Signup date: 23 Jun 2007 at 10:36pm
Last login: 25 Jan 2008 at 5:58pm
Post count: 635
Just do it. Send an email or phone up.
Cambridge may well be one of the best universities in the world but these are real people working there and they might not be as difficult to approach as you expect. Some are quite friendly, other's aren't. That's basically the same everywhere.
First time I met this professor from Oxford a few years ago I was scared but then it turned out I knew more than him!
In my opinion, it is actually quite useful to think long and hard whether a PhD is the right decision. Being put off would be, after all, a good thing in case a PhD wasn't the right thing to do. If that makes sense.
Talking to former lecturers could possibly be problematic as some of them are depressed in their profession but naturally unlikely to admit it to themselves - or to prospective PhD students. Not all of them, of course, but some clearly are.
Actually, I wish I would have thought very long and hard before I put my name on the application form nearly four years ago. I was lucky to get through it but I paid a high price. Lucky escape but I was nearly trapped.
If you feel, however, that a PhD and a lecturing position is all you want in life and if you are aware of the demands, then pleas ignore what I said. Because I can only speak from my own narrow perspective which does not represent the majority of current or former PhD students.
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