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Well Elmo I got nothing like that :-( and not because i didn't want to or i couldn't but because as I mentioned in a different post my supervisor was utterly horrible to me. He made me pay (out of 10 students doing similar projects) about £100 cash to cover supplies in the lab!! In the end he even refused to give me references! All of it because he was favouring a different student over the rest of us, who was American and he was trying to fulfill his own personal ambition of expanding his career in America. On top of that he hardly bothered to stress the importance of sterile conditions in a lab and 2 of his other students, who failed their exams in the end, contaminated all my samples and after a year and a half of research I had no results to present! And P.S.: my own supervisor could hardly speak proper english!

I have been extremely unlucky with supervisors and that's why I've been so hesitant in applying for postgrads. Plus, I've studied at 2 different universities and what i learnt was that lecturers couldn't care less most of the time. A good example of that is when I was considering of applying for a masters at my last university. There was only one lecturer i could speak to about it and he wouldn't bother to reply to my e-mails. I had to practically "stalk" him to get 10 mins which were reduced to 5 cause people just kept coming in. I didn't do that masters of course cause what could that supervisor have possibly have to offer to me when he can't have 10 mins to discuss the degree.

Apologies for the venting but i've been frustrated about this since my dissertation. The guy has scarred me for life! I don't apply for phds cause I'm worried I'm gonna end up with a guy like him again.

You are certainly not alone. From my class nobody has gotten a job in a relevant field. A couple of them went to do a masters at the same university i graduated which included exactly the same topics we did on our final year. I chose to keep looking and work a bit simply cause I can't afford it. I think we should try to motivate each other to apply cause the process is loooooooooooooong and exhausting!!!

The PhD I'm applying for has listed 2 supervisors on the advert, the main supervisor and 2nd supervisor. After contact with the main supervisor I found out that my application will be examined by a committee. My question is this, who should I address my cover letter to?? Cause I need to know who I'm addressing it to in order to set the tone for it. Any suggestions?

Same here! I just can't watch the news. Before I met my boyfriend I didn't have a tv cause I was watching all my favorite series online and if I wanted to know the news I would read it online. I was a happier person!!! My boyfriend practically has the TV on 24/7 which drives me mad! It's exhausting hearing of everything that is wrong with the world every single day!

A good example of that is this: 3 years ago when I still lived with flatmates, we didn't have a tv. My flatmate's sister and husband came to visit and his brother-in-law said: "I just noticed you don't have a tv! I've been feeling so much more relaxed not watching the news every day!". We were like.. "yeah! it affects you so much less when you don't have it in your face. You just read what you want online and that's it. No reporter dramatising the story and making you wonna kill yourself".

How about creating a thread where students can leave feedback or request feedback for supervisors? Like for example, people can ask "what is this supervisor like" and students who have worked with them can give feedback in the forum or in a PM.

I know this doesn't solve the problem but wouldn't you have rather known a bit of what your supervisor was like before you took the plunge and had gotten stuck in this situation? All I'm saying is since the university is not protecting the student then maybe the student should protect the student.

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Great read. I've posted it around to educate people.

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so I'm sending an academic CV I have drafted (which needs a few more corrections) :-) and I've written a tailored cover letter for this particular phd because I feel I need to go into detail and mention papers I've read (cause I did my dissertation on something very very similar) so they know I know the topic. Initially it was 2 pages long so I cut it down to 1. Too short? What's the max length? I was thinking 2 pages?

My problem usually is that I get so excited about the topic that it all gets too much in my head and I don't know what to say :$



I'll look into that. Thanks for the tip and all the advice. I'll keep you all posted!!

Well I actually knew about it first hand cause a guy I knew did that. It is just pathetic. But all the good marks they got from these paid projects will come and bite them if they dare work in academia or anywhere really cause they will have no clue what they are talking about.

All good ideas but I don't have an answer to offer. I do have previous horrible experience with my undegrad supervisor who behaved along those lines. From my experience my supervisor had some sort of qualification nicely displayed on his desk praising his abilities to supervise. It couldn't have been more far off! But.. nothing happened even if I complained.

What about the head of school Damned? They are not there just to look pretty. Go knock on their door and complain? And complain maybe also to the organisation that provides the funding. I have a friend who had major problems with her supervisor so she left the PhD but before leaving she wrote a letter to the head of school and to the organisation providing the funding and things got sorted. She was offered her PhD back and they also made adjustments so that she can work without that supervisor.

Academia lucks funds a the moment and showing an ugly face by professors is not gonna get them any funding. At least that's how i see it. If i had money to give away to research I wouldn't give it to a professor that his students drop like flies, no matter how much of a genius he thought he was.

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Here's what the application process requires : Applications consisting of a full CV, letter of application. Maybe stupid question but what is the difference between the personal statement and covering letter? Should I write one event though not required?




I tried them several times and they are useless! All they told me was to have a look at prospects.ac.uk :/ They had no clue! I knew more than them
:-( And that's depressing. So apart from a friend of mine that lives in USA (and things are different there when it comes to academic applications and letters) nobody else has had a look at my letter or CV so I don't know if I'm making some huge mistake somewhere.

By the way my area is genetics/biology/anthropology/archaeology. I know, it's kinda wide.

Well I usually go for pretty standard cover letters which hasn't worked so far. This time I decided to show a bit of the enthusiasm I have about the topic. I know quite a bit on this particular topic cause I did my undergrad dissertation on it but so far i only found 2 universities that do research on it. One didn't have funding and the other is Cambridge which I find quite intimidating :-/

Elmo: You went through interview for Cambridge? (not that I will lol). What is it like? I exchanged a few e-mails with the professor who told me that there will be a committee that will review the applications :-/. And I was thinking of going for a more "keep it real" letter this time cause I'm fed up with cover letters. What do you think?

I did get a 2.1 for my degree (forgot to mention that) and unfortunately I can't afford a masters. I wish I did, it would make my life a lot easier.

I'm pushing myself to put in an application for a phd that is exactly the topic I want but again it's at Cambridge... Tough crowd but I'll make an effort to apply so I can at least get some feedback. Wish I had like an old professor I could speak to so I can gain some perspective.

I tried applying for research assistant jobs but no luck unfortunately so I'm running out of ideas on how to close the gap.

I finished my undergrad last year and since then I've been doing random jobs to survive. Even though my dream was always to do a PhD I know feel very discouraged cause I'm thinking of all the students with better marks than me, all the new students that graduates this year and all the students that already have a Masters and are all applying for the same thing I am. Plus... I don't know how much of what I know is relevant any more, cause science moves so fast and what of the things I studied is considered "relevant experience" after all this time has gone by. I'm still quite enthusiastic about the research topic i want to follow but is this enough? All this puts me off submitting an application. anybody else feels this way and how do you overcome this?

Hi all,

i'm applying for a Phd I'm super interested in and I know quite a bit about the topic. Do you think it's gonna look good if I include some of the papers that I reas throughout dissertation, that got me interested in the topic? or would it look desperate?

thanks!
Dorothy