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No reply from PhD supervisor after interview?

H

Getting a position in PhD is not as easy as i though. Until now I got 2 interviews 2 weeks ago. The second one followed the first one only after 1 hour.

The first one:
I applied for a PhD position via the agent of the university about 3 month ago, after a month and a half, i got an email from the admission team that my application was not successful because they cannot find a supervisor for me and recommended that i should change the topic if i still wanted to study at this university. I submitted the second one. After 2 weeks, one supervisor email me sent me an email asking for interview about the first research proposal i submitted (not the second one). The interview was about 15-20 minutes. He was straight forward asking me why i wanted to study in this university and one more question about the topic. I was too honest to tell him that i know how it works but did not engage in working with it and some thing like that. He said it was no problem. The final question was about funding, my agent filled in the form that i will be self funded but i told him i need scholarship. He asked me to submit another application because the previous one was rejected (as he was not informed by that time), he also told me that he was not sure about funding but he would ask the admission team, telling that i am good enough to take the position. I got the reject email but no worry, he would talk to the admission team, he also asked me if i can pay the tuition of the first year. My agent submitted another application, then got notification that my application was withdrawn. I send the supervisor an email regarding this, My agents also so sent email to admission team but after 2 weeks, i got no reply.

T

I'm confused. What or who are your agents?

T

Weird.

H

Hi Tudor Queen, agents are official representatives of the universities in the country where i am living. They can help students with completing the application, give consultation regarding tuition, accommodation, etc.

T

Hi Huubte. It all seems a bit confusing.

Are you applying to do a PhD in your home country? Is that where the scholarship funding will come from?

When did you email the supervisor? If has been a week or so you could try sending another email.

I also think you need to contact the supervisor again. Given you have already met personally and spoken with the supervisor, do you think phoning him might be appropriate, as sometimes conversation can be clearer than emails going back and forth (or being overlooked by a busy academic).

It may or may not be the news you want to hear but at least you will know where you stand and what options you still might have-if not at this university, perhaps at another?

H

Hi Tudor Queen and Pjlu, i didnot ask for scholarship and not apply for it. The supervisor said he will ask the admission team for me but he was not so sure. I have just email him again and got the offer already. It is a good news but infortuenately no scholarship even a penny. So i have to pay approximately £45,000 for the tuition for 3 years as i am classified as overseas students. My masters are Pass even though they are over 60, so it is quite hard to get scholarship.

Congratulations on the offer Huubte. Are you considering taking this?

Thinking back to your first post -see quoted insert below:
"telling that i am good enough to take the position. I got the reject email but no worry, he would talk to the admission team, he also asked me if i can pay the tuition of the first year."

It may be that you may be able to reapply for scholarships or other grants, after the first year if you do well. Do you think the supervisor might have been referring to this perhaps when he used these words?

I say this, as I have known other students to self fund for a period of time, then apply for other grants to assist, once they have shown merit and progression during their PhD.

Best of luck and best wishes to you.

H

Quote From Pjlu:
Congratulations on the offer Huubte. Are you considering taking this?

Thinking back to your first post -see quoted insert below:
"telling that i am good enough to take the position. I got the reject email but no worry, he would talk to the admission team, he also asked me if i can pay the tuition of the first year."

It may be that you may be able to reapply for scholarships or other grants, after the first year if you do well. Do you think the supervisor might have been referring to this perhaps when he used these words?

I say this, as I have known other students to self fund for a period of time, then apply for other grants to assist, once they have shown merit and progression during their PhD.

Best of luck and best wishes to you.



Congratulations. But please only take the offer if you can fund yourself for the whole duration. I had the misfortune of starting a PhD in the hope that I will have some opportunities for funding in 2nd or 3rd year, but no chance. The closest I get was getting a fieldwork grant.
I find that most potential supervisors will do anything to get you to start, but once you do nothing (especially promises of funding) is guaranteed.

All the best whatever you decide.

T

Quote From Hanginthere:



Congratulations. But please only take the offer if you can fund yourself for the whole duration. I had the misfortune of starting a PhD in the hope that I will have some opportunities for funding in 2nd or 3rd year, but no chance. The closest I get was getting a fieldwork grant.
I find that most potential supervisors will do anything to get you to start, but once you do nothing (especially promises of funding) is guaranteed.

All the best whatever you decide.


Agreed. Getting funding afterwards is very hard.

H

Thank you Treeofliife, Hanginthere and Pjlu. Actually i can secure a self funding, but t i don't know if it is worth it as it is quite high. The supervisor asks if i can do self funding for the first year, it might be that i can apply for the 2nd and 3rd but nothing is guarantee as Hanginthere said. I can see that most supervisors don't try to commit anything and let us decide, so i am still applying for a lower rank university for lower tuition, so i can save almost 6000-9000 for the 3 years period if i have an offer from a lower rank university. I am thinking of asking if i can apply to become a teaching assistant for my supervisor to earn some cash while doing the PhD. I will email him tomorrow, hopefully there are good news. Actually i was so picky but after so many times getting the reject letters, i have lost confidence and will do the PhD in whatever universities that give me the offer.

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