Any PhD Students Fancy A Mutual Support Thread?

[GentlyGentlyOhDear]

Is anyone else currently doing a PhD? I've just had my first baby and am trying to get back into the swing of things academically. Is there anyone else out there in a similar situation?

I'm currently on mat leave from my PhD until the new year, but I've been doing two days a week since baby was 4 months old as I desperately need to get finished! My registration ends in June next year, then I have 2 years to write-up (part-time), but I'm aiming to get finished within a year and a half.

Really should be working now...

Hi everyone - how's it going in the new year? I have 3 weeks (including this one) until I have to submit a first full draft. I have no conclusion written as yet, and all the other chapters need a lot of work. I am panicking a bit and so have spent the last 20 minutes rearranging the living room furniture. I truly am the queen of procrastination.

Hi Antlers - well so much depends on your circumstances and motivation, it's hard to generalise. My phd is full time, with a few days work thrown in each month (and lots of other commitments too). I am sick of being so busy and never feeling like I am doing anything properly and can't wait for it to be over, at this point. I can't imagine doing a part-time one on top of a full-time job. But lots of people do, and thrive on it. I think the key is for it to be on something you're really passionate about so it doesn't feel like work. Actually I have a friend who did a part time OU literature Phd on top of a totally unrelated commercial job and seemed to find it incredibly satisfying. (I am also 9 years into parenthood - and longer than that ttc etc, so I now find it hard to remember what it felt like not to be a parent. That's not meant to be patronising or exclusive, but I think it does make a big difference, looking at the phds in my department - so I'm finding it harder to comment helpfully for you)

How much do you want it to be just you in a room, reading and writing, and how much do you want to be part of a research community? That's a big factor to consider in terms of feasibility, and suitable uni, etc. I could go on and on - but come back with some specific questions and we can try to help.

Dear All,

I have a query about maternity leave during your PhD and would welcome others experiences.....I am due to have number 2 in a couple of weeks......

I have only recently been made aware of a discrepancy in the management of the maternity leave start and leave dates for my university and my funding body.

The institute policy is that the period of interruption of studies for maternity leave must constitute full terms which entirely span and surround the period of funding maternity leave. This means that, though I will return from my funded maternity leave in August 2014, I will not be allowed enrolment and access until October 2014 - as you can imagine this is really problematic.

The idea that I will be totally cut off and not able to access email/ web of knowledge/ anything really throughout my maternity leave seems unbelievable.

Did anyone else have this experience? Is there any advice?

Thanks

Hi ajcmullin - I haven't had maternity leave during my (AHRC funded) phd, but I did look into it. My uni doesn't have this policy of full terms - in fact, it doesn't really have a strong notion of 'terms' as such for Phd students and so I could have taken 6 months, starting in May, coming back in November, or whatever. So not much help there - but I think you need to find someone to talk to about it at both your funding body and your institution. (One thing that does occur to me, though, is that, if the worst comes to the worst and there's no way round it, you can probably do some useful work on your own resources for a couple of months - maybe download a load of papers now that you'd like to read, or plan a small project you could do without online resources. I am writing up now and can see in retrospect that there's loads of stuff I could have done on this kind of model - though obviously it depends on your subject area.)

Good luck sorting it out - and all the best for the safe arrival of your DC2.

That is interesting that they didn't really have the notion of terms - they don't make any sense for us (phd'ers) as we aren't doing courses.....I think they might alter it on an individual basis but it seems so odd that they don't have a policy that incorporates all the legislation on maternity leave (although not employed we are still protected!)....

Yes I was thinking there is a lot I can do with the stuff I have, just hope that on my return in August they will allow me some access then....

Thanks

Hello ladies, first to say you might not know it, but all of you are my heroes.
Im more or less half way through my PhD. Im looking at the idea of 'play' in arts education, which is the sector I worked in before beginning my research. There's so much I love about what I doing at the moment, but it's also becoming really clear for me that becoming a mum is massively high on my priorities (luckily my partner is more or less on the same page. So as long as mother nature collaborates we should be - fingers crossed! - in business) the thing I wanted to ask is if any of you had experience of post-PhD careers with tiny people in tow? Im feeling more & more that 'hard-core' academia isn't for me - Im thinking of either mostly-teaching or uni admin posts?...

When I went on mat leave, I had a raft of letters about how my library, web, security privileges would be suspended: no one lifted a pinky finger to enact it. I didn't even have to return the libabry books I was using; my remote logins worked throughout.

(But the flip side of this sloth is that I had to chase some of my post-mat-leave payments - because not all the paperwork had been done - so keep sharp and check everything done on your behalf).

My Plan B was to ask my lab-mates to email stuff over - but my subject isn't very demanding of having lots of reading material (maths).

hi perpetualstudent and everyone else - it's good to have some new voices on the thread, and to hear about other peoples' progress/subject areas etc. To answer your question about careers, one of the senior academics in my department had a DC while working her way up. I don't know her very well, but I did ask her about work-life balance and she said that she stopped working weekends after her DC was born. I have the impression that her partner bears most of the responsibility during the week. I think a full-time academic post and small children involves a lot of compromise on both sides, and it wouldn't be for me. There are also quite a lot of more flexible peripheral roles - but they tend to be badly paid. So even though I'm weeks from finishing, I'm burying my head in the sand about all of that. I'd be interested to hear other people's views/experiences.

Ajcmullin, I was also told that all accounts would be suspended but I spoke to the graduate school and they gave me immediate access again, and I'm on maternity leave but I have full access to email account and everything else. All the best

This is the week I have to make it all come together. A full first draft by next Monday. Have had a really unproductive day and still have no semblance of a conclusion. I need inspiration and a kick up the backside!

Dr Dotty - I like it!

Thanks! I now have 5000 words of a conclusion. So there's progress.

Horray! Deffo progress!

My supervisor has decided we need to submit one more paper - so writing up is on ice.... Can see this causing pain!

Procrastreation (great name, btw) - but will the 'one more paper' find its way into your final thesis? I find it so much easier when I've got material to draw on, even if it ends up in a very different form in the final thing.

Have sent my thesis to my supervisor. Now just need to wait and worry. But actually have busy week with some paid work (I freelance too), so I can put it out of my mind and focus on that.

Sorry - not ignoring you - namechanged for privacy - but changing names is rather a killer for long running threads like this one (I think I appear under at least three monikers on this thread!)

Anyway - namechanged back to chat!

One more paper is basically meant to be a chapter of my thesis - and the idea is that publishing it adds weight to the results.

But - holy fuck - I submit in a month!

My mum has been entertaining me with stories of students,who have spectacularly failed their PhDs!

(Hope,I,don't fail!)

But submitting thesis to supervisor is good. Psychologically healthy. Milestone.

( what did he say ?)

Some chapters fine bar typos, some need major rethinking and some need minor tweaking. So not too scarily daunting overall.

Of course you won't fail, because your supervisor would tell you if it was seriously inadequate, surely. Do you mean you submit your thesis in a month, or the extra paper?

I have just been offered a place on a PhD (self-funded). During my interview the supervisor basically rubbished my proposal but with valid points that I totally accept. However, given that I obviously need to rethink my proposal I am left feeling a bit confused about what I would actually be researching. Is it normal to start a PhD feeling so lost? I was expecting that bit to happen after a few months of lit review!

Well, I don't speak from personal experience because mine pretty much followed my original proposal. But lots of people's do change, yes. Feel like I can't give specific examples without outing myself (small field) - but either similar question applied in different setting, or different question within the same broad field of interest - can think of examples of both of those.

dru77 I think it's fairly common to have the direction of your research change, and certainly in my experience very common to start a PhD feeling lost!
I didn't feel like I had a real grasp on my research until the end of my first year (possibly aggrivated by the full on research training we received in our first year, which while very useful, did tend to distract us somewhat from the business of actually designing and carrying out some research!)
I would say the main thing is if you feel happy with your supervisor? If you've got professional/academic trust and respect for them and are happy to follow the direction they suggest, then all to the good. If it leaves you feeling uneasy, I would say think hard.
If you're self-funded then you're not tied to a particular supervisor or University (other than geographic limitations I suppose - though I happily live in London and study in the midlands - then again I am still childless, which makes it easier) so what about 'shopping around' a bit?
I was chasing funding, so overall ended up talking to four different supervisors at different universities before successfully securing funding - each was so different, some I would have loved to work with and some left me feeling a little... inhibited.

Hi everyone - aiming to submit tomorrow! (Or at least to get it to the printers/binders for submission on Friday). One small piece of advice I wish I'd heeded - learn how to do document outlines in word so you don't have to go through constructing your table of contents manually (voice of bitter experience).

Long time lurker (although I think I have posted on here once or twice under an older username) coming out of the cupboard to congratulate you dotty.

Well done, that such a major milestone reached!

Thank you, wandering. It's done. I found it hard to know when to stop though - every time I reread it I found another minor typo or made another minor tweak and now I can't help thinking about the mistakes that must still be in it, or the bits that could be expressed better. It was easier when I did Finals and they said 'stop writing now' and that was that!

And actually, doing the table of contents automatically turned out to be a breeze, even without a properly outlined document - I just defined all my titles/subtitles as 2 different styles at the last minute and Word sorted it all no problem. Phew. (You probably all know that, but I thought it was much more complicated than it was)