Hi - I have a three year old. It is a bit of an odd question from your supervisor! I think it depends on what your childcare arrangements are. What you can't do, in my opinion, is manage to look after children AND do some meaningful study at the same time - learnt that the first week! ;-)

I'm afraid I don't know anything about PhDs in Law but I did study for my undergraduate degree in Birmingham and I loved it! It is a really vibrant city, loads to do (great ballet company if you're into ballet), clubs, concerts etc. Also it is really well situated for getting out into the country with or without a car (used to love popping over to the Malvern Hills or to Stratford on Avon to see a play). As a pp said there are lots of leafy suburbs. I love Bourneville (although apparently the smell of chocolate can get a bit much!) it is on a direct train line to the university (or you can walk - it's not far) but there are lots of other leafy suburbs to choose from. Hope that helps a bit!

As regards your last question - I will be (minimum) 38 when I finish so it better not be too late!

Either everyone is too busy reading and writing to comment...or too embarrassed to tell the truth! :$

You can check whether a college or uni is "real" here:
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/providersregister/search.cfm

BTW I'm not suggesting that these aren't - just giving the information!

Timefortea should be reading and summarising some articles for her supervisor but is actually playing fire engines and ambulances with her son. :-)

"I know I'm stereotyping, but every one of those Italian girls has Nigella Lawson hair and looks better in skinny jeans than I do"

Juno - think yourself lucky. I live in Italy and I feel the same about practically everyone else - including all the mums at my son's school. Yes, I am the only bleary-eyed mum to turn up with weetabix on my sweatshirt :$

I have worked at the uni for many years (am a mature student!) and I have had students' parents coming in to see me to ask if I will change their child's marks!! :-s

I have only just started interviewing participants for my research and am mainly dealing with elderly people. The trouble is they are really getting me down! All the people I have spoken too are so negative - they keep on telling me how terrible it is to get old and how down they feel...I am finding it very hard to empathise and not get sucked into a big vortex of despair. I am also getting requests for practical help which I don't really have time to do - I have my own family to look after but it is really difficult to say no! Has anyone else had this problem? I have been depressed in the past and am really worried that doing this fieldwork is not going to be good for me emotionally - esp as I am not at the university at the moment so don't really have anyone I can unwind/debrief with. :-( Has anyone else had problems like this? How do you manage not to empathise too much? I wish I had chosen a different topic to be honest!

PhdBug - just wanted to say that your story made my day!! Sorry! :-) I once emailed a whole list of people at work (including my boss) asking them is they wanted to come to a party. Another colleague replied to my email saying "she'd love to come but not if that ****er of our boss was going to be there". Of course, she clicked "reply all" instead of just "reply". And then she tried to blame me for her technical incompetence!!!:-)

SPELT

Thanks to everyone for the great advice (up)

Hello. I keep on reading everywhere how important it is to back up data. the problem is, not being very technically-minded, I'm not sure exactly what this means! Do I just save a copy of what I write on a USB key or do I need an external harddrive and if so, what type? Thanks for any tips!:-)