Hello,

I am about to start my PhD in like three weeks time. However, I've not been in contact with my supervisor since mid July - and even though this might seem really daft to ask - but do I just write my supervisor an e-mail saying I am arriving on bla date and whether we could schedule a meeting before the official start date?

Also, I did some work for my PhD back then and was meant to revise it another time. However, I've not had the time to finish it up until now as I was working full time until last week. Unfortunately, my job required quite a lot out of office hours work so I didn't really have much time to get my head around the PhD. Do you think it is worth mentioning this in the e-mail or shall I just get it done until I start and submit it to him then?

Sorry for asking such daft questions (that are probably common sense) I am just worried about making a bad impression before I've even started and am worried that my supervisor will think that I am not commited to do the PhD.

Hi Karoline,

Have you received any official information from your university about enrolment yet? If you haven't, you could email your sup saying you haven't heard anything yet re enrolling and wondered whether there were any introductory events scheduled for new PhD students, and if not, could you arrange to meet up with him briefly to plan ahead for the term. I wouldn't worry about not hearing from him since July though, the summer is probably the slowest period of the year in universities, with staff starting to return about now for the new academic year. Also, if you have contact details for any of the postgrad research department (other than your sup) you could always give them a ring and ask about enrolment, it should be their responsibility to help you start, sort out any admin and get you settled, to some extent.

They're not daft questions either, btw!

I wouldn't mention that you haven't 'boned-up' on anything; you have plenty of time to get to grips with your project over the coming months. You will soon end up knowing more about it than your supervisor anyway. Just be cool about the whole thing and be yourself. Good luck!