Paulie Tandoori
shut it you egg!
that's that is 
PhD
- Thread starter mrs quoad
- Start date
i find that persistence and motivation are integral to intelligence, per se
Vintage Paw
dead stare and computer glare
Balls.
Balls indeed.
I'm actually motivated and stuff this year doing my masters. Last year finishing my BA I wasn't. I was still clever
fakeplasticgirl
Keirleader
Don't you have a supervisor to chat to and discuss your research ideas with? 
purves grundy
ambient clown remix
You wait til you get shat out the bum end of your dissertation...uhhhhh...I'm actually motivated and stuff this year doing my masters. Last year finishing my BA I wasn't. I was still clever
geminisnake
a complex mass of conflicting ideas
mattie
missing in inaction
In my experience, most people do it either because they have no idea what they want to do career-wise or they have an extremely narrow area of interest and see the PhD as a way of getting highly skilled - academic freedom and all that.
First year is for getting wasted every night, don't waste it.
Short version: challenges of supporting people with ongoing mental health, substance misuse and [domestic] violence issues. And - hopefully - putting some more coherent services / structures together. Specifically crack cocaine / heroin. With the research focussed on a specific (referral) agency.
Doesn't mean shit if it doesn't end up translating into some impact, mind!
wasn't there something to do with relationships in recovery (from the AA thread....)?
Sounds v interesting and useful, btw.
Anyways...
Get yourself down to a few agencies, I guess. then start formulating a plan as to how you will do this research. then speak to a prof (or something similar....) who can tell you if you are heading in the right direction.
If they havent even told you who you will be handing yo' shit into, I would imagine that should be pretty high on your priority list.
But you know all this anyway, right? Just go and do it and stop wasting time on u75....
naah...they just want to be called Dr. without the hassle of going to med school
i was at a restaurant once and someone thought they were having a myocardial infarction (heart attack). i asked if there was a Dr. in the house and some dude comes over....after further inquiry we found out he was a doctor of philosophy
Innit.
In the end I came to regret spending as much of my first year on the lash as I did, but it was fun while it lasted.
mattie
missing in inaction
naah...they just want to be called Dr. without the hassle of going to med school
i was at a restaurant once and someone thought they were having a myocardial infarction (heart attack). i asked if there was a Dr. in the house and some dude comes over....after further inquiry we found out he was a doctor of philosophy
Not that I question your anecdote, but no PhD I know would do the same, and not a single one completed a PhD 'just to be called doctor'. It's a hard slog, completed after the hard slog of an undergrad degree and (in some cases) postgrad Master's.
As an aside, the word Doctor derives from 'to teach', not 'to practice medicine'.
For what its worth, most medical practitioners shouldn't use the title 'Dr' as only those with Doctor of Medicine degrees should make that claim. It's become generally accepted practice, for whatever reason.
mattie
missing in inaction
Innit.
In the end I came to regret spending as much of my first year on the lash as I did, but it was fun while it lasted.
Being on the other end of the supervisory stick now, it's quite interesting to see the horrible ephiphany for a second-year PhD - 'shit, I'm halfway through and I've done nothing!'
Part of the process is the general spinning around, not being sure of anything, it takes time for things to sink in. The Engineering HoD at Bristol used to insist that his PhD students do 1 month of literature review maximum, so that they formulated their own ideas instead of simply accepting the concensus. I can only imagine their terror at their first conference, not having the first clue who was who, what was going on, or how their work would be received!
Yeah. Including being surprised from behind by importunate olfactorily discriminating Yanks
naah...they just want to be called Dr. without the hassle of going to med school
i was at a restaurant once and someone thought they were having a myocardial infarction (heart attack). i asked if there was a Dr. in the house and some dude comes over....after further inquiry we found out he was a doctor of philosophy
Ho ho ho. I laughed until I stopped.
You seem, generally, pretty down on anyone with higher academic qualifications, DC. Any particular reason for that?
Biglittlefish
Active Member
Short version: challenges of supporting people with ongoing mental health, substance misuse and [domestic] violence issues. And - hopefully - putting some more coherent services / structures together. Specifically crack cocaine / heroin. With the research focussed on a specific (referral) agency.
Doesn't mean shit if it doesn't end up translating into some impact, mind!
Thats impressive, good luck mate. Any progress there is much needed.
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
I spent pretty much all of my first year reading journal papers and articles, and formulating what I was trying to do with my PhD. I did very little actual mathematical modelling, and the few models I did formulate were disregarded quite early on in my second year.
I know you've spent the last year doing your MPhil, so you've laid some good ground work for your PhD.
Is your supervisor for your PhD the same one as for your MPhil? That should make things easier, if it is.
And well done for getting this far
I know you've spent the last year doing your MPhil, so you've laid some good ground work for your PhD.
Is your supervisor for your PhD the same one as for your MPhil? That should make things easier, if it is.
And well done for getting this far
you got a desk with your phd?!?!?! blimey, i dont even get free printer credits.
my advice is to settle down and read. lots. cover all of what other people have written about your subject all the time thinking in your head 'what part of it has no-one written about yet'. at some point you will find your unique idea/contribution and then you can start to write, and read just to fill in the gaps. for me that didnt come til january, for other people it was much later.
TY, all! And gracious - no free printer credits, just a desk. And a computer on it.
I'm working from home atm, though! And *coughcough* roasting some Brazilian beans next to my laptop as I'm... um... reading about Malaysian peasant resistance. Which I have a feeling may prove surprisingly relevant to mental disorder, substance misuse and [gendered] violence. On a number of levels
Incidentally... I'm curious... most folks I've spoken to've said that the first year is the one you need to be working in, as I'm a probationary PhD until the 1st year report! The second year is - apparently - the time for taking a bit of a break roundabouts these parts
And finally - EG, yep. Done the MPhil. Which makes re-doing a new literature review (on top of the many, many sources used for my MPhil and BSc) something of a... painful... prospect
Ah well! Back to Malaysian peasants!
I'm working from home atm, though! And *coughcough* roasting some Brazilian beans next to my laptop as I'm... um... reading about Malaysian peasant resistance. Which I have a feeling may prove surprisingly relevant to mental disorder, substance misuse and [gendered] violence. On a number of levels
Incidentally... I'm curious... most folks I've spoken to've said that the first year is the one you need to be working in, as I'm a probationary PhD until the 1st year report! The second year is - apparently - the time for taking a bit of a break roundabouts these parts
And finally - EG, yep. Done the MPhil. Which makes re-doing a new literature review (on top of the many, many sources used for my MPhil and BSc) something of a... painful... prospect
Ah well! Back to Malaysian peasants!
I so remember that feeling mrs quaod Well, at least you've learnt the first rule of doing a PhD- the hardest bit is getting your supervisors attention.
Cos mine was lab based I guess I was lucky cos I could tag along with the lab technician and practice my PCR and molecular skills until I could actually think of an experiment to do.
I found the PhD vaired from being really intense to doing fuck all depending on where I was in the 'experiment > analysis > writing > publishing' cycle. Personally I'd recommend cracking on then. I finished in just over 3 years cos I wrote up as I went along rather than the other lazy fucks who left it all til the end.
Good luck
Well, at least you've learnt the first rule of doing a PhD- the hardest bit is getting your supervisors attention.Cos mine was lab based I guess I was lucky cos I could tag along with the lab technician and practice my PCR and molecular skills until I could actually think of an experiment to do.
I found the PhD vaired from being really intense to doing fuck all depending on where I was in the 'experiment > analysis > writing > publishing' cycle. Personally I'd recommend cracking on then. I finished in just over 3 years cos I wrote up as I went along rather than the other lazy fucks who left it all til the end.
Good luck
Incidentally... I'm curious... most folks I've spoken to've said that the first year is the one you need to be working in, as I'm a probationary PhD until the 1st year report! The second year is - apparently - the time for taking a bit of a break roundabouts these parts
I suspect that's true in a lot of places now. Supervision of PhD students has really been tightened up since i started mine in 2001. Back then, end of year reports were largely a formality, I had no deadlines, and had I not had a very conscientious supervisor it'd have been very easy for the project to have drifted.
Re. writing up, it's a matter of personal preference more than anything else IMO, certainly with humanities subjects. Some people get the urge to write early on and do so successfully, but doing that has never worked for me. I prefer to leave writing until I'm confident that I know what i'm doing. When I'm working to a plan I write very quickly, but when less sure of what i want to achieve then it's slower, more of a struggle and less enjoyable.
Vintage Paw
dead stare and computer glare
We have progression panels at the end of 18 months (or maybe a year, can't remember) here at Keele. Basically a mini Viva. You submit your shit, they quiz you on it, then you go and pace the hall outside for a while until they call you back in and tell you if you're allowed to progress. So yeah, bit like being on probation.
no, i think education is great. the more the better but one must always stay well rounded. i could finish my masters if i took 5 more classes but i'm not in academic mode any more.
Vintage Paw
dead stare and computer glare
The well rounded bit is often difficult once you get to PhD level because you become so single minded and focused. Academia is incredibly rarefied, and with that comes the good and the bad. The good being (hopefully) the continuation of knowledge, the bad being the social stuntification of those practicing in academia.
exactly
Vintage Paw
dead stare and computer glare
Those in academia rarely see it as a problem though. Sorts the wheat from the chaff, I suppose
I actually like the fact that academics are weirdos. My one regret leaving academia was the lack of so many brilliant, obsessive and interesting people in my life. Being a well rounded, socially adept individual is fine and lovely and necessary for a lot of people but it's also great to have people that are different.
I now work with database programmers, so I have my weirdos back in my life
onemonkey
winmonkey
just six days left in my phd.. on the downside, I still have plenty to write.. on the upside, i can't write more than another 13k or i go over the 100k word limit 
on the even more upside.. it will very soon all be over bar the shouting* (+ 
)
*or viva i believe as you are supposed to call it.
on the even more upside.. it will very soon all be over bar the shouting*
(+ )*or viva i believe as you are supposed to call it.
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