Oh dear, I've now lost another hour of my life to obsessively reading webcomics. And I'm wondering why I decided not to do a PhD. Clearly, all I'd have to do is drink coffee and procrastinate on a computer: Both things I'm very talented (!!) at... crumbs working in R&D for a company, I might actually have to do some work...

When it come to an Arts PhD how do they sort out funding - I didn't think bank robbing was legal!

Anyone willing to give me some help in applying for a PhD? I've got about 5 months to go until the deadline but have so much going on that I really need to start soon. Thanks in advance!

What sort of help do you need Floss? I applied for one when I was doing my Masters, it was with one of the research councils, so I have a bit of an idea of what they are looking for. I didn't get the award sadly but if I can help you in any way then all you need to do is ask.

Are you applying to the ESRC?

I too am applying this year around in the broad areas of phonetics/linguistics/bilingualism. If anyone has any experience in these areas and wouldn't mind having a chin wag about it, I'd love to hear form you I've completed a first draft of a research proposal and sent it off to a potential supervisor that I've been conversing with for about a month now. Let's hope it's well received!

Hi Freda - can't remember if we have "spoken" before but I am doing my PhD in linguistics at the moment.

I haven't started my research proposal yet, I'm currently working on my dissertation research proposal and will hopefully get the PhD one done over the Christmas break. Good luck Freda!

Flossie, I'm applying for a funded studentship with my current department (it's a 'one off' anniversary studentship) but do you think it would also be sensible to apply to the ESRC?

Thanks Louise.

Mine was advertised on jobs.ac.uk although about all the advert said was that it was for research on Energy in Buildings, so if you can one with that broad a description it should make things easier as it means the funding is already in place.

Ah yes, many moons ago we did.

I got some feedback about my proposal yesterday. One line puzzled me:



In any guides/how-tos/advice that I've read, they've all stated that you need to show why you, as an applicant, are suitable for this research. I don't know how I can do that without including some sort of personal information.

Any thoughts?

You are writing a research proposal not a personal statement - sounds like you've muddled the two things.

A research proposal should cover the aims and objectives of the project, the gap in knowledge which will be addressed and how the proposed research extends existing work or knowledge, how you intend to do the actual research, the intended research outputs (both academic and policy related plus any community outreach type things if relevant) and ethics.

Edit: For a PhD application the personal experience stuff goes in either the personal statement section of the application form or in a covering letter, dependent on what has been requested. For a proper research proposal or funding application there would be a separate section for your supporting statements and evidence including things like a full list of publications, grants etc. The personal experience stuff should be academic only unless it is essential e.g. for a project exploring mobility issues for young wheelchair users in school settings it would be relevant to say that you have X years experience of voluntary work with children/young people with disabilities including those with mobility problems, it wouldn't be relevant to say that you had taught swimming to primary school aged children. Yes, the latter might have provided transferable skills which you could draw upon, but it isn't directly related to the proposed research.

Ok thank you for that

I've since had more information from my potential supervisor and this corresponds.

Ugh... it's so hard to get funding. I can't help but think that this is all in vain

Well, I submitted a fortnight ago. Apparently the turn around time for a response is about 6 weeks so I'm still on tenterhooks. I'm trying not to get too excited because I know how hard it is to get funding. Fingers crossed though, eh?

Yep!

Good luck! Don't give up...if you don't do it now, when will you do it?

Well indeed! I didn't get funding, unfortunately, which was going to be my do-I or don't-I condition. However, after working so hard to even get offered a place, today I accepted the offer on a part-time basis. Yes, I'm going to have to accrue yet more debt (at least in the beginning for I can apply for more funding as times goes on) but I see it as a worthy investment to make since, quite frankly, I cannot see myself doing anything else.

So, as of September, my life will revolve around scraping enough money together to pay rent and pondering first language attrition in late bilinguals.

...And it's back to London I go! Gah!

I've just spent the past 30 minutes reading through this thread.

How things change

Indeed, Dr. Babybird

(now that looks a good username )

I suppose I might be signing into this thread soon

Ooh, just found this thread! I have a fud in Chemistry (inorganic).

I was just checking in on this thread to see if I had missed anyone's exciting developments!

I still find myself considering going back into academic research, although I think it'll be hard now I've got used to earning much-more-than-I'd-get-doing-a-PhD (and potentially more than I'd get after completing one). I found a fully funded PhD this week, which was the first time I'd seen a project advertised and thought "I could really see myself doing that"... now I just need to decide whether to apply.

The problem is organising the academic references. I could ask colleagues at work, but that might well be career suicide if word got around. I left Uni nearly 2 years ago now, so asking former lecturers seems a bit strange. Any thoughts?

Has anyone else's applications and dreamings come to anything?

I would use academic references from university staff, but include project-relevant work experience in your application. It wouldn't be unusual for lecturers to be approached by someone who's only been gone 2 years. If it is a very industry-focused PhD project then you may want to add an employment reference as a third referee. When you contact the supervisor to discuss the PhD project ask what they want in terms of references - they should be able to advise whether they want one from your employer.

I haven't quite got that far. I know where I want to do it, and I've got a potential supervisor who's interested. I know the rough area I want to research and am in the reading/thinking about that phase. I don't know how anyone else found it, but I'm really struggling to actually come up with some tangible questions to answer - I'm sure I could ramble about the topic for 100,000 words, but it wouldn't answer any questions!

I'm not quite sure how the British system works (I did mine in France) but I modified my initial title about half way through as once I started seriously researching I realised that my initial question was not entirely pertinent. (I imagine you are looking at an Arts based PhD which was also what I did).

Yes, music education, so I guess a combination of arts/sociology probably.

It's normal for the research questions (and often aspects of the topic) to evolve during a PhD. Within the overall subject of music education you need to pick a provisional study area e.g. musical development among adult learners and then some sub-areas (or research questions) e.g. 1) what are the challenges faced by adult learners in their musical development, 2) How do learning styles impact upon the musical development of adult learners and 3) How can teaching practices be developed to maximise the musical development of different adult learners. Moving on from this you then need a proposal which identifies the importance of the research and how it relates to previous research (e.g. research has generally focussed on the musical development of children. Research which specifically addresses the musical development of adult learners is currently underdeveloped and it is important in order to address....) and an indication of how the research will be undertaken (methods, reason for their selection etc).

I might have come up with rubbish here in terms of the actual themes, but does it help give an idea of the sort of thing you need?

Plus ?a change. Three years have elapsed since my original post on this thread, during which time I have spent a sum total of 11 months (not consecutive) in paid employment, and in different areas of the country. I'm now living with my parents in London, as the flat I bought in Exeter during my time in the scientific civil service there disqualifies me from claiming any means-tested benefits. I only discovered that after I was fired from the job I had in Skipton (July - December 2010).

My parents are convinced I need a change of career after those last two dismissals, but unfortunately they haven't a clue what career I'm supposed to be changing from. They're rather inclined to refer to it as "that IT stuff you've done" solely because I've been sat in front of a computer all the time.

So far the following jobs have been suggested:
* Actuary - because someone from my mother's church claimed I could train in my spare time and therefore it would be a great career option for combining with motherhood(!!)
* Pharmacist - because my parents know of a former veterinary nurse who is allegedly retraining on the job at Boots. This doesn't square with the job profile at Prospects, so presumably she must be training to be a pharmacy technician or dispenser?
* Quantity surveyor - because the 24-year-old son of someone else at the abovementioned church is doing a qualifying course at UWE (so it would pander to my whim to move to Bristol), and apparently mathematical backgrounds are supposed to be well suited. The UWE course costs five grand which my parents are apparently quite happy to stump up. But, ungrateful though it may seem, I really don't want to be financially dependent on my parents. It's bad enough having to move back in with them - I've lost count of the number of times I've received remarks along the lines of "Oh, it's so hard for all you young people, isn't it? So-and-so's son can't find a job and he's just finished university." For crying out loud, I have not just finished university - I graduated in the 20th century!

That's super thank you - I think that possibly I'm trying to be too specific too early on. The guidance for the proposal says I need "A clear idea of the central focus or questions which the research is designed to examine".

On Jan 11th I am going to graduate for the third time and will become......StuMac BSc, PhD, DSc (Dunelm)

I'm a bit bemused by all my "I will never finish this and get a job"whinging. Yes, since I finished my PhD I've spent more time unemployed than employed... But I did get 9 months of postdoc work in my PhD lab, and have now got a longer term postdoc at another uni. So things are much better than I thought they ever would be a few years ago!

Glad things OK in the deep south! Nice vfeeling when you don't have thesis hanging over you isn't it?

StuMac, you have a very long way to go! In Germany it certainly used to be customary for people to stack up their titles, if they were at the top of the academic tree. It is, of course, quite possible even without honorary doctorates to have three Dr titles, e.g. medical, PhD and DSc. The Vice Chancellor of the university where I worked also reinstated his historical title as V-C and was therefore Seine Magnifizenz Herr Professor Dr Dr Dr (I forget his actual name).

He used to invite us foreign (auslaendische Wissenschaftlern) scientists to a Christmas concert each year (it was rather fun. We used to refer to ourselves as ausserirdische Wissenschaftlern, i.e. alien scientists).

Seine Magnifizenz,,,,brilliant!

Recent joke from an acquaintance was that if he throws in the towel on his PhD, he could become NAME MSci, MRes, MPhil...

Potential supervisor has come back to my enquiry email with a question about when I'd be in a position to start, rather than answering my questions about the topic/project. Not sure what to make of this...

Send a nice reply re-stating your questions and just put a brief "in response to your query, I need to give X months notice to my current employer and would therefore be available to start in..." He may be worried that you're tied into a graduate scheme where you have to stay until the end of 2 years or whatever.

I've had one paper accepted, one I'm waiting on feedback from and one I'm trying to re-edit before submission, and I'm trying to get the actual thesis written now as my four year deadline is sometime in April, which is starting to get rather close.

This thread has just reminded me that the deadline for one of the places I want to apply is this month; as I haven't had a decision from the first place I applied to, where they already knew me, I need to get going contacting potential supervisors now! Thanks for the reminder vectistim good luck with the thesis and papers!

Must be time to resurrect this thread...

When writing a proposal or applying, has anyone else been asked to give a rough timetable of the time they expect to spend on each part (e.g. lit review, data collection, writing up etc.)? This seems so impossible to predict!

Did mine 18 years ago in molecular and cell biology. When they finally chucked me out they found huge numbers of eppendorf tubes in freezer all helpfully labelled: '1, 2, 3 and 4'. I don't know why I only ever ran four expts at any one time and the labelling didn't help anyone else find out.

Gawd I was 'not' cut out for that. Not so much 'shining light' as 'lightening s.ite'!

Thank heavens for a desk job

I threw in the towel when I sent an email to my supervisor telling her that I was considering doing so, explaining the issues I was having, and so forth...and I didn't get a reply.

It was 5 months ago and I'm still waiting.

I'm in the process of doing mine... Hopefully I will finish everything on time and won't be an eternal student...