In a PhD proposal, is it necessary to have all your studies planned out in advance? I am just trying to understand how you can lay everything out in a plan when people say your PhD will change as you develop it, and many universities only want a proposal of around 1,000 words. How detailed was your proposal?

This time last year I was sending mine in, the word count was restrictive 1000-1500 words, just looking at it here it was basically a review of the background literature and justification for my research, there was no detail at all in the methodology just the general aims of the research, these were about 6 paragraphs stating what I needed to do eg -

"The first objective is to determine the infection process of Microdochium nivale, its mode of ingression into the plant, and the biochemical processes which occur once the pathogen has infected. The responses of the infected plant will be determined, with the primary interest being what defence mechanisms are used by the turfgrass -ROS, No2 and H2O2 synthesis, of particular interest is the syntheses of phytoalexins and possible development of systemic acquired resistance."

This got me my interview and position, I then needed to produce a detailed proposal with the full methodology, even so this as you say can change as you progress into the research.