Hello folks!

First of all, apologies for such late blog entries, life (i.e. PhD work) gets in the way sometimes…… Nevertheless, in today’s entry, I will narrate you my experiences of applying for a PhD and the reason is because the application for PhD’s are slightly different from other undergraduate or postgraduate courses. Recently, I had a skype conversation with one of my very good friend’s back home (in India) regarding ‘How shall I apply for a PhD course?’ In a very simple answer – ONLINE via the University’s official website or if you want to be traditional via post. Thats right, one must give this as an answer to the above question. But the important thing is to know the requirements and the procedures of the application. At the end of our conversation, it struck me, why don’t I share my application experiences with you guys! (especially for all those readers who wish to apply for a PhD). But, I must tell you, the application was not an easy one and it will never be.

In the year of 2012 while I was writing my MSc dissertation, I wished to do a PhD, but I had no idea how to go about with the application process. I had no PhD friends back then who could guide me. So, like every other person, I took up the sources from the Internet to see how applications for PhD’s are made. To some that may sound silly, but hey, thats why we have Internet – to get information! Now you must be wondering, did it help? Well, I can say, ‘yes’ and ‘no’! ‘YES’ because it helped me to understand what PhD applicant’s need to do to make a successful application and ‘NO’ because different universities have different rules for application. While I did have all the required information regarding what you need to apply for a PhD, I still didn’t have the slightest idea about the procedure. So, I began my own research. First, I prepared my CV; second, I updated my research proposal (which was not more than twenty pages, including the bibliography); thirdly I asked my (then) professors if they were willing to be my referees to provide reference letters for the prospective universities to consider me for a PhD. This is very important if anyone wishes to go for further degrees. Also only two reference letters are enough and finally the most important step, send all these documents to your prospective supervisors of your prospective universities where you wish to pursue your degree. The final stage is a bit hectic one and I shall explain why it is so. Before I had prepared all the documents (as mentioned above) I shortlisted the Universities where I wish to undertake my PhD. I then searched through all the Sociology staff members (of each university), checked each one of their profiles to see if their research interests are similar to mine. If so, I would short list them and send them an email introducing myself as an interested student willing to work with them and at the same time forward them the prepared documents. Now it is important to remember that sometimes you will receive replies and other times you might not and in my case it was similar and it is equally important to remember that at times, it might take weeks for the replies to come in. I remember waiting for 2 whole months for replies but nothing came along and so began my self-brooding. I told my self that I MUST have done something wrong (may be with the application process) for which I was not getting any replies!  Checked every single document over and over again (I don’t know why I did that but I did, and at that time it was the only sensible thing I could do) and at the end of those two months I had given up hope. Finally at the end of those two months the replies started coming back. Some with further clarifications in the proposals, some with offers and others with conditional offers. I was happy to get the replies and along side I learned my first PhD lesson – patience (something that I am still learning) and something that is not only important while writing the thesis but also important while making PhD applications. Out of 10 universities at-least seven got back to me and I chose to come to Newcastle. Well, one thing has been finally proved that I was doing something right or more appropriately pointing it out, I now know how to apply for a PhD. There are of-corse different ways of applying for research programs. Some may agree with me and others might not. But usually the process is the same as I have mentioned above. Project related PhDs are relatively simple to apply as they are already promoted by the university and the study is similar/same as the one planned by the researcher. However, it becomes a little difficult if the project is original in its own. In my next blog entry I shall talk about my research project and how it has undergone changes – yet another characteristic of PhDs!