Any suggestions on what to include for the question "describe your interest and activities not related to your degree" for applying for phd?

Hi Aarthi, I applied for 2 funded PhD positions and was successful for both of them.

What subject area are you applying for?

I will send you what I wrote for my application to study a PhD in physical oceanography (Research statement and a personal statement).

The two tips I have (Not just from me, but from careers advisors etc) regarding things other than university performance are;

- Make sure that every sentence is relevant to what you are applying for. There's no point in saying that in your spare time, you enjoy free running, playing guitar, or anything else like that, because it doesn't add any value to your application. (You can show you are well-rounded in better ways than this).

- Write something unique that no-one else is going to say. I had a paragraph on how I'd improved my end-of-year grade by over 10% since year 1. You need to write something impressive, but more importantly something that is more impressive than other applications.

I'm sure other people, who possibly have more experience of this than myself, will be able to help you out too, and don't take my advice as be-all, end-all without getting at least a second opinion. :)

Hope this is of help!

Hi brmgdude,

Thank you very much for your quick response and the suggestions. I will consider them for my writing.

I will be applying for PhD in Cell Signaling.

Cheers !!

Hello Everyone,

I would highly appreciate if anyone could provide help or suggestions on filling the application for a phd program. Pretty much struggling to fill in all the part of the application. Any hints and tips with writing for the part of coursework (list a brief description of courses taken and grades obtained) Should I include all the courses (that will be like too much of a list)? Any help or suggestions will be highly appreciated.

Many Thanks !!!

cooking, volunteering, gardening....?

oh yes on coursework, I would list everything, as it gives a complete picture of what you have done. Maybe other people have better advice for this?

good luck
love satchi

Hi Satchi,

Thank you loads for the suggestions.

Cheers !!