting a PhD in history in September. Any advice on what I should definitely do as soon as I start and what I should definitely avoid?

Many thanks!

sbcc

No, but somewhere in the guidelines it says that you should not contact them for this kind of information, but contact your institution.

I did call them, someone said that last year everyone they nominated got it, then another one said that she cannot comment on it. But as far as I understand, your institution nominates you, and then esrc just confirms your eligibility. So guess will just have to wait till 30th June...

I received a letter yesterday, saying that I have been nominated by my institution for an ESRC quota place. I read through all the ESRC FAQ and all relevant pages on the website, but I'm still not 100% sure. Does that mean that I'm definitely going to get the funding, now ESRC only has to approve, or I just got into the next round of the competition?