I've had something similar myself from a student who had a massive crush on her supervisor and was struggling with her work as a result. She also had a crush on my supervisor and kept accusing me of feeling the same way about him, trying to undermine me while also trying to convince herself that I was some kind of science groupie like her and we were in the same boat. She eventually had to give up when she realised I was getting good results and evidently wasn't getting as distracted as she was- she tried to accuse me of being "lucky" but everyone knew how hard I worked and how much she skived off so that didn't work. Just remember there's no possibility of faking it in science- researchers are supposed to be independent and people who lack ability and don't put the work in will get caught out.

I can think of several ways to have a bit of fun with this...

Congrats Mazz! Maybe I'm biased but I'd say you made the right choice- it's an intense course but a very good one and as long as you're prepared to stay focused you'll have a great time.

Starting a Facebook page is a good call as it *will* end up being useful for everything from revision sessions to social events. The page for the class of 2009/2010 is here:

https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=331999985005

and you can find a more general IoP Neuroscience one here:

https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8728315055

Good luck with it, I loved my time at King's and I hope you do too.

I am about to vist Germany for my first ever interview week, which will take place over five days and take in, among other things, a panel interview, one-on-one interviews with group leaders, giving a presentation and doing a few touristy and social things such as dinners and a tour of the city. I've never experienced anything like this before- at present my PhD interview experience extends to one informal panel interview in the UK.

Does anyone have any general tips for making the most of an interview week, for myself and anyone else attending one in any city? Are the interviews more formal than those in the UK? Are candidates expected to socialise after-hours or is this discouraged? Are these things laid-back and friendly or do candidates get a bit competitive? Are candidates looked after by reps or encouraged to be a bit more independent? Does learning a bit of the langage help? Any advice would be welcome, and if anyone has any experiences of interview weeks I'd love to hear about them.

A few weeks ago I received an invite to an interview week for a PhD programme, having sent an online application with my BSc and MSc transcripts attached. Although I've accepted the invite and it's all confirmed I've just had a request to resend my transcripts directly to the office of one of the research groups I will be visiting.

Any reason why they would do this? The admissions office would have seen my transcripts before they selected me so I must have qualified for the programme, but I still have a horrible feeling they'll take another look at my embarrassing BSc transcript and tell me it's all been a huge mistake! Also does anyone else ever experience paranoia like this? My BSc grade is my biggest weakness, does everyone have something they hope interviewers won't home in on?

Cakeman, you won't be at all surprised to learn that I'm also a cyclist, and a London cyclist at that ;-)


Following my first round of PhD applications I've had some promising feedback from the UK institutions, making a couple of reserve lists but not quite securing an actual place. I've also managed to get an interview in Germany which I'm very excited about, and it wasn't until I got the invite that I realised quite how much the idea of emigrating appeals. If I don't get this one I think I'll make my next round of applications to institutions overseas, mostly Germany because I'm already learning how much better funding is over there, while in the UK I'm starting to see the effects of the cuts for myself. I don't feel like hanging around to see that phrase "reserve list" popping up again and again after applying for massively oversubscribed and underfunded programmes each with just a handful of places.


Anyone got any tips for finding PhDs in Europe? I've been using FindAPhD.com and applied for one programme I found there but have found many more by looking at institutions' websites. I have no idea where to look for individual projects... any ideas?

This is precisely what I did on my MSc and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I saw a range of supervisors before choosing mine, mainly because he seemed by far the most enthusiastic, focused and driven, and utterly determined to prove himself and establish his lab. I ended up getting a Distinction for the project module, making a few little breakthroughs and having lots of fun- to answer your question Ariajolie, we had a very informal relationship and it worked out really well. Jillybean- I'm female and never had any problems working with a male supervisor, as such it's not something I've given much thought. I think gender is largely irrelevant.

I'm applying for PhDs now and after my MSc experience I'd be inclined to go for a younger supervisor- the link Emma_nem posted covers many of the reasons why a new lab has its advantages, though I'd disagree that new supervisors tend to be disorganised, or poor managers. Mine was very efficient while some of the more senior PIs had begun living up to the absent-minded professor stereotype, as confirmed by their long-suffering PAs and technicians.



This is a very good question and something to ask yourself when choosing a supervisor. I saw a range of supervisors from new PIs to professors and I found myself asking this. Two of the professors gave me every impression that their attitude was "I've made it now, I don't need to take on students when I can afford to hire technicians, why should I have to teach at my age, and why should I have to put up with students getting under my feet and wasting my time?", while mine welcomed having an extra pair of hands and treated me as someone who could make a real contribution. In short he just seemed to have more respect for students, possibly because he could still remember what it was like to be a postgrad when the older PIs had forgotten.

In general I found the older and more established PIs to be more jaded and less respectful but there's no hard-and-fast rule here: I have also encountered jaded and lazy young PIs and sprightly enthusiastic older professors. The only way you can really judge a supervisor is to meet them and have a good long chat, so I'd recommend meeting as many as possible, and if you get to do lab rotations, even better, so make the most of it.

The only two rules I'd suggest are: 1. Do something you love, and 2. Choose someone you can work with. The first one seems obvious but I know a few people who chose projects for the wrong reasons and had a miserable time with them. The second is something people overlook surprisingly often and I nearly did myself. In my first meeting with my supervisor he came across as being really nice and having a nerdish enthusiasm, I thought "yes, I could work with this person" and fortunately I was right. I also considered another young PI who was a charismatic lecturer and really friendly and laid-back, until I discovered that his laid-back attitude extended to his lab, where he was hopelessly lazy and disorganised. A third potential supervisor was a professor with an international reputation, loads of funding and a big shiny new lab built for some exciting cutting-edge techniques. He'd been a good lecturer too but in our meeting he was unbelievably rude to me and I left his office thinking "That may be a fascinating project but we could never work together in a million years." Ask yourself "could I work with this person" because you could be in each others' pockets for the next few years.

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Interesting issue of The Times' Eureka magazine today with some interesting articles on sexism, from an exploration of the idea that women just aren't "hard-wired" for science careers, to comment on the small numbers of female professors despite the high numbers of female academics at lower levels.

As a (female) prospective PhD student what I found the most interesting was Hannah Devlin's piece on research into academic references (seems to be this study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19916666 ) which concluded that female students are seen as more "communal" and more likely to be described as "nurturing" and "agreeable" by their supervisors, while male students are considered more "agentive" and their references are more likely to describe them with words like "independent" and "intellectual", terms which are more concrete and describe qualities more relevant to the science jobs the applicants are going for.

I doubt my (male) MSc supervisor would ever describe me as "nurturing" on any of my references and I never had any problems with him, and while in the lab I actually found most of the sexism I encountered was pretty subtle and seemed to come from other female students- sad but true. I'm struggling to recall any sexism from my undergraduate days, but this may just be because I didn't do a lab project- I have no idea what the lab environment at my first uni was like.

Have any of you, male or female, experienced sexism in the lab, and can anyone report a more positive experience?

I completed the MSc in Neuroscience at King's in September 2010, and I submitted the application early in March 2009 and got an offer in late April 2009. It was delayed a bit by one of my referees being completely useless and me having to find an alternative one, but we got there in the end. I also had to attend an interview for being "from an unusual background" (I was a mature student who had worked for six years after my BSc) so that made the process take a bit longer, but I got an email with an unconditional offer later on the day of the interview. The timing can vary (and most people aren't interviewed at all, as a psychologist you should be fine), just keep checking your application status online to make sure your referees have pulled their fingers out.

I also applied to Imperial and Goldsmiths around the same time and got rejections just before I heard from King's. No matter though, King's was my first choice and having completed the course I can highly recommend it- it did everything I hoped it would and now I feel ready for the PhDs I'm applying for! Good luck with the applications and if you do end up going for King's feel free to PM me with any questions.

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double post, aaarrrrgghh.

Interesting point about PhD types being obsessive thinkers, though for me it's more about being an obsessive learner. For the MSc I was a mature student and one of the main reasons I decided to quit my career and return to science was my need to be constantly learning new things. At work I felt like my brain was starting to atrophy and I kept finding my work less and less fulfilling as it just wasn't stretching me. There was a point where I knew I could go no further, whereas with science that point is unlikely to ever be reached as there is just too much left to discover! On the MSc I discovered that Masters degrees are much more intense than Bachelor degrees but I needed something that intense, a challenge like that was just what I needed and I found the whole thing exhilarating after years of undemanding but unfulfilling work.

Gazbegum- yes, these are all advertised studentships but biomedical research programmes tend to be much more structured and many institutions have an annual intake. Also two of those seven programmes are overseas so opportunities aren't limitless here in the UK. The application process is also very different for biomedical research PhDs and I have no idea how the system works for PhDs in the humanities, but good luck however you're going about it!

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I finished my MSc in September and am now applying for PhD programmes for October 2011 entry. Most of them are funded by the MRC or Wellcome Trust and everyone has to apply well in advance but that's just the way it works. Hearing how competitive they are is scary but *someone* has to get those places, right?

I'm applying for a total of seven programmes and should know if I've got a place on any of them by February. If I don't manage to get a place this way I'll have to start looking at individual projects and contacting supervisors, hopefully it won't come to that as I'm totally clueless about that whole process, just as I was clueless about applying to programmes until a few months ago!

Ideally I'd go back to my MSc lab project supervisor for my PhD as I had a great time working with him and in that particular lab. Even if I got on a good PhD elsewhere I'd still feel a bit gutted about not going back and I'm slightly worried that I won't have a research experience that good again. Hopefully the admissions peeps will realise just how much I want to come back!

While UK science funding largely escaped the public spending cuts the media coverage of other countries' increased science budgets made me check out PhDs elsewhere. I'm tempted by what I've seen, and especially by some PhD programmes in Germany, with generous stipends, taught components in English, and stress on the fact that overseas students would be more than welcome. Anyone else tempted to leave the UK for their PhD? Is the grass really greener on the other side?

Thanks Myostatin, sorry it's taken me so long to reply. I've just submitted my first PhD application and in the end I consulted my MSc supervisor and a friend who'd done my course, and they were both really helpful, mainly in lending me their common sense! This one was for one specific project in a four-year programme so I tailored it to the supervisor, hopefully it'll work for me, and hopefully your PhD will lead to greater and more enjoyable things!

Anyone? I've been discussing personal statements with friends of mine who have successfully applied to PhD programmes, and will be asking my MSc project supervisor for advice, but is there any good general advice, or any resources which would be a good place to start? For any subject really, it would be nice to have a little thread full of links for students of all subjects to refer to.