Gaining access to a PhD studentship

Goodie

Goodie

Goodie

Soldato
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I know theres a few people on the forums who have been down the PhD route, so I was hoping to possibly get some advice by people who have 'been there, done that' so to speak.

I am currently doing an MSc on a part time basis, by May this year all of my taught modules will be complete with only a research project remaining. I will work on my research project over the summer and hope to have it submitted early in the 2012-2013 academic year, ready to graduate in 2013. I do want to continue my studies to a PhD level, and recently I have seen a few PhD studentships advertised that look very appealing, however I'm pretty sure that any applications that I spend time putting together would be a waste of time, as they wouldn't be considered until my MSc is fully complete.

Could anyone advise on what stage their studies were at when they applied for, and were accepted onto PhD study? Part of me feels like I should wait 12 months before even considering going down the application route, but another part of me tells me that I should just give it a go anyway, as some of these studentships look to be really good opportunities.
 
I was a very late applier as I had a grad job lined up that fell through - I applied for a PhD around June time and started in October the same year. Mine was a little funny as it's not quite a studentship; it is a funded position (Research Assistant) that pays a wage. The funding for this comes half from industry and half from the government (EPSRC).

Most interviews here are done around the Jan-Feb time of year, although "interview" is a very soft word. I first had a telephone interview, then was invited to sit down with my now-supervisor who introduced the department and the group's research for an hour, before I ran through my MEng presentation and research, and research that I had done which was relevant to my PhD topic (as my MEng research and PhD are unrelated). Speaking to people in Physics/Mathematics, it seems the same for their departments; I think the term used here is "informal interview".

If you're interested then I'd make inquiries as you don't want to be beaten to the role. Time of year doesn't seem to matter (see above - people applying in Jan will be only halfway through their undergrad research projects) as you should have results to present and essays that have been written. I suppose if you're on postgrad then you'll also have stuff from your undergraduate degree. If you're in the sciences then there are plenty of studentships and stipends around, so apply for several - you could end applying for one role and ending up on another project like I did :p
 
I think I got uni results, applied for phd, waited for yes/no over the summer. It might have been a bit more informal for me than normal because I stayed at same uni and same professor from (undergrad) masters to phd
 
Waited until I got my result, traveled for 4 months, researched different positions, applied for most interesting 3, the last last one I flew out and did a day long interview consisting if giving presentation, programming test, logic tests and discussion with 7-8 more senior staff. Offered the position same day, flew home, pondered over all 3 offers, chose the latter as it was the most interesting, best location and best pay. Started 2 weeks later but had to wait a couple of weeks unpaid due to visa.
 
http://www.findaphd.com/ will aid your search for a PhD :)

It's not so much when you want to apply for a PhD, but more to do with when the contract / research starts. Some supervisors / universities won't mind delaying the start of the PhD if they believe they've got a good candidate and need to wait for them to finish previous studies, but the chances are you'll be better off applying ~3 months prior to finishing what you're doing now.
 
By the sounds of it you won't be able to start until Sept 2013, so contact them around November/December this year as that is when final year undergraduates will start to be looking for them and lots of studentships will be available.

The best advice I can offer is to contact supervisors whose work you find interesting. Even if they aren't advertising PhD positions at the moment, or their advertised projects are different from what you are interested in. This is because lots of funding comes from their department so they get funding after securing a student, and also if they already have their own funding they are usually happy to change the project for the right student.
 
I've just gone through the application process for PhDs, as have a lot of my friends. I'm a final year undergrad, so a slightly different situation to you, but I made most of my applications last November, heard back about interviews etc in late January and early Feb, then got offers late Feb and early March. I think that's the 'standard' way of doing it.

That said, it depends on the department. You can apply for a PhD at any point during the year, the real issue is getting the funding for it. My deadline for funding was to apply before the end of January, but I know others who have PhD offers from their chosen departments, but may be waiting until June to hear whether they get funding or not. I also know of people who have applied at random times of the year and been lucky enough to find departments who just happened to have the spare cash lying around just waiting for a student.

Short version, I'd say go for it. I don't see any reason to be concerned that you're not finished your MSc yet, certainly not when undergraduates like myself are applying and being considered. Hell, I was informally offered a PhD place when I was in my Junior Honours year, so I don't think not having finished your MSc is an issue. If you've identified an opportunity you want, then go for it.
 
Go for it, we all applied well before getting our results and most of us had places before the results came out. I got rejected due to funding limitations and was offered another placement in the department instead
 
Goodie said:
I know theres a few people on the forums who have been down the PhD route, so I was hoping to possibly get some advice by people who have 'been there, done that' so to speak.

I am currently doing an MSc on a part time basis, by May this year all of my taught modules will be complete with only a research project remaining. I will work on my research project over the summer and hope to have it submitted early in the 2012-2013 academic year, ready to graduate in 2013. I do want to continue my studies to a PhD level, and recently I have seen a few PhD studentships advertised that look very appealing, however I'm pretty sure that any applications that I spend time putting together would be a waste of time, as they wouldn't be considered until my MSc is fully complete.
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This is bull. They care about what experience you have, how smart you are and if you're capable of doing the work set.

I'm a first year physics PhD student and I don't even have a masters. You need to apply and pursue every single PhD you might be interested in.
 
You would definitely be considered. Depending on where you're applying and what the subject is, you don't even need a masters - I went straight from a BA to PhD.

Be aware when the applications all close (generally around Christmas for my institute), as you also don't want to miss out unnecessarily.
 
meghatronic said:
Actually, I think only the latter is what most are interested in.
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Ultimately, you're right, but some PhDs will have quite a few people applying for them. They've got to weed people out somehow, obviously if your dissertation is related work, you're chances of being accepted are very high, if it's not related, you need to wow them in a different way.
 
Goodie said:
Could anyone advise on what stage their studies were at when they applied for, and were accepted onto PhD study? Part of me feels like I should wait 12 months before even considering going down the application route, but another part of me tells me that I should just give it a go anyway, as some of these studentships look to be really good opportunities.
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Now is the right time to apply! When doing my MSc I applied for PhDs around Jan/Feb, by March I had two offers. I finished by MSc in Oct, started PhD in January.
 
Disco Boy said:
This depends entirely on subject...
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That's a valid point, I'm only really familiar with physics/maths/CS related PhDs since these are what my friends and I were all going for. It seems like funding has been an issue for a lot of us, but I can't say whether that's true for any other subject, or even whether we've just been unlucky.

I think the point I was really getting at was that if the department have the money and want to take you, you can apply all year round, but otherwise you're at the mercy of funding councils.
 
Thanks for the replies folks, they're very much appreciated.

I think my primary concern is of the universities being of the belief that I may not be able to juggle a PhD while also possibly having to do some of my MSc research project. At the end of the day there couldn’t be any harm in applying, at the worst it would provide me with some valuable experience of going through the process of applying, and at the best, I may just get lucky. A couple of studentships that I have seen advertised at present are in the subject of exercise nutrition and also exercise physiology, so I would imagine that they would receive a fairly high volume of applicants. One thing that could be of benefit is that they are at the university that I completed my undergraduate degree, I have emailed my old tutor who I am still in contract with to see if he could offer any advise (and also perhaps provide a foot in the door).
 
PhD start dates are usually very flexible - I pushed mine back 3 months as I had some well payed work to do before I started.
 
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