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Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 11:19 am
by Mini E
Rightey wrote:I've been asked to be a reviewer on an academic paper! I feel like I've made it, but also that I will now be revealed as being a massive fraud.


Don't worry - I had exactly the same feeling doing this. I've now done four in total and have checked my review with my PhD DoS before sending every single one back because I'm so worried I'm going to look stupid about something :lol:

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 12:57 am
by Mini E
Made it to bed last night at 05:45, got up today at 06:30. Hoping to be in bed for 03:00 tonight and in work for 08:00 again. I submit my PhD in 38 hours. Meep. I have never drunk energy drinks before but Red Bull is keeping me going.

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:30 am
by Corazon de Leon
Jesus. Final sprint though - take the weekend to sleep as much as you can. :lol:

I have 77 essays to mark in my spare time this week and next. Managed about 15 so far. :lol:

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 8:16 am
by Mini E
Corazon de Leon wrote:Jesus. Final sprint though - take the weekend to sleep as much as you can. :lol:

I have 77 essays to mark in my spare time this week and next. Managed about 15 so far. :lol:


I’ve got the Pompey game to relax on saturday and then the strawberry floating Reading half marathon on Sunday.

How many words per assignment? War is hell :lol:

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 6:04 pm
by Corazon de Leon
3,000 for 64 of them, 4,000 for the other 13. To be fair I enjoy marking when it's only a class or two. But this...

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 5:01 pm
by Mini E
Corazon de Leon wrote:3,000 for 64 of them, 4,000 for the other 13. To be fair I enjoy marking when it's only a class or two. But this...


That sounds highly unpleasant.


I just submitted my PhD thesis. :| :| :|

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:29 pm
by Rightey
Mini E wrote:
Rightey wrote:I've been asked to be a reviewer on an academic paper! I feel like I've made it, but also that I will now be revealed as being a massive fraud.


Don't worry - I had exactly the same feeling doing this. I've now done four in total and have checked my review with my PhD DoS before sending every single one back because I'm so worried I'm going to look stupid about something :lol:


They didn't email me back after I told them I would review the paper. :|

Also, congrats mini e!

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:23 pm
by Corazon de Leon
Mini E wrote:
Corazon de Leon wrote:3,000 for 64 of them, 4,000 for the other 13. To be fair I enjoy marking when it's only a class or two. But this...


That sounds highly unpleasant.


I just submitted my PhD thesis. :| :| :|


Congratulations mate, really. Hope you enjoyed the Pompey result this afternoon to go with it and you don't conk out during your half tomorrow. :wub:

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 8:39 am
by Corazon de Leon
Missed out on a conference I was really hoping to present at, but the organiser's said that there might be an opportunity after the conference to put together an edited collection or special journal issue with my proposal and some of the other ones that missed out because of the high quality of the field.

It's good feedback, but it rings really hollow. My PhD corrections were accepted a year ago this week, and I've had it in hand for 10 months now, and haven't even had a sniff of a job, or anything beyond the part time grad work that I do for my alma mater. I've always said I'd give it two-three years and see how we go, but it is getting harder and harder to justify working in a call centre 30+ hours every week and then coming home to type up articles, mark student essays and try to research with no funding or outside help at all.

I'm putting all my eggs in the basket of a monograph proposal now. If I can't get this accepted, I'll know that my future lies outside academia. Which would be a damn shame, because it's all I've ever really wanted to do.

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 6:56 am
by Mini E
It’s Viva day :shifty: :dread:

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 7:17 am
by Corazon de Leon
You’ll be fine. I look forward to reading your “I passed!” post later today. :D

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 7:21 am
by Mini E
Major amendments at best, mate. Definitely not a straight out pass!

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 7:28 am
by Corazon de Leon
I said that, then got minor corrections. And they were pretty minor - worked out to be three additional paragraphs and a load of full stops in my references.

Don’t panic, think through your answers and remember - the examiners aren’t going to try and trip you up. :)

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 3:22 pm
by Jenuall
Yeah I went in with a very negative viewpoint and was pleasantly surprised on the day of my viva, walked out having had a really interesting chat with some great people about my work and only needing to do minor corrections!

Hope it's going / has gone well Mini E! :toot:

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 4:20 pm
by Corazon de Leon
Hope it's gone alright Mini E - if you've not posted by 8pm I'll send help. :wub:

Jenuall wrote:Yeah I went in with a very negative viewpoint and was pleasantly surprised on the day of my viva, walked out having had a really interesting chat with some great people about my work and only needing to do minor corrections!

Hope it's going / has gone well Mini E! :toot:


I was the same - it took me forever to get submission sorted and then I more or less forgot everything I'd learned before the viva. I was worried the examiners would just pick apart everything I'd written. And from left-field Celtic had been thrashed 4-0 by Hearts the previous day(ending a 69 match unbeaten domestic run) so I was not in the best mood as well. :slol:

What was your PhD subject Jenuall? It's always cool to find other doctors kicking about the forum. :D

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 4:46 pm
by Jenuall
Corazon de Leon wrote:Hope it's gone alright Mini E - if you've not posted by 8pm I'll send help. :wub:

Jenuall wrote:Yeah I went in with a very negative viewpoint and was pleasantly surprised on the day of my viva, walked out having had a really interesting chat with some great people about my work and only needing to do minor corrections!

Hope it's going / has gone well Mini E! :toot:


I was the same - it took me forever to get submission sorted and then I more or less forgot everything I'd learned before the viva. I was worried the examiners would just pick apart everything I'd written. And from left-field Celtic had been thrashed 4-0 by Hearts the previous day(ending a 69 match unbeaten domestic run) so I was not in the best mood as well. :slol:

What was your PhD subject Jenuall? It's always cool to find other doctors kicking about the forum. :D

Yeah I think we are doing okay for doctors in this place!

My PhD was in Bioinformatics, specifically looking at ways that we could model domain knowledge regarding traditional biologists (the way they think and operate, the terminology they use, the sorts of tools and data that work with etc.) in order to support their use of some of the more complex software that was available to allow them to do more.

Basically there was a range of software that had been developed which was thought to have great potential in helping with their research but it was complex and not written with them in mind. Our goal was to find a way to bridge the gap between the software and the scientists - allowing them to express their goals and methods in ways they were more familiar with and translating this into an operation that the software could actually undertake. We kind of got somewhere with it but I don't think it set the world on fire! :lol:

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 5:07 pm
by That
First publication is in, passed peer review. It's on explaining how a group of novel inhibitors work for an enzyme that is becoming of pharmacological interest.

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 5:09 pm
by Corazon de Leon
Well done Karl. I had a particularly nasty rejection from a journal for my first attempt at a publication last week. Really set me back, but it seems that brutal rejection isn't that uncommon in the humanities so I'd better get used to it. :lol:

On a lighter note, I submitted the same research in the form of a monograph proposal to Palgrave Macmillan and they've passed it on to one of their US editors who is apparently going to "reach out" to me shortly, whatever that actually means. I could really use a win so it'd be nice if they were interested in publishing my research. :D

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 5:12 pm
by Corazon de Leon
Jenuall wrote:
Corazon de Leon wrote:Hope it's gone alright Mini E - if you've not posted by 8pm I'll send help. :wub:

Jenuall wrote:Yeah I went in with a very negative viewpoint and was pleasantly surprised on the day of my viva, walked out having had a really interesting chat with some great people about my work and only needing to do minor corrections!

Hope it's going / has gone well Mini E! :toot:


I was the same - it took me forever to get submission sorted and then I more or less forgot everything I'd learned before the viva. I was worried the examiners would just pick apart everything I'd written. And from left-field Celtic had been thrashed 4-0 by Hearts the previous day(ending a 69 match unbeaten domestic run) so I was not in the best mood as well. :slol:

What was your PhD subject Jenuall? It's always cool to find other doctors kicking about the forum. :D

Yeah I think we are doing okay for doctors in this place!

My PhD was in Bioinformatics, specifically looking at ways that we could model domain knowledge regarding traditional biologists (the way they think and operate, the terminology they use, the sorts of tools and data that work with etc.) in order to support their use of some of the more complex software that was available to allow them to do more.

Basically there was a range of software that had been developed which was thought to have great potential in helping with their research but it was complex and not written with them in mind. Our goal was to find a way to bridge the gap between the software and the scientists - allowing them to express their goals and methods in ways they were more familiar with and translating this into an operation that the software could actually undertake. We kind of got somewhere with it but I don't think it set the world on fire! :lol:


That's cool! Well above my pay grade and outside my specialty, but it sounds pretty interesting. Did anyone ever pick up the research once you'd finished what you were doing with it?

Re: The Higher Education Megathread

Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 6:20 pm
by Mini E
Thanks guys! Congratulations KP - that’s great news.

I passed with modest amendments. Some reasonably tough stats questions but feel like i them quite well. I’m now quite drunk by means of celebration. I will officially be Dr Mini E in a few weeks!