Searching for fellow PhD students

[youngblowfish]

Hello,

I find myself badly in need of company as a newly pregnant PhD student. I am about to start my second year and, all being well, I should be 12 weeks by the beginning of October.

Are there any pregnant/parents PhD students out there? I could really do with a thesis writing support thread and it would be lovely to chat to people who are in a similar position.

Hope no-one minds me asking on this thread, how long a commute would you all consider to get to uni for a funded phd?
I won't graduate anytime soon but I am starting to think of what to do next. Teaching is something I am considering but I'm still not sure. If I could get funding for a phd I would put it top of the list of my options but the uni I would be going to is over an hour away.

Does anyone else manage a commute?

mine will be about an hour (when i get my place lol) - at the mo we are about 3 hours away, which with teaching commitments is just too far... we are moving in the summer.

Mine's about 2 hours away, which is a pain and wish it was nearer, but is feasible as I don't have to be in much at the moment and don't teach. Fieldwork is going to be a sod as that's further away :( BUT I considered it worth it cos I've got funding

madwoman-what are you doing? Sorry should be able to remember but my mind has gone blank.
Maybe just over an hour would be okay. Will have to see about petrol prices nearer the time though :-o

miffytastic-how many hours do you need to be at uni and what are you doing?

Hi all

I'm part way through my MPhil and have a conditional offer for my PhD starting in October (need grades and funding to make it 100%). My DH and I are thinking of TTC fairly soon... I want to leave it closer to July when I hopefully might hear about my funding applications. I'm paranoid that either 1) I'll get pregnant and they will find out early and then not offer me funding or 2) if I do tell them when I am more comfortably pregnant at say 12 weeks, and have my funding offer but havent officially started my PhD, that they will take away their offer of a place!

Last year for my MPhil I had everything confirmed by July, but I feel that my status is a little more precarious in this Summer between my MPhil and my PhD if I get pregnant. All my supervisors are family men and involved in pastoral care, and the university has childcare provisions. But I am concerned about my status between MPhil and PhD. And there's a part of me that feels like by getting pregnant I would be failing them in some way :(

I suppose for the timing problem I could wait till October to TTC but I dont want to .

Blink

I'm about 2 hours (depending on train times) from uni. It was a pain when doing my masters as I had to be in 3 days a week first semester and I chose courses that happened to be in the middle of the day rather than the ones I wanted to do!

Now I'm on my PhD I work from home & only go in for meetings & teaching. My teaching is a choice - not part of my funding - so I ask for it all to be on one day & for the hours that are feasible. It has worked out for me, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. I feel like I am missing out on a lot by not being able to go to additional seminars etc. and to go in for a 1 hour meeting means writing off the day as far as productive thesis work goes - I can read on the train but not write. It can get very lonely (I am also single).

Blink - depending on your funding I'm not sure once offered that they would be able to remove the offer (not if it's from an external body anyway). Just don't tell them it was planned

I think my funding, if I get it, is most likely to come from my college... will definitely not say it was intentional.

Oh well, will have to hope for the best... I'm just not sure that any offer would be supported by law in the way that a job offer might...

B

oh, for my first masters i was 2 hour train and 30 minute drive (to the train station lol) away from uni - but i only had to be in one afternoon/ night a week so it was bearable. a pita getting home after midnight by taxi, but...

if i can't find local gatekeepers, my fieldwork will be a 9 hour flight away. i guess i'll be doing blocks rather than a couple of days a week.

lb, my msc is social research - largely gender and defence. current dissertation looking at wider military community and formal/ informal support networks, with a mental health component, but phd app goes back to serving personnel and gender roles/ experiences/ transgender etc. hopefully anyway. it was all coming together nicely until i ended up on the other side of the world.

i have a nice chap on the back burner who might turn out to be the perfect gatekeeper with a bit of nurturing though... and only a 4 hour drive for fieldwork [fingers crossed emoticon]

I'm lucky that I am now about 20-30 mins walk from uni but because of childcare I only use my desk for about 3-4 times a week, fir about 2-4 hours at a time, the rest I do from home! I'd love to be there more but can't afford childcare!

I'm nearly 2 hours away door to door. I used to commute to London for work, which was about the same, so I'm used to the early starts and the children are used to that too. But I second what Socy said about missing out on the peripheral stuff. My department (and the wider uni) has lots of early evening seminars and events. I try to go to some, but unless I leave at 4, I miss the DC's bedtime because of the way the trains work out. And if I leave any later than 5, I'm not home until after 9, because there's an annoying gap in the trains. So it's do-able, but a bit of a shame, if you see what I mean.

Blink - if you want to TTC, then that should be your over-riding consideration, obviously. But do you really want to be having a baby so near the start of your PhD? I'm not sure whether you already have children or not, so I might be teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here. But you don't know until a baby arrives how you'll feel about going back to work/study - you might feel that you can't do full-time, for example, and if your funding doesn't have a part-time option end up having to choose between pursuing the PhD and spending time with your little one. And for some people, having children drastically alters their interests and mindset (when I went back after DD1, for example, I found some things I'd been really engaged with before just a waste of energy because the time away - as well as the experience of having a child - made me much less tolerant of politicking and some other aspects of my then job). So I guess there's always a danger you might just lose interest in your topic...? Sorry - none of my business, obviously, but it might be worth weighing these things up, if you haven't already. But good luck with the TTC and the funding search, nevertheless!

I got my PhD funding while heavily pregnant with DS1. Wasn't pg when i applied, missed 1st round inter views due to hyperemesis. Funding body incredibly sympathetic, delayed my start date until after mat leave, then funded me through mat leave with DD2, also allowed me to go part time (which costs them a bit more because of what they pay the uni).
And no, they can't withdraw offer of funding/ place because pg.
Commuting however.... Depends on your subject (and on your childcare flexibility). I only manage my life (in the loosest sense of manage, perpetual chaos here), because I am 10 minutes from lab (where I have to be every working day), which is 3 mins from DD2's nursery and 15 from DS1s school. DH works away.

LB29 I don't "have" to be in for anything, no taught courses this year, just the odd PG support seminar which you're expected to attend, and then there are some peripheral things like working groupss, reading groups etc which are good to attend but not part of things. I find they do break up the day which can be a blessing and a curse.

I'm in sociology (kind of) got my research site (multi-disciplinary but accessed through health) all lined up but that's even further away from home. Sorry being vague to protect anonymity!

Yesterday got an unexpected lift home so got back for DDs bedtime which was a nice bonus.

Madwomanintheattic - fascinating topic. I love hearing what others are doing :D

Thanks everyone. I have decided that nearer the time I will go to the uni and see how much time I would be expected/needed to be there for. Both kids will be at school full time and my mum could possibly help out some evenings. The silly before /after school club is expensive but I know of a childminder locally who seems nice.

You sound really happy with what you do madwoman. Where do you live now?

Met my supervisor today. Got into a long and pointless (though good natured) argument about the nature of academic discourse. I am writing what is essentially a history of the profession I used to work in (and may again one day). I had written about a major development from the 1970s and noted in my conclusion that there had been 'good things about it, for example...'. My supervisor told me I would have to learn not to express judgements like that before I come to write my thesis as it is not allowed. I do see why - academic neutrality and all that. But surely that is a nonsense? It's easy enough - reading between the lines - to see what a Marxist historian thinks about Thatcher's legacy (say). So why aren't academics allowed to express a view directly instead of covertly?? What kind of conclusion, assessing the impact of a major development, avoids making a judgement about what was good and bad about it? Hmm. Rant over - maybe I am just not suited to this academic lark. I want to call a spade a spade and am used to writing semi-journalistic pieces where I can!

I seem to be being told the opposite - that I need more of 'me' and my research in there, up front. I've just (re)written my lit review for my thesis and it is (apparently) a great review of the relevant literature, and I should keep this version in case I need it for writing a book (!) but I need to put in far more about my point of view, what I am looking at/for etc. And some of the best bits are where I am critiqueing other, very well known in the field, academics, or so I'm told. I guess it must depend partly on subject area - I have a friend at the same uni as me and similar but different area and we seem to be having quite different feedback on things. Perhpas there is another way of making your point, which is allowed? I thought it was ok to call a spade a fork as long as you can back it up with appropriate references and make a valid argument

Interesting. I should probably get a few other academics' take on this. But I think you've hit the nail on the head - calling a spade a fork... I've spent the 15 years since I left university the first time training myself out of periphrasis and now I want to call it a spade! Anyway, good luck with your re-writing...

Hello folks, been a bit quiet on here lately? Assuming everyone is like me - busy getting on with stuff?
I've been doing ethical approval gubbins, protocol, plan for gaining consent etc. OMG I have been in tears at the bureaucratic drudgery on more than one occasion. Then my lit review is looming and sup is stressing about me getting it done so it feels like there is no let up.
Finding it hard to keep calm about it all, and to switch off but then tiredness and parenting jobs take precedence at points. Trying to excercise more but it's hard to fit it in. Hate being full time but it's a necessary evil.

moan moan moan - tell me how you're all doing?

Ethics is so laborious! I feel your pain, mine took 10 months! I have finished my data collection but have 18.5 interviews to transcribe then code all 27 and analyse and wrote up my thesis by Xmas! Eek and yes parent bits keep taking over but I have done a housework rota and am making them stick to it! (dh and ds)

Keep going!!

NRIF:
10 months? {gulp} was that 10 months from when you submitted or started writing protocols etc?
and was that through NHS?

I met someone this week who is a parent and though full time it has taken her 2 years since end of data collection to writing up, she hopes to submit this July. F--k! I really want to be finished by 2013, not 2016!!!

What's your plan for analysis? well whatever your plan at least as you're transcribing you can note your ideas for themes etc as you go along. Good luck!

The initial draft took a few weeks then reviews by 2 committes! Not nhs but almost as it is a 'clinical' sample..... It was hard going but I am glad I did it as I could probably write a whole chapter on it!

I'm using thematic analysis as it's an exploratory study and I dont want to be tied to a particular theory but once I really get on it who knows! I should have my complete coding framework within 2 weeks and a structure for the thesis from that.... I'm aiming to get my first complete draft by end of December, january at the latest and submission by march and hopefully viva quite soon after that!

Hello everyone. I seem to be in a bit of a rut. After my last, slightly annoying, meeting with my supervisor, my enthusiasm has taken a small dive. Trying to get my mojo back, and am just starting to get enthused about my current chapter/topic. This will be the last new area I look at before I have to do my APG/conversion of status viva in June, so it's starting to feel like the end of the beginning, which is a bit sad, as I suspect it's less fun from here on in. Also suffering frustrations because of childcare/housework like the rest of you. Although officially full-time, I only have 3.5 days childcare a week and cover the majority of the school holidays, so it only takes a disruption or two (sick child, etc) to throw a whole week off course. DH is generally fab but I have been feeling a bit jealous this last week as he's been using up some leave gardening and doing other jobs round the house and it feels like that's not an option for me. Still, onwards and upwards. Have a really interesting book to read before I set off to pick the DDs up at 3.30 and there aren't many people who have that privlege as part of their 'day job'.

NRIF - yeah, that's what I'm feeling about it now, doing the ethics has been hard going but useful as I now feel confident in the methodology choices that were made for me (as it's a CASE studentship)

Dotty- mmm, feel your pain on the lack of annual leave. What is everyone doing for the mass of April / May holidays? We're away for the end-of-May spring bank hols so that will be a good proper break, and got some friends to see around Easter so planning a few days off.... BUT I've got my lit review to start in earnest (!) now so will have to go and work at my nearest library (doing the sconul thing, it's ace) as WAH will be difficult with DD1 around

I was chatting to a fellow student t'other day about how being a parent disrupts study time, and she was envious of something that forces you to have a break, cos she is stressed and finding it hard to stop. So at least we have that benefit eh?!

Indeed - the kids prevent all possibility of complete immersion in your work. Which is both good and bad. One of the 23 year old, single, phd students in my department was telling me today about how busy she is (and she really is in work terms) and how she was looking forward to going away with her parents at the end of the month and having a week of lounging around being brought endless cups of tea. And I smiled and sympathised and thought 'if only'...Still - wouldn't really change things. If I'd done a PhD when I was 23, it would have been in something I couldn't care less about now.